Brazil’s Lula Blocks U.S. Agenda, but with a Smile

Brazil’s Lula Blocks U.S. Agenda, but with a Smile

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to the 40th Organization of American States General Assembly meeting on Sunday with two priorities, neither of which were published in the meeting's agenda: to shore up support for Honduras' re-entry to the OAS, and to gather momentum behind the Obama administration's drive to impose sanctions on Iran through the U.N. Security Council.

It was a program designed to confront, without naming, the country that has become the greatest challenge to the Obama administration in Latin America -- Brazil.

To be sure, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has stood out as the most strident opponent to U.S. policy in the hemisphere since he was first inaugurated in 1999. When the U.S. and Colombia negotiated a defense agreement last year that would give the U.S. greater access to several of Colombia's military bases, Chávez scrapped economic and diplomatic ties with Bogotá. Chávez has relentlessly prodded the Obama administration to ease its economic and diplomatic isolation of Cuba. And now, Chávez is pushing just as hard to keep Honduras excluded from the OAS.

Keep reading for free!

Get instant access to the rest of this article by submitting your email address below. You'll also get access to three articles of your choice each month and our free newsletter:

Or, Subscribe now to get full access.

Already a subscriber? Log in here .

What you’ll get with an All-Access subscription to World Politics Review:

A WPR subscription is like no other resource — it’s like having a personal curator and expert analyst of global affairs news. Subscribe now, and you’ll get:

  • Immediate and instant access to the full searchable library of tens of thousands of articles.
  • Daily articles with original analysis, written by leading topic experts, delivered to you every weekday.
  • Regular in-depth articles with deep dives into important issues and countries.
  • The Daily Review email, with our take on the day’s most important news, the latest WPR analysis, what’s on our radar, and more.
  • The Weekly Review email, with quick summaries of the week’s most important coverage, and what’s to come.
  • Completely ad-free reading.

And all of this is available to you when you subscribe today.

More World Politics Review