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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, August 15, 1980
Page 24
reprocessing. Increased output from coal, wood, peat, shale, oil, "bio
rnass"--every conceivable resource angle is being pursued in order to
slash oil imports now running at a million barrels a day.
The most important program is the one most visible to the public: the
increased use of alcohol as a passenger car fuel. The alcohol is derived
from wood, sugar cane and soon, manioc, a cassava which can be grown in
Brazil's abundant marginal savannah brushlands, which are not conducive
for cultivation of other edibles.
Senor Cals told us that this year, hopefully 250,000 cars (Brazil has the
world's seventh largest automotive industry) will be produced whose en
gines run only on alcohol. Already there are 70,000 such cars. Every
where one sees cars and vans (usually operated by state agencies) which
have signs on them, MOTIVADO A ALCOOL--propelled by alcohol. Every
station operated by Petrobras, the national petroleum refiner, contains
two kinds of pumps: The green pump dispenses a mixture of 80% petroleum,
20% alcohol; the white pump, 100% alcohol. No pumps contain pure petro
leum. The alcohol fuel gives 20% less fuel efficiency, but costs (be
cause of a subsidy) 30% less. (But Petrobras officials in Rio told us
of an efficiency breakthrough process developed only a week earlier.)
Brazil might probably never become completely import-free, but it is
making strides to redress its perilous imbalance.
Talk of South American "Common Market"
Partly because of its energy dilemma, Brazil is coming out of its self
imposed isolation in Latin America. It is cooperating with other nations
in the Hemisphere to an extent thought impossible years ago. Brazil
hopes to purchase more petroleum from Venezuela, a neighbor that curiously
has so much of the one resource Brazil lacks. Just before our trip,
President Lopes Portillo of Mexico paid an official state visit to
Brasilia. Increased oil imports from Mexico are now in the offing.
Most important of all, however, is the sudden blossoming of relations
between Brazil and Argentina, the two nations of the continent which
have long been at odds with each other--competitors for influence and
power in South America. In May President Figueiredo of Brazil traveled
to Buenos Aires--the first visit by a Brazilian head of state there in
40 years! He and President Videla of Argentina signed a series of
accords, including one on the sharing of nuclear technology (intended to
show that in their nuclear development they will not be rivals).
These agreements, according to a joint statement, provide for the "inte
gration of the two economies" (they largely complement each other rather
than compete) and--note this: the development of a "truly effective
Latin American common market."
Such talk
decade or
about it.
writer:
of South American integration is not new; it surfaces every
so. But this time, it has a certain ring of determination
Says William Giandoni, the Copley News Service Latin American
"There is new talk of a 'United States of South America' .... Clearly
Figueiredo is thinking in terms of eventual continental integration and,
what is more, Gen. Videla and many of the farsighted men around him
appear to have a similar objective in mind....