The video was painful to watch but spoke volumes about Brazil’s isolation on the world stage: President Jair Bolsonaro awkwardly strolled around the room alone while other G20 leaders chatted amicably in Rome last year.
Political analysts say the international influence of Latin American giant Brazil has shrunk under Bolsonaro, the far-right incumbent fighting an uphill battle to win re-election next month.
Its ideologically motivated foreign policy and disregard for diplomatic etiquette have overshadowed Brazil’s former role as a heavyweight in the world arena, experts say.
“The country is going through a period of relative international isolation and a major reputational crisis,” said Fernanda Magnotta, international relations coordinator at the FAAP Institute in Sao Paulo.
“Not many people want to be photographed with our guides these days.”
She attributes this to a government in which “decision-making is centralized around the most ideologically motivated faction in government: the president, his sons and closest advisers”.
Whether it’s a wave of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest or disputes with China and the Arab world: Bolsonaro, who traveled relatively little abroad as president, has managed to alienate a significant part of the international community since taking office in 2019.
His latest faux pas came on Sunday when he drew criticism for using a visit to London for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral for a thinly veiled campaign rally.
The Bolsonaro government’s closest ties are with hard-line conservative governments that are themselves isolated on the world stage: Hungary, Poland, and especially Russia, which failed to sanction Brazil for its invasion of Ukraine.
Brazilian diplomacy is no longer seen as “a means of promoting economic ties, but a means of building far-right alliances for internal political gain,” says Rodrigo Goyena Soares, a historian at the University of Sao Paulo (USP).
Even in its own neighborhood, Brazil has been losing influence with insults to a new wave of left-wing governments – such as Bolsonaro’s belittling of Argentina’s “poor choice” in electing President Alberto Fernandez in 2019.
– “Outrageous” –
Things got off to a bad start when images of huge wildfires in the Brazilian Amazon in 2019 sparked international outrage.
France was particularly outraged after Bolsonaro clashed with his counterpart Emmanuel Macron over environmental degradation – and moved to mock First Lady Brigitte Macron’s performance.
The bindings haven’t exactly improved.
Just last month, Bolsonaro’s economy minister, Paulo Guedes, said of France: “You better start treating us right or we’ll tell you to fuck yourself.”
“This is unheard of in Brazilian diplomacy — diplomacy, period,” says Goyena Soares.
Bolsonaro bet all his diplomatic chips on his political role model, former US President Donald Trump.
“Bolsonaro’s Brazil has formed an unprecedented alliance with Trump’s United States,” said Felipe Loureiro of the USP’s International Relations Institute.
But “the alignment was with Trump and Trumpism,” he adds.
US-Brazil relations have deteriorated since President Joe Biden took office last year.
Bolsonaro was one of the last world leaders to acknowledge Biden’s victory as defeated Trump struggled in vain to overturn the election result.
It was “another stark departure from Brazil’s foreign policy tradition of non-interference in the affairs of other states,” says Loureiro.
– Diplomatic To-Do List –
Brazil’s foreign ministry, a venerable institution known as “Itamaraty” after the palace where it is headquartered, received a shock when Bolsonaro appointed obscure diplomat Ernesto Araujo, a die-hard supporter, as foreign minister.
As a Trump-loving, China-bashing, climate change skeptic, the “anti-globalist” Araujo turned Brazilian diplomacy on its head.
Araujo was ousted in March 2021 amid a seemingly endless series of confusion and replaced by the comparatively tame Carlos Franca.
However, some analysts point to Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo as a congressman as the real force in Brazilian diplomacy.
The man leading Bolsonaro in the polls for the Oct. 2 election, leftist ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010), vowed to restore Brazil’s international standing and reduce Amazon deforestation if elected becomes.
The charismatic but ailing Lula, who is often more popular abroad than in Brazil, would have to “restart dialogue with every country … and restart South-South cooperation between Latin America and Africa,” says Magnotta.
Lula would also need to “renegotiate the terms of Brazil’s alliance with the US,” develop an appropriate China policy, and “seek rapprochement with the European Union on environmental issues,” says Goyena Soares.
