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Shocked by the images on Capitol Hill, Western diplomats quickly organized to condemn virtually all democratic countries to condemn the acts in Washington. It was understood that what was at stake was not only democracy in the United States (USA), but the survival of the credibility of a system.
The surprise at what was happening in the United States soon won a new behind-the-scenes chapter of diplomacy: the hesitation of the largest country in Latin America, Brazil, to also unequivocally condemn the events in the American capital.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s tone of practically justifying the invasion left Western negotiators concerned about the Brazilian government’s position.
Hours after Bolsonaro warned that the same could happen in Brazil, it was Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo who reacted on social media. Although he condemned the fact, it weighed in defense of the Trump base and the theses promoted by the American extreme right.
“We have to regret and condemn the invasion of the Congress headquarters that took place yesterday in the United States,” the minister wrote. “It is necessary to investigate whether there was participation of infiltrated elements in the invasion. It is necessary to deplore and investigate the death of 4 people, including a demonstrator who was shot in Congress,” he said.
“Nothing justifies an invasion like yesterday. But at the same time, nothing justifies, in a democracy, the lack of respect for the people by the institutions or those who control them ”, he reflected.
“The right of the people to demand the proper functioning of their institutions is sacred. May the events of yesterday in Washington not serve as a pretext, in the United States or in any country, to put any institution above popular scrutiny,” warned the chancellor.
Inside the Itamaraty, the behavior generated discomfort. The fear is that, once again questioning the victory of Joe Biden and legitimizing the action of the protesters, Bolsonaro has once and for all put Brazilian diplomacy in an uncomfortable situation with no real way out.
“We have to ask ourselves what it means when a country the size of Brazil chooses to hesitate to condemn the violence and does not qualify the events as an attack on democracy,” said a member of the European Commission, who asked not to be named.
For the negotiators, Bolsonaro’s new position distances him further from the group of democratic countries, in a gesture that could even have consequences for his dream of joining the OECD.
Brazilian diplomats still fear that the Brazilian government’s reaction will generate even greater resistance from European parliaments to the possibility of signing a trade agreement between Mercosur and the EU. Today, the impasse is primarily environmental. But the demand for a democratic position can also weigh.
Experienced ambassadors informed the column how the government’s stance on the latest Trump-triggered crisis places the country even further away from the main job Biden is preparing for 2021 in his overseas field: organizing a Summit for Democracy.
“Bolsonaro’s attitude will be registered among the members of the new government and that will weigh when an eventual invitation to the Brazilian to sit at the table of the great democracies of the world is discussed,” said a former Brazilian minister, on condition of anonymity.
