Chris Floyd: Southern Cross, The US Takes Aim at Brazil So when Lula began soaring in the polls, the White House went to work, through its proxy armies on Wall Street. Major firms (and Bush donors) like Morgan Stanley Dean Witter and Merrill Lynch took time out from their various Enron entanglements and criminal investigations to sniffily downgrade Brazil's investment rating--citing Lula's potential victory as the reason. The move--derided as a mistake by the Financial Times and others--sent the Brazilian stock market tumbling, destroying millions of dollars in local investments.
This economic terrorism by the Bush Regime is just the opening salvo in a dirty war that will doubtless continue until the October election. The Regime may have fumbled its first attempt at a foreign coup--the ham-handed farce in Venezuela--but Brazilians should take little comfort in that. As we saw in November 2000, when these boys set their minds to it, they know how to gut a democracy.