Latin obstinacy: foreign direct investment, South-South relations and the Brazilian strategy for Latin America

Abstract

In the first Petrobrás internationalization attempt with Braspetro subsidiary during the 70's, its activities reached the Middle East and Africa. During the 90's, the international expansion process took over Latin America, reaching countries as Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia and Venezuela, now promoted by Petrobrás itself and focused on South America. A lot is said about its using by the foreign policy of regional integration. Still, there are other dimensions which should be explored. The first argues about the Brazilian position on the global capitalism and implies in the thinking of the State as a promoter of development and of its spot in the global capitalist system. The second is to understand the new flows of the capital in a Post-Cold War order: neoliberalism and a world divided between North and South and its markets. Petrobras, although state-owned, still considers a market logic, and follows other enterprises as Vale do Rio Doce and Odebrecht on the foreign direct investment way. Knowing this, this project wants to analyse the Petrobrás internationalization process as a Brazilian instrument of the foreign policy and of the Market.