Mauro Vieira, Brazil’s foreign minister, in a 2015 picture. Ebrahim Noroozi (AP)
Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira (Rio de Janeiro, 71 years old) is another new/former minister of Brazil. The career diplomat is one of those veterans with leadership experience whom President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 77, has entrusted with the strategic portfolios of his third cabinet. Vieira received a group of correspondents this Friday at the Itamaraty Palace, the foreign affairs headquarters from where you can see Congress, which just five days ago was attacked by extremist Bolsonarists, like the presidency and the Supreme Court. Brazil is returning to the world, it wants to be on every stage, to speak to everyone “without ideological discrimination”, explains the minister in an interview with EL PAÍS, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post and La Nación.
Vieira describes the serious incidents on Sunday, for which almost 1,200 people are in prison, as “a rebellion against the results of the elections”. “There is no doubt about the legitimacy of President Lula’s election,” he said. He is aware that there were security breaches, but stresses that order was restored immediately. Asked about the chances of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s most radical supporters launching another attack of this caliber, he reiterated: “I think the way the government has reacted will discourage any kind of new adventures, because the penalties will be all the more severe if it happens again. I hope you realized that the government is not joking. These are strong, decisive actions in accordance with the law.” He believes that despite the tarnished image, Brazil has shown the world that “the institutions are sound”.
At Lula’s request, the foreign minister has radically reorganized diplomatic relations and is preparing for the president’s first trips. The first destination, the next day 23, Buenos Aires, as dictated by tradition that his predecessor broke. Official visit to Washington in early February to meet President Joe Biden. And then to Beijing; if possible in the first quarter of 2023.
Vieira says when he found out about the attack, the priority was to step up security. “Itamaraty is a museum in terms of artworks. We have quintupled the number of security agents,” he confirms. Due to the alarm situation, the castle is still surrounded by fences, although the area has already been reopened to traffic.
Bolsonaro was in Florida two days before his term expired. As a result, he lost his parliamentary immunity on January 1st. The Foreign Minister explains that the investigation into the attempted coup has not led to any petition to his department in relation to the former President. “When there are formal federal police charges, arrest warrants or someone responsible does not show up, Itamaraty is the agency that handles extradition requests at the request of the judiciary.” Suspicion flies over Bolsonaro, but the investigation will show.
Vieira witnessed firsthand the Labor Party’s traumatic departure from power in 2016, with the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff and the reprisals of the Bolsonaro government. Foreign minister at Rousseff’s abrupt end after being ambassador to Washington, Buenos Aires and the United Nations, Bolsonaro’s team relegated him to the legation in Croatia. On one of his last days in Zagreb, he saw Canarinha eliminated by Croatia at the World Cup.
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The minister insists that everything will be different from the previous stage in terms of diplomacy. He wants to bury the turbulent era of Bolsonaro, who once had a chancellor, Ernesto Araujo, who prided himself on turning his country into an international pariah.
Lula has ordered the resumption of diplomatic relations with Venezuela from Nicolás Maduro; Next week, the first delegation will travel to Caracas with a view to the reopening of the embassy; First with a chargé d’affaires. Although Lula’s team made efforts to have Maduro attend the inauguration, he ended up missing the event.
The return of Brazil to the world, which Lula announced on the night of his election victory, began with his presence as president-elect at the climate summit in Egypt. “The President already said in his inaugural address that climate change, the environment and the preservation of the Amazon will be important elements of Brazilian foreign policy.”
Brazil wants to be everyone’s friend again, a forgiving participant in international forums. After severe criticism, which Lula received when he was still a candidate in an interview with Time that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was just as responsible for the war as Russian Vladimir Putin, the foreign minister reiterated: “We condemn the violent conquest of the territory. President Lula was very eloquent and said that we need to foster an environment for negotiation. We can’t just talk about war and military aid.” The South American giant wants to help “create conditions for dialogue” by supporting initiatives such as a ceasefire, humanitarian initiatives or permission to produce Ukrainian grain. The suspicion arises because the Rousseff government abstained in 2014 in condemning Russia’s annexation of Ukraine at the UN and Bolsonaro remained neutral.
Analyze, evaluate, these are the expressions repeated by the head of Brazilian diplomacy, who remembers that he only returned to this office 13 days ago. An example is the trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union, signed in 2019, whose ratification is being hampered by environmental issues. “We have to analyze what was negotiated because it was never disclosed,” he explains. “We will talk to the other ministries, to our Mercosur partners and later to the EU again. But there is no doubt that this is an important agreement that will be mutually beneficial.”
At the entrance to the minister’s office, the gallery of foreign ministers has been a daily reminder since the days of empire that Brazil has never had a woman for diplomacy. There is a movement within Itamaraty itself that has called for this. Vieira has named a veteran official as number two, but does not confirm whether the embassies in Washington and Buenos Aires are rumored to be headed by female diplomats.
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