A escolha de Carlos França como sucessor de Ernesto Araújo no Itamaraty é um sinal claro de que o presidente Bolsonaro e seu filho Eduardo —os dois principais articuladores da política externa brasileira— não pretendem permitir uma guinada na estratégia internacional do país 🧵👇
França nunca chefiou uma embaixada no exterior, não tem poder político próprio e dificilmente terá muita liberdade para tomar decisões sem anuência explícita da família Bolsonaro, que está no processo de centralizar ainda mais o poder político no Palácio do Planalto.
Além disso, superestima o poder da diplomacia quem supuser q seria possível normalizar a política externa do Brasil sem uma moderação fundamental da política interna. O Brasil tornou-se pária diplomático ñ por causa de seu chanceler,mas em função das políticas internas do governo
Apesar disso tudo, porém, se tiver muita destreza, França poderá atuar em duas frentes para desfazer parte do estrago histórico que o bolsonarismo tem causado no âmbito externo. A 1a tarefa será limitar, até certo ponto, o uso da política externa para animar a base bolsonarista
O novo chanceler terá três aliados nessa empreitada: o Governo Biden no âmbito externo e o Congresso Nacional e o empresariado no âmbito interno, ambos sensíveis às consequências desastrosas do legado de Araújo.
A 2a tarefa do novo chanceler é de redução de danos gerados ao MRE ao longo dos últimos dois anos. França pode tentar reerguer, em parte, o Itamaraty, instituição q se tornou tão tóxica q governos estrangeiros começaram a dialogar cada vez + com outros ministérios e governadores
França tb pode tentar atenuar o clima de perseguição ideológica que hoje reina na Casa de Rio Branco e fez com que muitas das cabeças mais brilhantes se refugiassem em consulados ao redor do mundo, onde não é preciso defender Bolsonaro publicamente. brasil.elpais.com/opiniao/2021-0…
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Many factors contributed to Ernesto Araújo's fall, but one stands out: Joe Biden. With Trump gone, the cost of maintaining a pro-Trump anti-globalist Foreign Minister became simply too high for Bolsonaro. 🧵👇
Biden's election complicated a unique and often overlooked advantage that Bolsonaro enjoyed in the foreign policy realm: With Trump acting as the disruptor-in-chief and absorbing most of the world’s attention, Bolsonaro could rail against globalism without paying much of a price.
This may sound like a minor issue, but Bolsonaro’s radical foreign policy has been crucial to satisfying an important part of his constituency which voted for the seven-term congressman expecting a complete rupture with the past.
President Bolsonaro is considering naming Admiral Flávio Rocha as Foreign Minister. Irrespective of the man's qualifications, the move would probably taint the armed forces' reputation further. For several reasons, the job looks like a trap and a mission impossible 🧵👇
First of all, it is Bolsonaro himself and his son Eduardo who really make the key decisions in the realm of foreign policy. Araújo never called the shots. Even a 'normal' Foreign Minister will struggle having to constantly defend the indefensible to international interlocutors.
The same has happened before: 1) Brazil's former Minister of Health, general Pazuello, oversaw the number of COVID-19 victims in Brazil explode from 15 to over 280 thousand. Bolsonaro made Pazuello preside over a disaster of epic proportions.
Pressure is growing on President Bolsonaro to sack his 'flat-earther' Foreign Minister, the government's most radical cabinet member along with the Minister of Women, Family and Human Rights. But while Araújo may end up losing his job, his departure is far from assured 👇🧵
Araújo may be a disaster as Foreign Minister, but he is extremely loyal to the president. He has compared Bolsonaro to Jesus and routinely says the president was sent by God. Pushing him out would send be a sign that the president cannot protect his most radical sycophants.
Bolsonaro already had to let go a series of loyal followers, including former Minister of Education Weintraub, a far-right conspiracy theorist, and former Minister of Health Pazuello, an extremely incompetent general who oversaw the collapse of Brazil's public health system.
During today's hearing in Brazil's Senate, Bolsonaro's advisor for int'l affairs Filipe Martins (left) made a hand gesture that has come to be linked to white supremacist views, similar to that made by the terrorist of Christchurch (right) who killed 51 people in a mosque in 2019
Filipe Martins also uses a poem by Dylan Thomas, known by its first line, "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night", as his twitter profile background -- the same poem cited by the terrorist of Christchurch in his online manifesto.
The usage of the phrase in Martin's twitter profile has led to strong criticism from Brazil's diplomatic community after the Christchurch shooting in March 2019. Below an article on the matter in Folha de São Paulo:
Reuters published a detailed report on why Brazil’s military failed spectacularly in its attempt to reduce deforestation in the Amazon reuters.com/investigates/s…
As I wrote last year, this is exactly what Bolsonaro wanted - and he made sure that the military would never succeed.
The impact on the international reputation of Brazil's VP Mourão &the military is devastating: they agreed to participate in elaborate window-dressing that cost hundreds of millions & failed to convince a single observer that Brazil's gov was serious about combating deforestation
When Bolsonaro told foreign governments that he'd send the armed forces to preserve the Amazon, I remember speaking to a European diplomat who told me he was taken aback: "He thinks we're total idiots". Literally everyone knew the whole operation was just for show.
Irrespective of what you think about Lula: the former president's capacity to engage an international audience and directly impact the way Brazil is seen abroad is just remarkable. His CNN interview with Amanpour helps him strengthen his narrative for the 2022 elections 🧵👇
By urging Biden, on US-American television, to call an emergency coronavirus summit, Lula seeks to send a message to voters in Brazil: if he wins, Brazil will no longer be a ridiculed pariah, but seek to actively participate in global decision-making processes -- like it used to.
Any other presidential candidate would have sounded preposterous by urging the US president to do anything. But Lula, one of Latin America's most experienced statesmen, managed to pull it off coming across as fairly presidential.