Brazil: A model for troubled Middle East, says Obama

RIO DE JANEIRO—US President Barack Obama held up emerging powerhouse Brazil on Sunday as a model of economic and democratic transformation that leaders in the troubled Middle East should try to copy.

Obama’s keynote address in Rio de Janeiro was the highlight of his visit to Brazil, the first stop on a three-nation Latin America tour overshadowed by US-led military action in Libya.

The speech came after France, the United States and Britain launched missile and bomb attacks on Libyan air-defense targets to prevent Moammar Gadhafi’s forces from crushing a month-old uprising against his rule.

Obama did not mention the strikes in the speech, but, on his first trip to Latin America as president, made a point of flagging Brazil to Middle Eastern leaders as a golden example of what they could achieve.

“We are seeing the struggle for these rights unfold across the Middle East and North Africa,” Obama said, speaking in a famed Rio theater.

“We’ve seen the people of Libya take a courageous stand against a regime determined to brutalize its own citizens. Across the region, we’ve seen young people rise up — a new generation demanding the right to determine their own future.”

Both the United States and Brazil “know that the future of the Arab world will be determined by its people,” he said.

“When men and women peacefully claim their human rights, our own common humanity is enhanced. Wherever the light of freedom is lit, the world becomes a brighter place.

“That is the example of Brazil,” he said, “a country that shows that a dictatorship can become a thriving democracy.”

Brazil endured more than 50 years of populist and military regimes until 1985, when civilian rule was restored.

Obama, who had earlier toured the notorious “City of God” slum, poignantly recalled how he had watched “Black Orpheus,” a movie set in a Brazilian favela, with his mother as a child.

“My mother is gone now, but she would have never imagined that her son’s first trip to Brazil would be as president of the United States,” he said to cheers in the crowded Teatro Municipal in Rio.

Among the guests at the event was Rinaldo Gaudencio, a local performer who looks exactly like Obama and has mastered his gestures.

Gaudencio entered the theater surrounded by fake bodyguards and wearing a presidential sash combining the US and Brazilian flags.

Brazil, host of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, has made an amazing economic leap in recent years, lifting millions from poverty and reaching new global influence.

Recent progress in cleaning up its infamous slums was demonstrated by Obama’s visit to a favela so dangerous that only a few years ago no one would have been safe.

In the City of God, which was the subject of an acclaimed 2002 movie of the same name, slum dwellers were astonished to see Obama.

“I never could have believed that I would see a black president of the United States here,” said favela resident Leila Martiniano, 39.

Another favela resident had a very different reaction: “But… he’s not black!” exclaimed 35-year-old Claudio, disappointed that Obama’s skin color was lighter than he expected.

Obama travels to Chile early Monday, and then heads to El Salvador before returning to Washington.

Washington sees the tour as a chance to reassert American influence in Latin America, a region largely neglected under Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush.

President Dilma Rousseff, Brazil’s first female leader, welcomed Obama on Saturday to the presidential palace in the capital Brasilia with a 21-gun salute.

The leaders signed a series of agreements that include reducing trade barriers and broadening Brazilian oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico.

Oil recently discovered off Brazil’s coast could amount to twice US reserves.

“We want to help you with the technology and support to develop these oil reserves safely, and when you’re ready to start selling, we want to be one of your best customers,” Obama said.

Obama and Rousseff also discussed Brazil’s interest in buying 36 new fighter jets, the White House said.

The deal, estimated to be worth between $4 billion and $7 billion, pits the US F/A-18 Super Hornet by Boeing, France’s Rafale by Dassault, and Sweden’s Gripen NG by Saab against each other.

Even though Brazil on February 22 said it will make no decision in the “short term” on the jets, Rousseff raised the issue – and Obama praised the US fighter, the White House said.