BRAZIL: NEWLY-INAUGURATED PRESIDENT LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA MEETS WITH VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ DURING

Record ID: 645598

  • Title: BRAZIL: NEWLY-INAUGURATED PRESIDENT LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA MEETS WITH VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ DURING
  • Date: 3rd January 2003
  • Summary: (EU) RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (JANUARY 2, 2003) (REUTERS) SLV CARS IN STREETS; PEOPLE WALKING; MV PEOPLE READING NEWSPAPERS (4 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 18th January 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: RIO DE JANEIRO AND BRASILIA, BRAZIL
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAB5FGH31GP2LF1BKJI964LCKIT
  • Story Text: Newly-inaugurated President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has met Venezula's President Hugo Chavez during his first day in office.
    A day after his inauguration as President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met Venezuela's embattled President Hugo Chavez on Thursday (January 1, 2002).
    Meanwhile, on the streets of Rio, Brazilians expressed optimism about their new president.
    "I hope that he does everything he has promised. I am hoping for this and we believe in him and we believe that he will do everything he has promised," said business manager Ana Paula.
    "Today is different, a very important day. We are now going to see Brazil going in a new direction, he will govern in agreement with what the people want," said businessman Dalvo Santos.
    In Brasilia, the new President, known popularly as
    "Lula", held a morning discussion with Chavez, which focused largely on the national strike paralysing Venezuela and the country's oil industry. Chavez declined to gives specifics.
    "We do not have any agenda, generalities, generalities.
    Integration is the most important thing," he said.
    Meanwhile, the newly appointed Minister of Finance Antonio Palocci was sworn into office and received encouragement from the outgoing Minister Pedro Malan.
    "And now, looking ahead, the most fundamental thing will be the degree of coherence, determination, persistence with the new policies that will be implemented for the future administration, for which I desire much success," said Malan.
    Palocci attempted to calm any doubts remaining about Lula's abilities to manage the country's large debt and teetering economy.
    "It is an inseparable part of the public responsibility of this government, the preservation of economic stability and the adoption of a monetary policy that guarantees the convergence of the inflation indexes and the goals already defined by the national economic advisory board," he said.
    Lula, 57, accepted the presidential sash on Wednesday (January 1), with some 70,000 supporters cheering him on.
    Pledging to fight one of the worst income distribution gaps in the world and to end famine, Lula won a record 52 million votes in October elections, his fourth bid for the presidency of Brazil.
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