Intermediation is good for power but not good for economics. Mutual thriving is objectively better for economics along every measure. Intermediation only works when you're doing either a colonialism or a neocolonialism, both of which the global south is soundly dismantling. For Brazil to decide to intermediate an entire continent economically is to be engaged in theory from the early 1900s.
I think the geopolitical considerations are more useful to us in analyzing the situation. The USA is starting to threaten Brazil over joining BRICS. The USA is also rabidly anti-Venezuela. I think the veto fits far more neatly into this dynamic where Brazil does not yet wish to create a strong schism with the USA and so is maintaining some level of rapport to avoid some Monroe Doctrine shenanigans from sending high velocity projectiles towards Lula's brain.
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Intermediation is good for power but not good for economics. Mutual thriving is objectively better for economics along every measure. Intermediation only works when you're doing either a colonialism or a neocolonialism, both of which the global south is soundly dismantling. For Brazil to decide to intermediate an entire continent economically is to be engaged in theory from the early 1900s.
I think the geopolitical considerations are more useful to us in analyzing the situation. The USA is starting to threaten Brazil over joining BRICS. The USA is also rabidly anti-Venezuela. I think the veto fits far more neatly into this dynamic where Brazil does not yet wish to create a strong schism with the USA and so is maintaining some level of rapport to avoid some Monroe Doctrine shenanigans from sending high velocity projectiles towards Lula's brain.