Brasilia - Brazil has become 'a Mecca' for developed and
developing countries seeking technology for the use of ethanol as a
fuel alternative to oil derivatives, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso
Amorim said Thursday.
His remarks came in response to comments made by Cuban President
Fidel Castro in an article published by Cuban state daily Granma on
Thursday.
'The sinister idea of converting food into fuel has definitely
been established as an economic lineament in US foreign policy,' the
Cuban leader said, arguing that US President George W Bush's support
for using crops to produce ethanol for automobiles in rich nations
could deplete food stocks in developing countries.
Amorim defended the position of the leftist government of
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
'Brazil is today looked at as almost an object of pilgrimage, or a
Mecca - to use two different religious examples - by all developed or
developing countries, who come to seek in ethanol and (other)
biofuels a way out of energy problems, not to remain totally
dependent on oil. Everyone knows that oil is going to run out,' the
minister said.
Amorim stressed that he 'respects' the Cuban leader and that he
does not think his criticisms were aimed at Brazil, which produces
ethanol from sugar cane, while the United States uses less energy-
efficient corn.
'I think everyone is free to express their opinion. But I do not
think that was meant against the Brazilian government or Brazil. Our
opinion on ethanol is that ethanol's success has been proved in
practice,' he said.
In Castro's article under the headline 'More than 3 billion people
in the world condemned to premature death by hunger and thirst,' the
Cuban leader warned that plans to convert products like corn, sugar
cane or soy beans into ethanol for use as fuel could cause serious
ecological damage and adversely affect the third world population.
'I think that reducing and recycling all the electricity and
combustible consuming motors is an elemental and urgent necessity for
all humanity. The tragedy does not consist in reducing the costs of
energy, but in the idea of converting food into combustibles,' Castro
said.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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