Brazil recalled its ambassador from Buenos Aires on July 26, a day after Argentinian President Javier Milei insulted the country’s leader at a São Paulo rally.
Speaking at the Liberal Party (PL) conference on July 25, to officially launch Jair Bolsonaro’s son, Flávio Bolsonaro’s candidacy for president, Milei indirectly referred to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as a “thief” and called his administration “socialist trash.”
Incumbent left-wing Lula, at the age of 80, is seeking a fourth term, as Flávio Bolsonaro seeks to step into his father’s footsteps this October.
Lending his support to Flávio Bolsonaro, Milei also insulted Brazilian supreme court judge Alexandre de Moraes, whom he called “trash” after he claimed he prevented him from visiting former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro during his stay in Brazil, who is currently under house arrest serving a 27-year sentence over an attempted coup.
De Moraes ruled on July 17 to suspend Jair Bolsonaro from receiving visitors for 30 days, allowing only medical care and lawyers.
A spokesperson for Brazil’s foreign affairs ministry told The Associated Press that Ambassador Julio Bitelli was recalled for consultations following Milei’s statements.
Argentina
Milei in 2023 on a promise to reduce government size and tame astronomical inflation, backed by a chainsaw-wielding image.
Milei, a Trump ally, is a fierce opponent of communism, socialism, and collectivism.
“The road to socialism is always and everywhere the road to totalitarianism, because the socialist has to use every tool available to deny a reality that proves his ideas are false, harmful, and destructive to any nation,” Milei said at Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign launch.
“And so they use every coercive tool of the State to do it. I think you’re well acquainted with that sort of thing here.”
“We trust you, Flávio, to stop this socialist trash,” he added.
“Twenty-first-century socialism has put down deep roots in this country, with the infamous São Paulo Forum, founded by Lula da Silva and Fidel Castro, serving as a key transnational network for spreading communism across the continent,” Milei said.
According to a 2023 report by the Heritage Foundation, the São Paulo Forum, which was founded by Lula da Silva, then leader of Brazil’s Socialist Party, and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, is “the world’s largest and most impactful Marxist international organization.”
The report said that the São Paulo Forum’s key strategy was for “Marxists to run for office not as Marxists per se, but as populists, reformers, or anti-corruption crusaders” and “then, after winning, they would change constitutions and society.”
The president of the Supreme Federal Court, Edson Fachin, said Milei’s comments were a “disrespectful reference to a magistrate of the highest court in the country, made on Brazilian soil.”
The president of Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT), Edinho Silva, said in a July 25 post on X that it is “unacceptable for a foreign head of state to come to our country and address its constitutional powers in disrespectful terms.”
Axel Kicillof, governor of Buenos Aires province and a potential left-wing candidate in next year’s Argentine general election, posted a photo of himself with Lula on X on July 26.
“Yesterday we watched, with secondhand embarrassment, President Milei offend and insult the government of Brazil, its president, and an entire country,” he said.
In a July 26 post on X, former Argentine and center-left President Alberto Fernández said, “Milei went to Brazil shouting like a madman, demanding to see a coup plotter in jail.”
“Insulting the president of a sister nation and our main trading partner is unforgivable.”
Lula has not yet addressed Milei’s remarks publicly.
In an opinion piece published on July 26 in The Washington Post in which he called U.S. tariffs against Brazil “a strategic mistake,” he said that “Brazil’s destiny is determined only by Brazilians without external interference, without subservience.”
On the same day, in a post on X, Lula said he had a telephone conversation “lasting more than one hour” with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping.
“During the call, we discussed the implementation of synergies between the national development projects of the two countries,” he said.
“We reiterated our shared purpose of expanding cooperation in strategic and high-technology areas, such as artificial intelligence, satellites, processing of critical minerals, and fertilizer trade.”
The Brazilian Foreign Ministry said on Saturday it denied visas to two U.S. State Department officials who had sought to travel to the South American nation on Monday.
Assistant secretary of state Riley M. Barnes and deputy assistant secretary of state Samuel Samson applied for visas on July 20. The visas were denied on Friday, though the ministry did not give a reason for the decision.
A Brazilian official told Reuters that the administration believed the two U.S. diplomats were coming over to influence the presidential election.
There was “evidence pointing to a renewed attempt to politically exploit the situation and undermine the electoral system,” the official said.
AP, Reuters, and Tom Gantert contributed to this report.
