Incoming Brazil President wants close US ties

Brazil’s president-elect aims to cultivate closer ties with the United States and adopt a stronger line against human rights violations in Iran, according to an interview published Sunday.

Dilma Rousseff, 62, who will succeed her mentor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to become Brazil’s first woman president on January 1, told The Washington Post she views US relations as “very important.”

“I believe that the US has a great contribution to give to the world. And above all, I believe that Brazil and the US have to play a role together in the world,” Rousseff said.

“I am planning to visit President (Barack) Obama in the very first days after my inauguration if he’ll receive me,” she said, adding that Brazil had given Obama an informal invitation during a G20 summit last month.

However, the former economist criticised US monetary policies aimed at stimulating the economy, saying they had devalued the dollar and weakened Brazil’s foreign trade and hard currency reserves.

She warned that a “systematic devaluation policy of the dollar can trigger reactions of protectionism, which is never a good policy to follow.”

Rousseff, who was imprisoned and tortured for two years in the 1970s by Brazil’s military dictatorship, also said she would be more critical of human rights violations in Iran, including the stoning of women.

Lula this year cultivated stronger ties with Tehran and abstained from a US-backed General Assembly resolution adopted last month that criticized the Islamic republic for rights violations.

“I do not endorse stoning. I do not agree with practices that have medieval characteristics (when it comes) to women. There is no nuance; I will not make any concessions on that matter,” Rousseff said.

“I am not the president of Brazil (today), but I would feel uncomfortable as a woman president-elect not to say anything against the stoning…. I do not agree with the way Brazil voted. It’s not my position.”

Rousseff will assume office on January 1 when Lula, 65, steps down after an eight-year presidency that has seen Brazil emerge as an economic powerhouse and an increasingly active global power.