General Article: The Syrio-Lebanese community in Brazil

There are 10 to 15 million Syrian-Lebanese people in Latin America. There is a community of about 5-10 million living in Brazil, 3,5 million in Argentina and half a million in Venezuela. They are mostly Christians who fled the Ottoman Empire at the end of the 19th century. They forgot their language, have there pan-Latin-American Organization, the Fearab, and assimilated to the Latin American culture or so it seems.


A revival of Syria-Lebanese identity in Sao Paulo

Before it was not rarely seen that these families use Arab words in their family dialect of Portuguese. Also people should not forget that in those families grand mothers dish is mostly a Syrian-Lebanese dish. Now we see in São Paulo Arab cultural happenings with typical food and dance. Also more and more decedents are learning Arabic. The media in Brazil launched a Arabic Soap Operah, that was very popular, after september 11th. There is a Arab fast-food chane called Habibis since 1988. And several cultural centers like BibliAspa, Club the Homs, ...  With the Syrian crisis there is manifestation of their cultural and political identity, rarely seen in the Syria-Lebanese Diaspora, more commonly seen in the Palestinian Diaspora. The strange thing is that the revival started earlier than the Syrian crisis. At the moment we can say that 60 to 70% is pro regime.

Raise of the left and the strategic alliance with the Middle East

Around the start of the new millennium a new leftist caudillo rose up, Hugo Chavez, for his socialism of the 21st century, he believed they needed a multipolar world, consisting of different dominant regional powers. In the first decade of the 21th century left-wing governments popped up in Latin America. The anti-imperialistic logic and the terrorist attacks of 9/11 made the Middle East the focal point of the imperialistic and anti-imperialistic powers in the world. Chavez and Lula needed strategic alliances with the Middle East, Chavez introduced a direct flight between Teheran and Caracas (Capital of Venezuela) and supported the regime of Al-Assad with oil shipments starting in 2010. Also current leftist President Maduro of Venezuela let a lawmaker form his party leave to Syria to fight with the regime, Maduro called it a dignified stance. Under Lula around 90 Brazilian Jihadists went to Syria to fight. When the war in Gaza broke out in 2014, Maduro said it would admit Palestinian children to Venezuela to give them medical care. He proclaimed that Israel was committing genocide in Palestina, while he is supporting genocide in Syria. In Uruguay the president Mujica said he would accept Syrian Refugees. Brazil on the other hand recieved now 3000 Syrian refugees, only a fouth recieved funding.  

The awaking

Latin America's left and the Middle East forged a new anti-imperialistic axis or South-South relations in the first 10 years of the 20th century. The main countries involved are Brazil, Venezuela, Syria and Iran. In June 2010 Bashar Al-Assad did a Tour in Venezuela (to recieve an honour sign from Chavez), Cuba ( to visit the Syrian Students there), Brazil (to meet the Syrian Diaspora) and Argentina, this was a first visit of a head of state of the Middle East to Latin America. His goal was to reactivate the relation with the diaspora in Latin America. Also to distribute anti-imperialistic publications to introduce people to geopolitics of the Middle East. Al-Assad and his wife seduced the public opinion and an energy treaty with signed between Venezuela and Syria, which would become crucial in the current crisis. Bashar Al-assad also took time to talk to the main leaders of the Syrian-Lebanese community to bring them closer to their roots. Just after the re-election of Chavez in 2012, he proclaimed that the opposition in Syria were terrorists, although this seemed more symbolical. The Syrian revolutions and the war that followed simultaneously could not leave the Syrian-Lebanese community untouched. Most of the communities and especially left wing of Syria-Lebanese community support the regime of Al-Assad. Only a small minority supports the revolution.

The positions and mobilization of the communities in Brazil

 In Brazil the support is less ideological, but for example the Free Syrian Army (FSA) is considered as a terrorist group. The support from the regime comes mostly, because of fear of the Jihadist fighting along the FSA against the regime. They believe that this will lead to a new wave of immigration from Syria like at the end of the 19th century. Their community is mostly Christian and the community is afraid of the new position the minorities would have in a new Syria. There is big community of Alawites in Rio and the refugee flows are organized by resonsibles of every religious community.  


The diplomacy

In November 2012 the special envoy of Al-Assad, Bouthaina Chaaban, was in Latin-America for treatment, but apparently this was a fake excuse to have a dialogue with the most important members of the Syria-Lebanese expats, like Al-Assad calls the diaspora. She met the Syrian-Lebanese vice-president of Brazil, Michel Temer, in a meeting organized by the Syria-Lebanese community in São Paulo. The link between the community in Sao Paulo was Eduardo Elias and now this is Prof. Farah from the USP, university.

During Putin's tour in Latin America in July, he proclaimed that he wants that Latin America becomes their major ally according to his anti-imperialistic logic. The plan is to make Russia and the Latin-America more interconnected on the economical level. Russia is with the boycot of the Western world searching to import meat, fish, fruit and vegetables and diary products. These are opportunities for these communities, but what will this lead to in the future... 
      
Conclusion

Syrian regime is actively searching for military, energetic, public support in Latin America and the left in Latin America forged the public opinion in a way that it seems normal to support the regime from an anti-imperialistic viewpoint. The Latin American leaders are preparing a new home for the Syrian regime as the revolutionaries would be the mayor player in the construction of a post-conflict Syria. One thing is sure, the Syrian conflict is a mayor divider of the international communities. This won't bring peace to the innocent Syrian civilians who hardly survive the conflict in their country. This is the biggest mistake of the Latin American left, that they didn't support the people, but the heads of state. For this, the history will NOT absolve them..