The election has enormous implications for the western hemisphere, where the Obama State Department has continued, with barely a stutter, the Bush administration’s strategy of “rollback” against the unprecedented independence that the left governments of South America have won over the last decade. A defeat of the Workers’ party would have been a big victory for the DC establishment reactionaries. It also has implications for the rest of the world. In May, Brazil and Turkey broke new ground in the world of international diplomacy, by negotiating a nuclear fuel swap arrangement for Iran, in an attempt to resolve the standoff over Iran’s nuclear programme. The State Department was probably more upset about this than anything that Brazil had done in the region, including Lula’s strong and consistent support for the government of President Hugo Chavéz in Venezuela. Full article.