BRAZIL-With a little help from my friends

Is Dilma spoiling for a fight?

Dilma’s recent behavior and threats suggest that she is just itching for a fight. After a veiled reference in her UN speech to “anti-democratic sentiment” and Brazil not turning backward , she was less veiled in her international press interviews and has now threatened to take her case to Mercosul and Unasul (where her “Bolivarian buddies” are members). I can't imagine an Argentina under Macri subscribing to any action to intervene in the matter of Dilma's impeachment and, as I recall, Mercosul requires unanimous support of its members for any such action. Unasul is a different matter since the members are all "Bolivarians".  

Her behavior is totally out of line with that of a head-of-state facing an internal political problem. She seems to be trying to make a regional security issue of her possible impeachment.

Not even the impeachment of Richard Nixon, which couldhave been an international security issue if the then-Soviet Union had interpreted the event as a weakness of the US and a temporary inability to react, was given similar attention.

It's worthy of mention that Brazil has no powerful international enemies who could seek to take advantage of the internal political and economic disarray of the country.

She has managed with her tactics to irritate numerous politicians who will be expected to vote on her eventual impeachment and her actions are certainly an embarrassment to both her and to Brazil’s institutions.

There must be some method to this madness – otherwise, it is simply madness!