Is a hemispheric Axis of Evil in the making?

With all the attention on Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq, policymakers have been unable to focus on a massive ticking time bomb right in the American hemisphere .

On October 6, Brazilian voters are likely to elect as their president a bitterly anti-US populist who openly supports regimes on the State Department’s list of terrorist states. Inacio “Lula” da Silva, the presidential frontrunner, has called for his country to resume its nuclear weapons program, is considering the withdrawal of Brazil from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and has stated that Brazil under his leadership should become a major military power and proliferator of advanced weapons technology. Brazil shelved its long-term nuclear weapons program a decade ago.

An alliance between a militaristic, left-wing Brazil under Lula; Communist Cuba, and dictatorial Venezuela bears the hallmarks of a nascent Axis of Evil in the Americas. So far, the National Security Council has shown no official concern.