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BRASÍLIA – The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ernesto Araújo, decided to resign from his post. The information was transmitted by the Chancellor himself to his subordinates. According to sources from Planalto, the chancellor and the president will have another meeting at 5 in the afternoon. Ernesto told Bolsonaro that he does not want to be a problem for the government. The expectation of government officials is that this Monday the departure of Araújo will be made official.
With the departure of Araújo, the Planalto Palace would like to appoint another diplomat to the position. The most popular names are Nestor Forster, who represents Brazil in the United States, and Luis Fernando Serra, who is in France.
read: ‘Either it was cowardice or someone told him to tweet,’ says Kátia Abreu about Ernesto Araújo’s attack
Considered the best qualified for the position, the Brazilian ambassador to France faces resistance in Congress and even in the Foreign Ministry for having a position considered similar to that of Ernesto Araújo. The assessment is that the swap would not entail the necessary change in foreign policy.
Serra is close to the Prime Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency, Onyx Lorenzoni, and his performance at the head of the embassy in Paris pleased Bolsonaro. In September 2019, the ambassador canceled the participation in an event with academics in the French capital that would pay tribute to the councilor of Rio de Janeiro Marielle Franco, assassinated in 2018. In May of last year, the ambassador came out in defense of Bolsonaro and accused the French newspaper Le Monde to distort the facts, after the newspaper published an editorial in which it criticized the president for denying the seriousness of the pandemic and politicizing the health crisis. “There is something rotten in Brazil.”
The Brazilian ambassador in Washington (USA), Nestor Forster, is also an option that will have difficulties to be accepted by parliament. The diplomat is aligned with Araújo and close to Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PSL-SP). Forster is also close to the right-wing guru Olavo de Carvalho, but is considered more competent and skilled than the current chancellor.
The advisers also suggested that Bolsonaro consider Ambassador Carlos Alberto Franco França, current Principal Assistant to the Presidency. Before assuming this position at the end of last year, he was the head of the ceremonial at the Planalto Palace and became one of the president’s trusted aides.
The special secretary for Strategic Affairs, Admiral Flávio Rocha, is seen as a remote alternative. Although there is a lot of traffic between ambassadors, the fact that he is military displeases him. Rocha also took over the Special Secretariat for Communication (Secom) this month.
The Minister of Agriculture, Tereza Cristina, pleases both parliamentarians and ambassadors, but has repeatedly reaffirmed that she has no interest in changing portfolio. Among the politicians circulate the names of former president and senator Fernando Collor (PROS-AL) and senator Nelsinho Trad (PSD-MS).
Araújo had been questioned by Congress. Last week, the president of the Chamber, Artur Lira, and the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, pressured President Jair Boldonaro to remove the chancellor. Lira went so far as to say that Araújo lost the ability to dialogue with the countries. For Centrão, the minister imposes obstacles to the purchase of vaccines from China and India.
This Sunday, Araújo even declared that the pressure from Congress was for interests related to 5G technology and not for vaccines against Covid-19. Senator Kátia Abreu (PP-TO), president of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, reacted to the minister’s statement saying, in a note, that Brazil could no longer have “the face of a marginalized person” and again pressed the exit of the minister.
Criticisms of foreign policy and the strategies adopted by Araújo include the deterioration of relations with China, Brazil’s main trading partner since 2009. Now, the Asian country is also emerging as a supplier of inputs for the production of the Oxford / Astrazeneca vaccine. , manufactured together. the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), and CoronaVac, developed by Sinovac Biotech in alliance with the Butantan Institute.
Foreign policy change
GLOBO heard from 11 active diplomats serving in different countries in the Americas, the Middle East and Asia about Araújo’s legacy. In its evaluation, a complete reconstruction of Brazil’s foreign policy will be necessary, both in bilateral relations with important partners, such as the United States, China and Argentina, as well as with the European Union and multilateral organizations.
Diplomats cited Brazil’s recent defeats in elections to international organizations as a sign of the country’s loss of strength.
