When Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva last week blamed "white people with blue eyes" for the global economic meltdown, it was an odd gaffe for a leader known and respected around the world for his pragmatism.
"Lula had a Chávez day," wrote the São Paulo daily Estadao, discounting the unfortunate utterance made in Brasilia at a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Facing domestic criticism for the remark, the Brazilian president clarified what he meant the next day when he joined other world leaders for the Progressive Governance Conference in Viña del Mar, Chile, ahead of the G-20 summit. Addressing Brown, U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden, and Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Lula said that rich countries were "more responsible" for the crisis now afflicting all countries, but especially the poorer ones, and warned his fellow world leaders against failure at this week's meeting in London. "We cannot run the risk of postponing profound structural solutions," Lula said.
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