Sept. 1^o., 2002: Diario Las Américas, Miami (FL)

WASHINGTON (DC), Sept. 1, 2002 (DI) - "The political effects of an eventual victory of the leftist Workers Party in Brazil, in the elections next October, could be worse than the economic effects, being that a Castro-Chávez-Lula axis would be formed capable of pushing other South American countries to the left and of establishing a dangerous strategic alliance with communist China, as well as with Iran and Iraq, two terrorist countries", warned Dr. Constantine Menges, investigator of the Hudson Institute, professor of George Washington University and Ex-National Security Advisor to the president of the United State.

Menges, who completed his study "A Strategic Warning: Brazil", made a point of the growing importance of the giant South American and praised the capacity and intelligence of its population, as well as its enormous potential of natural resources. But, at the same time, he said that a victory from Lula da Silva could provoke a "domino effect" in countries such as Columbia, Bolivia, Ecuador and even Argentina, strengthening during the 2003 term a gigantic South American leftist block. The specialist from Hudson Institute did not rule out that, in that perspective, the region could be used as an aggressive platform against the United States by terrorist Islamic movements.

Dr. Menges added that Lula is actually trying to portray a moderate image, but it is merely an electoral facade. Along that line of thought, I cite words from the leftist candidate himself, acknowledging that if he has adjusted some strategies, the revolutionary objectives continue being the same. Lastly, Menges recalled that in 1990, shortly after the disintegration of the Soviet empire, Fidel Castro and Lula da Silva founded the São Paulo Forum with the objective of regrouping all of the communist, pro-Communist and terrorist forces of the continent.

The most recent reunion of the São Paulo Forum took place in Havana, in December 2001, with the presence of Lula da Silva. On February 4, 2002, in a gigantic auditorium of the Pontifical Catholic University of Porto Alegre - in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, bordering Argentina and Uruguay- hundreds of delegates from the Worldwide Social Forum and of the São Paulo Forum agreed to tighten strategic ties, announcing a meeting of heads of state in the next 3rd Worldwide Social Forum, which will take place in Porto Alegre, in January of 2003. Present at that meeting could be Chávez, Castro and Lula, as future president elect of Brazil.

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CONTACT:

Dr. Constantine Menges, Hudson Institute, Washington (DC): (1-202) 974-2410 & (1-202) 223-7770