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Mr. Trend situates the opportunity for a new Cuba policy within the context of Brazilian foreign policy aspirations:
One of Brazil's better newspapers, Folha de São Paulo, has recently reported that, on his last trip to Cuba, Lula met with Raul Castro. Folha reported this past Wednesday that, during their meeting, among the other items Raul mentioned were the possibility of entering an agreement with Brazil that would send more sugar-based ethanol to Cuba, as well as the possibility of Lula brokering a dialogue between the U.S. and Cuba that could potentially open relations between the two and end the embargo ... Brazil hasn't really been considered a major diplomatic influence in the world. Brokering an agreement between the U.S. and Cuba would certainly help change that. And given his relations with Africa, China, the United States, and the European Union, Lula and, perhaps by extension, Brazil, would certainly have a strong claim on being a capable broker for international deals, economic and political.In other words, Brazil has been looking to step up both in hemispheric and global terms, and brokering some kind of rapprochement between the United States and Cuba might prove a good stepping stone to that goal. In any case, this is a very exciting time in U.S.-Cuba relations, as we're simultaneously arriving at point where Fidel is moving out of the picture and a major U.S. presidential candidate is challenging the rhetorical status quo.
--Robert Farley
