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In a defeat for the government of Jair Bolsonaro and Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo, the Senate today rejected the appointment of Ambassador Fabio Mendes Marzano to the position of permanent delegate of Brazil to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. This is the first rejection of a diplomat by the plenary session of the current government, which is considered rare.
Disapproval came by a wide margin, 37 votes to 9 in favor, signaling the weakness of the ruling base in the House. Marzano had been approved by the Foreign Relations and National Defense Commission, in the opinion of Senator Fernando Collor de Mello (PROS-AL). The score in the committee was 13-0, favorable to the ambassador. However, the diplomat was upset with Senator Kátia Abreu (PP-TO) on Saturday.
The ruralista senator wanted to know the ambassador’s position on the obstacles to the Free Trade Agreement between Mercosur and the European Union due to the Brazilian attrition in the face of uncontrolled environmental preservation and mentioned the protectionism of European agribusiness. However, he declined to comment, arguing that the matter was beyond the scope of the Geneva delegation. Marzano said he does not have a “mandate” to speak, since the issue is not the responsibility of his current secretary. The senator, then, affirmed that the refusal “embarrassed the Foreign Ministry, the Senate and Brazil.” He said that Itamaraty has become a “house of terrors” in which diplomats cannot express opinions. He indicated that he would work against Marzano, although, at that time, he had already voted for him in the commission, which could not be undone.
Marzano is a man of confidence of Chancellor Ernesto Araújo. Currently, he is Secretary for National Sovereignty and Citizenship Affairs, responding, for example, to defense matters, the United Nations, human rights, consular assistance and the environmental agenda, which is the reason for diplomatic and geopolitical friction on the part of the government. He is considered a very religious, catholic and professionally articulate diplomat. Graduated from the Institute of Military Engineering (IME), he is currently vice president of the Association of Brazilian Diplomats. He headed the Office of International Affairs of the Federal Supreme Court. Since 1989 in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he has worked in Spain, Peru, Venezuela and the United States and in the Brazilian Delegation to Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).
The religious freedom agenda is one of the axes of Bolsonarista foreign policy, and Marzano should campaign against the “persecution of Christians.” Last year, he was sent to speak by the government of Budapest, Hungary, one of the countries whose right-wing government of Viktor Orbán is an ally of Bolsonaro. On the occasion, he defended the priority of the religious agenda in international organizations.
Marzano was the name that replaced Ambassador Maria Nazareth Farani Azevêdo, who will leave office at the UN and had a performance approved by the government. She is one of the strong names in current diplomacy, married to Ambassador Roberto Azevêdo, former director general of the WTO (World Trade Organization).
The last rejection of a diplomat occurred in 2015, also for an international organization. Then-President Dilma Rousseff (PT) was defeated in the appointment of Guilherme Patriota to represent the country at the Organization of American States (OAS), in Washington. At the time, however, the score was tight: 37 votes to 36.
