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.
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.