Recently, the United States re-established the 4th Fleet which will patrol the South Atlantic. Besides discomfort for many local governments, it has brought much suspicions about the true mission that the fleet will have in South America, increasing the anti-Americanism in the region, especially in countries like Venezuela and Brazil.

Venezuela, for obvious reasons, feels threatened because their leader Hugo Chávez is the biggest voice of anti-Americanism in South America and will never forget that the United States backed an attempted coup d’etat against him a few years ago.

In Brazil, President Lula’s statement sums up what most of Brazilians think “Now we discover oil at 300 kilometres from our shores, we want the U.S. explain what is the logic of that fleet, precisely in a region like this, that is peaceful. ” Although the United States claim that the main objective is the fight against terrorism and trafficking in drugs, this does not convince the Brazilians because the american interventions in Brazil are not unusual (the first occurred at the end of the nineteenth century and the most recent was in 1964 , when a U.S. fleet gave logistical support to coup-minded military, dropping a President who had a project of agrarian reform and empowering the generals which started the worst dictatorship that Brazil ever had).

The recent discoveries of huge reserves of oil in the pre-salt layer, as Tupi and Jupiter, are being seen by many Brazilians as one of the factors that led the U.S. to reactivate the 4th Fleet in the region. Of course that the reserves of Venezuela and Nigeria can not be forgotten.

The reactivation of the 4 th Fleet was a unilateral decision that only encourages further the arms race, triggered in the region when Chavez purchased 24 Sukhoi. The decision of the government of Venezuela has made the Brazil accelerate the programme of modernization of the Armed Forces: in addition to expenditures for the purchase of new aircraft, Brazil has taken over the cycle of uranium enrichment to develop a nuclear submarine trained to protect the natural resources of country. Russia and France follow closely the movements in South America, because the expenses with the purchase of new weapons can overcome $ 10 billion only in Brazil (that means a 50% increase in spending on military equipment in just one year). The Ecuador already announced that will buy more than 20 combat aircraft and Argentina is showing signs that may follow the same direction.

On a continent where poverty is the greatest challenge to all societies and the governments, the increase in military spending cuts the resources that could be used to improve the condition of life of tens of millions in South America. However, with the return of the military presence of United States, what these governments could do?