"The external indebtedness of many countries, which victimized Brazil in the past and today destroys Argentina, is the cause of flagrant and growing inequality and requires treatment by the International Monetary Fund that considers the social consequences of adjustment policies," Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said from Hiroshima, Japan, where he is the only Latin American leader invited to this weekend's G7 meeting.
At the summit, there are the leaders of the select group of industrialized countries such as Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron, Rishi Sunak, Georgia Meloni and host Fumio Kishida, among others. Their concern is really focused on the war in Ukraine.
There are versions that Lula also spoke in Japan about Argentina with the director of the IMF, the Bulgarian Kristalina Georgieva, with whom he had a meeting.
On May 2, when another financial storm hit the Argentine economy – the blue dollar and inflation were rising – Alberto Fernández flew to Brasilia with several ministers, including Sergio Massa, Santiago Cafiero and Victoria Tolosa Paz, to desperately ask his ally for help. He returned without money, but with the promise of international aid from Lula. "I'm going to talk to the IMF to remove the knife from Argentina's neck," he said at the time.
Later, it was Lula's Finance Minister, Fernando Haddad, who in Washington "surprisingly" asked the Secretary of the Treasury of the Democratic administration Janet Yellen to attend Argentina. And he raised it as a "humanitarian issue."
Since then, Lula put his finance minister to find a way to assist Argentina. The teams of Haddad and Massa work on the economic issue and those of Cafiero and Ambassador Daniel Scioli, politics, although crossed by the internal strength in the Frente de Todos.
It is a fact that is not easy for them. Just as Lula ironically said in that statement to the press that he made with Alberto Fernández on May 2 that his friend was returning "empty-handed" from Brasilia, Brazil's offer to Argentina still does not materialize.
On the one hand, Haddad and Massa did not meet in as much haste as they had said at the time.
Now they will meet in China, next Tuesday 30 and Wednesday 31, within the framework of a summit of the BRICS, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The day before, Massa should be in Beijing to renew the exchange of currencies (swap) that Argentina maintains with the Asian giant and that is used to finance some imports in the context of shortage of dollars. On that trip, what the Chinese will ask of the most pro-American of the Argentine ministers will be key.
As for Brazil, the neighboring press said in the last hours that Minister Haddad is going to propose to the now called New Development Bank (formerly known as the BRICS Development Bank) that a line of credit be granted to Brazilian exporters who place their products (mostly industrial) in the Argentine market.
In that way, they would help Argentina sustain its trade at a time when there is no money to pay for imports. But both Lula and Haddad stress that this benefit they would give to Argentines is first of all an aid to Brazilian exporters who lose market due to the crisis in Argentina.
The Kirchner government and the Argentine political class in general have very bad press in Brazil, where they speak directly of "hyperinflation" and "political weakness", of the lack of confidence generated by the country and of instability. But they do not want to lose markets because of the growing presence of China that is hitting its exporters.
A survey by the National Confederation of Transport published by the site Poder 360 says that 69% of Brazilians consulted do not agree that Brazil helps Argentina financially. 43.4% of Brazilians believe that the United States is the most important country for the Brazilian government. Argentina does not even appear. South America appears with 8.5%.
Leadership and integration
Lula's positioning in Japan and in all his international speeches, including his rhetoric in favor of helping Argentina (he lashed out for example to Joe Biden for the "neoliberal dogma" and called for reform with more members of the UN Security Council, where Brazil has wanted to enter for decades) has several purposes.
Although Fernández is his friend and Lula wants to help him, what he seeks is to revive the imprint of the regional leader that he was in his two previous governments (2003-2010).
And Alberto Fernández accompanies him. When both announced weeks ago that they were returning to Unasur, they made it clear that they would seek that on May 30, although the summit was not convened as such. If he manages to go, Nicolás Maduro will hold his first meeting with Lula and Fernández.
It is more Lula's idea than Alberto's, who had bet first on CELAC, including then the Mexican Andrés López Obrador, with whom, according to Bloomberg, he recently spoke by phone. In the Casa Rosada they do not want to confirm that call. But Lula and AMLO do not get along.
Today only six countries are in Unasur, which once had the 12 South Americans inside. There are Suriname, Guyana, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina, which has offered to be the temporary headquarters of the organization, if it revives until the underlying issue is resolved. This is not easy.
In its "shipwreck", the government of Guillermo Lasso did not want to know anything but now we will have to wait until the next elections in August.
NE
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