In an article posted to his X account on Jan. 16, and a related video from a day earlier, Brazilian economist Paulo Nogueira Batista called for Brazil to develop a credible nuclear deterrent in light of clear U.S. aggressive behavior against Venezuela and a half dozen other countries around the world.
Nogueira, the founding vice-president of the BRICS New Development Bank, is a highly respected voice both inside Brazil and internationally. His comments speak for themselves:
“The U.S. attack on Venezuela leaves wide open the risk that Brazil and other countries are running. The law of the jungle prevails. The imperial superpower is fully willing to use military force to advance its interests. The entire Western Hemisphere, from Greenland to Patagonia, has come to be seen, openly and undisguisedly, as America’s ‘backyard’.…
“With the kidnapping of Maduro and Trump’s demand for `full access’ to the country’s oil and other resources, under penalty of new attacks, no one in their right mind can ignore that Brazil is at risk. An unprecedented risk.…
“Does anyone still dare to deny that Brazil needs to prepare militarily? I will go further: Are there any doubts that this preparation has to include nuclear weapons? For a long time, I have been among the minority of Brazilians who defend priority for the substantial reinforcement of the national defense apparatus. We need to be militarily capable, not of defeating a superpower like the U.S. or any other, but of credibly signaling that any attack on us will have as a response the imposition of significant losses on the aggressor country.
“Understanding this distinction is crucial. We have to have deterrence power, including nuclear. Accumulating deterrence capacity is within our reach; a victory over a superpower is not…. Without bravado and without demagoguery, Brazil should also deepen military cooperation with China and Russia.”
