USA VS. LATIN AMERICA

VenezuelaAnalysis.com: US Warns Brazilian Govt Over Relations With Venezuela & Cuba

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Last Sunday, United States Ambassador to Brazil Donna Hrinak, gave a strong caution to the Brazilian government with relation to the South American giant's relationship with Venezuela and Cuba.

Hrinak was referring to the process of referenda currently underway in Venezuela to recall several lawmakers and President Chavez. After counting and validating 3.4 million signatures collected by opponents of Chavez, electoral authorities are requesting about a million of those listed in petitions with irregularities to confirm or deny their willingness to sign and their identity, in order to decide if the recall on Chavez should take place. Political opposition to Chavez and the commercial media, accuse the President of manipulating the process of recall.

Hrinak warned President Lula to "carefully calibrate his opposition" to certain political issues such as the current situations in Venezuela and Cuba, which are part of the main focus of the Bush administration in Latin America.

Marco Aurelio Garcia, President Lula's International relations advisor, was outraged by the U.S. Ambassador's comments. "I don't think those kinds of comments are appropriate for an Ambassador to say. Brazil and the U.S. never had better relations, but it is obvious that we have different perceptions on several issues," Garcia told Argentine newspaper La Nacion