BRIC Builders

BRIC's voting rights in the International Monetary Fund—are you working on this issue as one team?

Very clearly, we've been working together on this.

Is Brazil happy with [U.S. President Barack] Obama?

Yes, we are happy. He represents change. We've recently had two important meetings in the region with the participation of the U.S. One was the Summit of the Americas, in which President Obama took part. The other was the [Organization of American States] meeting, during which a very obsolete resolution on the exclusion of Cuba was made without effect. I think we'll be able to create good partnerships with the U.S. not only for our mutual benefit, but also in terms of cooperation to the benefit of poor countries. Poor Caribbean and Central American countries could produce ethanol with some good Brazilian technology [smiles] and provide the U.S. market with fuel that will be cheaper and much more efficient than ethanol produced from corn.

Now that Washington's policy on Cuba has shifted, I've heard U.S. officials say that they'd like countries like Brazil to help promote a democratic transition there.

We don't want to give lessons to any countries. We have very good economic and cultural relations with Cuba. If that helps to change Cuban society, to make it more open with more room for private enterprise, so much the better. We salute the fact that the Cubans decided to sign the Civil and Political Rights Covenant of the U.N. and that they were also able to present a report to the Human Rights Council. The most important factor that will give new dynamism to changes in Cuba is the total elimination of the embargo. I think we are going that way, slowly maybe.

Which Brazilian domestic policies could serve as examples to other countries during the financial crisis?

No one should try to be a model for others, because each of us has positive points and negative points. But let me point out two or three areas in which we have been working very hard. One is the better distribution of income. This was one of the weakest points in Brazilian society. Even when the economy was growing and even the poor were getting better, the gap [between the rich and the poor] was still increasing. But in the past five to seven years we've had a real decrease in this gap. Also, in the area of energy, our use of biofuels is also a very good example.