Sir, - The editorial "Che Guevara's Legacy" (October 18th) stated that President Clinton, in his first visit to Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela, "has been advocating a free trade agreement among all the American states by the year 2005 and has endeavoured to encourage these ones to support the project. He found President Cardoso of Brazil reluctant to go along with the idea for fear that his own emerging leadership role in Mercosul, the increasingly successful regional trading grouping of southern Latin American states, could be jeopardised."
May I first stress the point that Brazil and the US have an intense and mature relationship based on shared values and interests. In the international arena, it is a fact of life that the more complex and intense the relationship the more likely that different perceptions and views may arise. Brazil does not fear the idea of the construction of a Free Trade Area in the Americas. In our view it should be created through a consensusbuilding mechanism ensuring that it will be a timely, balanced, comprehensive and lasting initiative. A premature and precipitate integration process would not be capable of winning the hearts and minds of the people and indeed could jeopardise the whole trade initiative. Brazil and the US will continue to work resolutely toward the integration of the Americas as behoves to the responsibilities of the two largest democracies in the region.
As important as trade initiatives, President Clinton's visit to Brazil put in motion an extremely auspicious bilateral effort: "The Brazil-US Partnership for Education". In Brazil nowadays education is what really matters as it has a multidisciplinary impact on the political, economic and social dimension of our efforts to promote sustainable development. Both countries will work to develop new strains in their bilateral cooperation agenda: the development and use of high technology for education, the training, evaluation and benchmarking of teacher and school administrators and a bilateral exchange programme of teachers and students involving the communities and the private sector.
As regards Che Guevara's legacy in Latin America, history books will always register the failed attempt of that romantic Argentine to create revolutionary turmoil in the region. The memory of Che may always help European idealistic circles to live their own revolutionary dreams and fantasies from a prudent distance, and could remain as an icon to the memory of the sponsors of unworkable solutions to the complex and challenging problems faced by Latin America. - Yours, etc.,
From Carlos Bettencourt Bueno
Ambassador of Brazil, Dublin.