Lula to talk FARC, defense council with Colombia's Uribe

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Focus News Agency

Lula to talk FARC, defense council with Colombia's Uribe

18 July 2008 | 00:08 | FOCUS News Agency

Brasilia. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is to travel to Colombia on the weekend to discuss plans to establish a South American defense council and the Bogota's conflict with FARC rebels, officials said Thursday, AFP reported.

Lula, whose last visit to Colombia was in December 2005, will meet his Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe on Saturday, and will attend Colombia's independence day celebrations on Sunday.

The presidents will talk about Brazil's idea to start a defense council that would act as a formal forum for dialog on regional military matters, Lula's spokesman Marcelo Baumbach said.

Uribe has expressed his intention to keep Colombia, the United States's strongest ally in South America, out of the council.



Read more: http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n146447

[Selatius]

1. I don't see the point in Lula trying. Uribe is staunchly pro-American.

He will have nothing to do with any South American defense council that is not dominated by the United States. If anything, the US probably is concerned about concentrations of power in the region that are not controlled by the US.