Disastrous Foreign Policy

Published in Estadao
(Brazil) on 22 Sep 2020
by (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Keith Atchison. Edited by Olivia Parker.
Maduro's regime, which Bolsonaro says he so admires, would not be so submissive to the United States.

The unexpected visit of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to Roraima this past Friday and the reception given to him by the Brazilian government resulted in justified indignation. It was, as described by Chamber of Representatives President Rodrigo Maia, an “affront” to the “traditions of autonomy and pride in our foreign and defense policies.” Maia, siding with the former chancellors of every government since re-democratization, stressed in a memo Brazil’s obligation to “care for the stability of borders and peaceful and respectful coexistence with neighbors, pillars of sovereignty and defense.”

Pompeo’s visit had no objective other than to use Brazil in Donald Trump’s reelection campaign. The intention was to exploit the crisis in Venezuela to reaffirm the Trump administration’s desire to take down dictator Nicolas Maduro’s regime, something that would certainly please the exiled Venezuelan electorate in Florida, one of the key states in the Nov. 3 election.

Even the governments of the military regimes Bolsonaro says he admires would not be so submissive to the United States. The generals of the dictatorships, supposed models for Bolsonaro, never allowed automatic alignment with the United States and would never subjugate national interest, let alone to this level.

Under Bolsonaro’s government, however, Brazil has agreed to throw its weight around as the biggest regional power at Trump’s personal behest, without making it clear what the country could gain from this submission. This is what used to be called “entreguismo*” but is now something that is rarely seen: Brazil, governed by Bolsonaro, kneels down not in front of the U.S., which in and of itself would be embarrassing, but rather in front of Trump personally, whom Chancellor Ernesto Araújo considers a savior of Western civilization.

Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, Brazil has aligned itself with the U.S. in a campaign to promote regime change in a neighboring country, which goes totally against not just good diplomatic practices of civilized countries, but also against the Brazilian constitution — which states, in Article 4, that the international relations of Brazil should be guided by the principles of national independence, the self-determination of peoples, nonintervention, and the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

None of these principles was respected by Bolsonaro’s government during the U.S. secretary of state's campaign visit. During his visit, flanked by Chancellor Araújo, Pompeo, after speaking with Venezuelan immigrants, described Venezuelan dictator Maduro as a “drug trafficker” and said that the Chavist “destroyed his own country.”

Generally speaking, these are the pretexts the Trump administration is using to promote a regime change in Venezuela, a goal that is shared by Bolsonaro’s government, despite being in violation of Brazil’s constitution. “I congratulate President Donald Trump for his determination in continuing to work with Brazil and other countries to restore democracy in Venezuela,” Bolsonaro said about Pompeo’s visit.

Brazil’s duty is not to restore democracy, but rather to work incessantly to preserve its national interests. Since the beginning, Brazil’s diplomacy has been guided by the cultivation of good relations with its neighbors, independent of their governing regime. It is for no other reason that this spirit is in the constitutional text.

It goes without saying that Brazil should criticize neighboring countries whose governments systematically violate the human rights of its people, which is the case with the Chavist regime in Venezuela — which was strongly denounced in a recent report produced by a WHO mission. But this does not mean that the country should embark on coup adventures in Venezuela, whatever the pretext, let alone allow itself to serve as a platform for the U.S. election, as if Brazil were a banana republic.

*Translator’s Note: Entreguismo is a Brazilian political-ideological concept describing the permitted exploitation of a country’s resources, and does not have a direct translation into English.


Política externa desastrosa

O regime militar, que Bolsonaro diz admirar, não se permitiria tal submissão aos EUA
https://statics.estadao.com.br/s2016/portal/img/opiniao/exlibris-opiniao.jpg

Notas & Informações, O Estado de S.Paulo
22 de setembro de 2020 | 03h00

Causaram justa indignação a extemporânea visita do secretário de Estado dos EUA, Mike Pompeo, a Roraima na sexta-feira passada e a recepção a ele dada pelo governo brasileiro. Tratou-se, como bem qualificou o presidente da Câmara, Rodrigo Maia, de uma “afronta” às “tradições de autonomia e altivez de nossas políticas externa e de defesa”. A Rodrigo Maia juntaram-se os ex-chanceleres de todos os governos desde a redemocratização, que, em nota, salientaram a obrigação brasileira de “zelar pela estabilidade das fronteiras e o convívio pacífico e respeitoso com os vizinhos, pilares da soberania e da defesa”.

A visita do sr. Pompeo não tinha nenhum outro objetivo além de usar o Brasil na campanha do presidente dos EUA, Donald Trump, à reeleição. A intenção era explorar a crise na Venezuela para reafirmar o desejo do governo Trump de derrubar o regime do ditador Nicolás Maduro, algo que certamente agradaria ao eleitorado venezuelano exilado na Flórida, um dos Estados-chave na eleição de 3 de novembro.

Nem a diplomacia dos governos do regime militar, que Bolsonaro tanto diz admirar, se permitiria tamanha submissão a um presidente norte-americano. Os generais da ditadura, supostos modelos de Bolsonaro, não admitiam alinhamento automático com os EUA e jamais rebaixaram os interesses nacionais, muito menos a esse ponto.

Sob o governo de Jair Bolsonaro, contudo, o Brasil aceitou emprestar seu peso como a maior potência da região para os propósitos pessoais do sr. Trump, sem que ficasse claro o que o País ganharia com isso. Era o que antigamente se chamava de “entreguismo”, mas num nível poucas vezes visto na história: o Brasil governado por Bolsonaro ajoelha-se não diante dos EUA, o que já seria vergonhoso, mas diante de Trump em pessoa, considerado pelo chanceler Ernesto Araújo, em já antológico texto, como o salvador da civilização ocidental.

Ademais, e talvez isso seja o mais importante, o Brasil alinhou-se aos EUA na campanha para promover uma mudança de regime em um país vizinho, o que contraria totalmente não apenas a boa prática diplomática de países civilizados, como também a Constituição brasileira – que determina, em seu artigo 4.º, que as relações internacionais do Brasil devem se pautar pelos princípios da independência nacional, da autodeterminação dos povos, da não intervenção e da solução pacífica dos conflitos.

Nenhum desses princípios foi respeitado pelo governo de Jair Bolsonaro no episódio da visita eleitoreira do secretário de Estado norte-americano. Na ocasião, ladeado pelo chanceler Ernesto Araújo, o secretário Mike Pompeo, depois de falar com imigrantes venezuelanos, qualificou o ditador venezuelano, Nicolás Maduro, de “narcotraficante” e disse que o Chavista “destruiu seu país”.

A tarefa do Brasil não é “restaurar a democracia” em parte alguma, e sim trabalhar incessantemente para preservar o interesse nacional. Desde sempre nossa diplomacia se pautou pelo cultivo de boas relações com os vizinhos, independentemente do regime de governo de cada um deles. Não é por outro motivo que esse espírito está no texto constitucional.


É evidente que o Brasil deve criticar vizinhos cujos governos violem sistematicamente os direitos humanos de seus governados, como é o caso do regime Chavista na Venezuela – duramente denunciado em recente relatório produzido por uma missão da ONU. Mas isso não significa que o País deva embarcar em aventuras golpistas na Venezuela, seja qual for o pretexto, nem muito menos permitir-se servir de palanque da eleição norte-americana, como se aqui fosse uma republiqueta bananeira.
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