SAO PAULO (AFP) — Brazil should have a role as a leader in Latin America to counter "disturbing" leftist trends embodied by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez or Colombia's FARC guerrillas, US presidential candidate John McCain has told one of the biggest Brazilian newspapers.
"There are disturbing trends in the region, like the anti-American socialism of Hugo Chavez.... Against these trends, Brazil represents something totally different, a successful country with a brilliant future," Tuesday's O Estado de S. Paulo daily said McCain wrote in an e-mail interview.
The US Republican candidate said, according to the Portuguese translation of his comments, that Brazil represents "the sort of leadership America should welcome in the hemisphere."
"The country is committed to the same values we share, including respect for human rights, expanding liberty, economic development and an international commitment to the rule of law," he said.
McCain added that, if he won the US presidency in November elections, he would back Brazil's ambitions to join international groupings such as the G8 -- though he omitted Brazil's bid to one day win a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
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