Brazilian President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has called American president, George Bush, a couple of times to talk about the subprime crisis in the United States. Lula urged Bush to take care of the problem before it harms other countries in special Brazil.
The Brazilian leader also said that Brazil has the know-how and is ready to teach the US how to deal with banks in financial distress.
"I called him and said," Lula revealed today, March 27, during a meeting with businessmen at the Brazil Mexico Business Forum, in Recife, in the northeastern state of Pernambuco. "Hey Bush, we have a problem here, my son. We stayed 26 years without growing. Now that we are growing, you come and mess it up, dammit. Solve your crisis." The audience laughed.
Lula mentioned Proer, a program created in 1995 by the administration of his predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso to rescue distressed Brazilian banks.
"If Bush wishes, he can come to Brazil and we have people who can teach him, I'm not going to teach. But we have people who can teach him how one saves a bank. Brazil has the know-how and I think that if they need we can send them this technology. And the worst is that we offered help to banks, closed some and now they went to the Justice to get it back."
Lula also revealed that Bush seemed annoyed at him because he also talked to Gordon Brown, the UK's prime minister.
Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, in visit to Brazil responded to generous praises from Lula with phrases like: "Lula gets wiser with each passing day." Lula had called him among other things "peacemaker," in a reference to Colombia's recent military incursion into Ecuador and the tension that ensued.
"Who was the conflict's big peacemaker? It was president Chavez. For this reason, to the ex-guerrilla who became a peacemaker, my congratulations."
The Brazilian president reaffirmed his desire that Venezuela be admitted to the Mercosur, but conceded that Chavez needs to be patient and wait for the Brazilian senate to accept that country into the South American common market.
Last year, the Venezuelan leader criticized the Brazilian senate after that body condemned Chavez's decision to close a private television. Chavez accused the senators of being submissive to the United States and called them parrots of Washington.
The Venezuelan president was awarded the title of Pernambucano citizen. Pernambucano is someone who is born in the northeastern state of Pernambuco. Lula is a Pernambucano himself: "Chavez is as Pernambucano as I am," he said.
