Brasil e "a bomba"

O Brasil tem pretensões a obter um lugar no Conselho de Segurança da ONU, fazendo parte do G4 (mais a Índia, Alemanha e Japão) e usando como argumento o facto de poder actuar como uma "superpotência" regional na América Latina, para além do seu crescente poder económico. Regista-se, para já, a liderança da força da ONU no Haiti.

O poder militar do Brasil pode ser um factor a ter em conta nesta vontade de conseguir um lugar permanente no C.S. da ONU. Surgiu, entretanto, uma notícia relacionada com o programa atómico brasileiro (via ABC News):

Brazil's military continued work on an atomic bomb after it was ordered to scrap the program in 1985 and by 1990 had nearly finished building one, a leading nuclear scientist said.

Jose Luiz Santana, the former president of Brazil's nuclear energy commission, known by its Portuguese acronym CNEN, said the military was preparing a test explosion when the program was ultimately dismantled in August 1990. (...)###

In 2003, Brazil's science minister at the time, Eduardo Campos, caused a furor when he said Brazil should pursue "any form of scientific knowledge, whether the genome, DNA or nuclear fission."

Many took the comment to mean Brazil intended to develop nuclear weapons. The government denied having any such goal, stressing that Brazil's constitution bans the use of nuclear energy for non-peaceful purposes.

Brazil's nuclear program again stirred concern last year, when the government announced it was working to enrich its uranium and refused to allow the U.N. nuclear agency to inspect nuclear facilities in Resende, 60 miles southwest of Rio.

The government cited the need to protect industrial secrets. Eventually an agreement was reached allowing the inspections to go ahead with Brazil having to unveil its centrifuges.