OCR Text |
Show I' 1 Salt l.nke Tribune. Thursday. October Tin1 .iO. price increase in l'CI playing havoc with an l'M) already strained Brazil Becomes Third Worlds Arms Merchant Washington Post Writer SAO PAULO, Brazil On a thick October morning in Sao What's imiKirtant in a Sacmilitary vehicle chi asked "The vehicle should be able to go should have a fast clu, for up to $."o0,(in0 By Cynthia Gomey Paulos vast riverside industrial belt, as the heat and factory smoke began to shimmer in the air outside, a shirtsleeved technician at Engesa Inc flipped the switch on an office videotape player 'Turn the handle in order to obtain external machine gun elevation The voice on aiming the tape was speaking English Press button to activate external machine Antiaircraft gun, laser range finder, and automatu- transmis sion are optional Iraq has also bought - Brazilian-mad- very gixid armament, should be simple, in order to allow soldiers that are not PhDs but very common people, m some cases illiterate peoto know how to use ple e nusiles Brazils industry offers relatively simple equipment, far less sophisticated than that of the United States or the Soviet Union But this is said to be one of Brails-- selling points, particularly for smaller nations where elaborate weapons systems may be too expensive or too complicated to repair. it " Brazil will sell, accord ing to both manufacturers and industry observers, to just about any country except Cuba, Zimbabwe or South Africa. As the United States Pereira says it sent a delegation more than a hundred years ago to examine the startling American warships called the Monitor and and that the Brazilians copied the design for ships used in war against their 1865-7Paraguay. But Brazil was agricultural, dependent on coffee, sugar and rubber exports The country produced ammunition for local use and military training aircraft during World War II. But much of its weaponry by the edges away from selling technology to what it labels "terrorist" governments, the increasingly independent Brazilians are moving in. "We don't sell any ideology to these peo- Mer-rima- Sacchi said. ple, 0 Brazil is a Third World country We are 'very We conscious of that dont have, in fact, the t hance of asking the political price, instead of only dollars or pesos and so on from these other countries Arms manufacture is not new to Brazil early according to 1960s, Pereira, was old US-mad- e equipment shipped to Brazil through the lend lease program. In 1964, the Brazilian military deposed presi- dent Joao Goulart. The country was trying at breakneck pace to industrialize, especially in Sao Paulo. The military wanted new equipment. The industrialists wanted new business. Seek Markets By the end of the decade, companies that had formerly produced sewin ing machines or Engesas , case, Brazilian economy, the overseas sales became crucial pet- roleum extraction supplies and suspension systems were, as Pereira put it, "up to the neck m for Brazilian orders military supplies. 0' With the government either paying for or directly providing most arms research and design to private companies, and produetiun lines jChuming out the arms, companies began looking for markets abroad. When the nations announced their first major machine gun electrically Turn on exhaust to circulate air in the interior of the turret, to expel new gases caused by the shots The technician smiled and flipped the switch again. Smoothly, without a pause in the careful monotone, the narration turned to Arabic. Brazilian Arms . Nearly r government-supporte- 1EEIF QOTOi nations aircraft 7 RATH K0RNLAND ANY SIZE PACKAGE TO 9 LB. SIZE pies Si v I 000 El S 1 3f.lA EL L FLUF . JTx V J VV J pkg. c; r TAT0 'i 'K0 n H J Oil? LAY'S OR RUFFLES DEEP milS SAUSAGE mU SIEUJ GREAT SERVED ANYTIME! made by I v 12 oz. UNIFORMLY CUT TENDER MEAT pkg. APPLE CIBEQ SKYLAND BRAND French, Spanish, lb. D0IJELESS Q0ASIS CHIPPED HEATS 7 VARIETIES 3 oz. SAFEWAY ALKA Minutes . t O Kt s Ik. 1C ULTRA BRITE TOOTHPASTE Seconds SELTZER Hours Month Date - RUMP U.S.D.A. CHOICE DEEF pkg. 10) (SAVE WATCH FUNCTIONS 5 J CHOICE PUFT-Y0- UR o Brazil's Engesa, according to company figures. The firm likes to mention its multilingual videotaped instructions as an added sales feature. Arabic, and someday perhaps, Chinese, said Engesa Vice President Luiz Augusto Sacchi. "AH South America is involved with us. And many African countries are good customers or potential good customers We are present in . some 50 countries " Armed Vehicle Their product line is advertised in a videotape that plays bright background music as camouflage-green vehicles plow up and down sand dunes. The Cascavel, a Engesavehicle and one of the two models sold to Iraq, carries a 90mm gun, reaches sxeds ol 65 mph and sells, according to Sac- - L z rx indus- LCD CHOICE TREAT-TO- UR d try, two Brazilian light weapons manufacturers last year sold $200 million worth of pistols, revolvers, shotguns, and carbines in the United States alone. Of the armored vehicles used by the Iraqi Army, between 100 and ( MENSQUARTZ KITCHEN 6 oz. and cannons, were ,vv cam cjmbjs flame throwers. Its customers are on nearly in every continent Chile and Bolivia, in Togo and Liberia, in Belgium and France. U.S. Sales According to Roberto Pereira de Andrade, former editor of a defense magazine and author of a book about the 200 IK I private industries, Brazil sends tanks, airplanes, armored cars, revolvers, missiles, explosives, police equipment, napalm, machine guns, ships, submarine parts, ; miles 7,000 away, out in the sand and low scrub of Dezful and Tabriz, Iraqis are shooting at Iranians with the products of a booming Brazilian arms industry that reached $1 billion in sales last year and shows no signs of leveling off As Brazil furiously tries to industrialize in the face of huge oil import bills, the Third Worlds biggest foreign debt, and unpredictable prices for agricultural exports, this country has become the- - developing worlds largest exporter of weapons. From the factories of its mV (25 i0 ir OFF LABEL) lyi warranty t t SAFEWAY SAVE 50 ANY SAFEWAY VITAMIN PRICED OVER YOUR CHOICE VITAMIN CASH t,00D N $1.00 VALUE I 10 OFFER LIMITED coupon E1ICEDRIH OFF OF TO 1C ONE per purchase THRt- - nov i CAPSULES tow VJK!! SHOP SAFEYAY FGH LAST m::uTE We SERVICE ALL Electronic Calculators and Digital Watches C 3483 So. W. Temple S M Mon-Sa- J t 9 30-- Across Irom SEFCO ! VdJJULf Hi iiallov;eei caiidiesi s gffiri ox |