Brazil's ambassador to Argentina, Julio Bitelli, was recalled by the Itamaraty Palace – as the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is known – and met on Monday (15) with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mauro Vieira. He has other meetings in the country with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin.
Recalling an ambassador for consultation indicates problems with relations between the two governments. Bitelli's trip back to Brazil happened after Milei came to the country to take part in the far right event Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held last week in the city of Balneário Camboriú, Santa Catarina.
Amid the attacks against Lula, Milei met with former President Jair Bolsonaro, one of the speakers at the event, held on July 6 and 7. A meeting between the leaders of Brazil and Argentina was planned during the Mercosur summit, held in Asunción, the capital of Paraguay. Although the summit was held on July 8, Milei decided to decline the invitation and fly back to Argentina after his speech in southern Brazil, in yet another move by his government to weaken the South American bloc.
During the event, Lula said, without giving names, that “false democrats have tried to undermine the institutions and put them at the service of reactionary interests”. Also without giving names, Lula criticized what he called “simplistic proposals that tend to aggravate economic and social inequalities in the countries of the region”. He directly criticised initiatives by the Argentinian government that have hindered important debates in Mercosur. The Argentinian head of state, Javier Milei, was the only president absent from the summit.
“In a globalized world, it makes no sense to resort to archaic and isolationist nationalism, nor is there a justification for retrieving ultra-liberal experiences that can only aggravate inequalities in our region,” he criticized.
“Erasing the word ‘gender’ from documents only worsens the daily violence suffered by women and girls,” he said, in direct reference to the Argentinian government's diplomacy, which has worked to prevent mentions of gender parity in international resolutions.
