Rice invites Brazil to join global drive to push democracy

BRASÍLIA, Brazil — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Brazil yesterday to join the United States in a partnership of multiethnic nations promoting democracy, recalling her past as an African American raised in the segregated South.

Rice's speech about democracy in Latin America seemed choreographed for her to connect with Brazilians. Many in Brazil opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and have been distrustful of the Bush administration.

Rice said democracies needed time to grow. Last week, Ecuador's President Luis Gutiérrez was overthrown. Latin America has seen a string of popular revolts against governments considered corrupt and inefficient. Several of the overthrown leaders, including Gutiérrez, were allies of the United States.

"As a black American who grew up in the South of my country during racial segregation, I know what it means to be impatient with the pace of democratic reform," she told an audience of about 300 officials and others selected to represent Brazil's multiracial society.

Rice spoke about growing up in Alabama, where she couldn't eat at whites-only lunch counters or attend schools designated for whites.

"The history of the march of democracy contains a message for every person in this region who feels they have not yet seen its benefits: Do not lose your hope. Do not lose your courage. And most of all, do not turn back now."

Rice also mentioned the career of Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who started working at age 11 because of his family's poverty.

Rice hailed Latin America's embrace of democracy and tossed a barb at Cuba, which she said "continues to demonstrate a universal political truth: abandoning the rule of law for the whim of rulers only leads to the oppression of innocent people."

Countries must fight corruption, invest more in education and embrace free trade to ensure that the benefits of democracies reach the people, she said.

Rice said Brazil, Latin America's largest country, was a "global partner" that, like the United States, had a history of colonialism and slavery.

"Our two nations can achieve so much together as partners — partners for security, for prosperity and for the defense of human dignity," she said.

The two countries and other multiethnic democracies — India and South Africa — "must all work together to build a balance of power that favors freedom," she said.

Rice used the words "freedom" and "liberty" 16 times in her speech, and "democracy" or "democratic" more than 50 times.

Brazil has been wary of U.S. motives in Latin America and reluctant to embrace key U.S. initiatives, such as hemispheric free trade and Plan Colombia, the multibillion-dollar program to combat drug trafficking.

Lula has gained international prestige by taking a more aggressive stance on the international stage in defense of poorer nations. He also has increased the international profile of his country, the world's third-largest democracy.

The Bush administration has been prodding Brasília to do more to rein in populist leaders such as Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez, who regularly criticizes President Bush's agenda for Latin America as a "neoliberal" failure that has impoverished people.

On Tuesday, Brazilian officials told Rice that they'd work with Washington to strengthen democracy in Venezuela but wouldn't infringe on Venezuela's sovereignty.

Rice planned to visit Colombia and then attend a "Community of Democracies" meeting today in Chile. She'll also visit El Salvador.

Venezuela to open oil-company office in Havana today

Venezuela's state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela, will open an office in Havana today, when President Hugo Chávez visits Cuba to strengthen a growing political and economic alliance.

Since 2000, Venezuela has officially been supplying Cuba with 53,000 barrels a day of crude and refined products on favorable financing terms, and exports have grown since Chávez's consolidation of power.

Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and a major supplier to the United States, also is studying involvement in the completion of the Soviet-built refinery in Cienfuegos, Cuba, to process Venezuelan crude for distribution in the Caribbean.