A few weeks ago, the US congress published its annual report on the military expense of the countries at development. However, it has gone unnoticed in spite of the interesting data that it shows. For example, Brazil is the nation that will spend the most in 2010 on arms: 7.2 billion dollars, a huge figure if we compare it with the federal budget of the Bolsa-Familia Program: 5 billion per year. This direct economic aid plan was created by Lula da Silva in 2004 and four years later benefited 46 million Brazilians, a quarter of the population. It is, therefore, the world's largest project of financial aid to poor families, but less than expense in arms.

After Brazil comes Venezuela (6.4 billion) and Saudi Arabia (4.2 billion). The most serious aspect is that since 2002 these two countries appear every year among the top 10 world buyers of arms and this unbridled degree program has contributed to America quadrupling its spending on armaments from almost 6 billion dollars in 2002 to more than 23 billion in 2009. In the same period of time, according to data of the Inter-American Bank development, poverty in that continent has risen from 44 to 56 percent (260 million inhabitants, of which some 40 million live in the USA) and extreme poverty is 20 percent (some 110 million people live on less than 1 dollar a day).

Another novelty of report is that Russia succeeds the United States as the main arms seller to the region, since invoice accounts for 50 percent of sales. In second place is France, which has 25 percent of the market, and in third place is the United States with a 10 percent share, although it is the world's leading exporter.

According to the French Ministry of Defense, Brazil is his best client, since the contracts signed between Sarkozy and Lula total some 10 billion dollars in the last five years, a figure much higher than the amount spent by the Brazilian Executive to endow the Fund to Combat Poverty (FCP). Despite these data, Time magazine has chosen Lula da Silva as the most influential leader in the world in 2010.

The war industry is powerful worldwide. Also in Brazil. According to the Supreme Electoral Court in the last elections, won by Dilma Roussef, the arms lobby group donated 60 million dollars to the parties to avoid legal restrictions to the sector. Those who are most grateful are the drug traffickers, who can acquire on the black market ultra-modern weapons capable of shooting down helicopters and to whom 80 percent of the 40,000 violent deaths that occur every year in the South American giant are attributed.

If we want peace, let us work for peace. Or better, for justice.