Brazil says Haiti can't be Latam "forgotten child"

[struggle4progress]

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"We can't let Haiti always be a problem for the United States and France to resolve," Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told reporters on the sidelines of an annual meeting of foreign ministers from North and South America.

"They can participate, they can and should help, but we believe this is a problem. We can't let Haiti ... be Latin America's 'forgotten child,'" he said in Spanish.

In its biggest foreign military deployment since World War Two, Brazil pledged 1,200 troops to head a U.N. peacekeeping mission to Haiti as it recovers from a revolt that forced President Jean Bertrand Aristide into exile in February.

Since President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office in January 2003, Lula has sought to establish Brazil as a regional leader by strengthening ties among Latin American nations and with countries like Russia and China to help offset the economic clout of the United States and European Union.
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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N07142190.htm