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under international law, 587 and in a manner that promoted regional stability andsolidarity. Analysts of the left saw in Lula’s response a grander scheme to maintainregional stability for the continued inward flow of global foreign investment, 588while those of the right saw it plainly as part of a leftist conspiracy against Braziliannational economic interests, facilitated by the Lula government’s foreign policy.In 2004, Lula launched, along with Jacques Chirac of France and Ricardo Lagos ofChile, the ‘Action Against Hunger and Poverty Campaign’. Within IBSA, inaddition, a Fund for the Alleviation of Poverty and Hunger was established in 2004,to finance community health projects in developing countries. The major foreignpolicy action of Lula’s first term was the decision to engage Brazilian troops in theUN Mission in Haiti, MINUSTAH. This represented a major mobilisation of statepower – personnel and political capital – for a foreign policy objective. As will bediscussed in Chapter 7, however, the goal which this action sought to realise was alofty one indeed, as it represented the aspirations of the Brazilian elite since thebirth of the Republic in 1889: international recognition as a key player ininternational affairs, through the attainment of a permanent UN Security Councilseat. With the impending 50 th anniversary of the UN and the debates over itsreform, Brazilian decision-makers noted an opportunity for Brazil’s candidacy asone of the proposed new members of the Council. Indeed, on a visit to Brazil in2004 just ahead of Brazil’s deployment of troops in Haiti, US Secretary of StateColin Powell called the country a “serious candidate” for a possible seat on anexpanded Council. 589In summary, during Lula’s first term Brazil’s foreign policy outcomes were largely,almost squarely, in the area of internationalism, couched in rhetoric. Brazil wasearnestly expanding its ties with a diverse group of developing countries; it587 Jeb Blount, and Katia Cortes, “Brazil says Bolivia has right to seize assets”,Bloomberg, May 2, 2006. Accessed online at:http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aIzXn7baiBwQ&refer=latin_america, on 30 September, 2010.588 See, on the website of the International Committee of the Fourth International, HectorBenoit, “Morales’s nationalization in Bolivia: Who got stabbed?”, in World SocialistWebsite, 5 May 2006. Accessed online at:http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/may2006/boli-m05.shtml on 30 September, 2010.589 Elise Labott, “Powell calls Brazil ‘serious candidate for UN Security Council”, CNN(2004). Accessed online at: http://articles.cnn.com/2004-10-05/world/powell.brazil_1_brazil-president-luiz-inacio-lula-brasilia?_s=PM:WORLD on 26June, 2011.231