Weekend in Pindorama

Leader Barack Obama’s visit stood out because of the humiliation of our people. Let’s leave the Cartesian joys and hopes and the net value of economism in the hands of econom(ism)ists.

Let’s get to foreign policy.

It is necessary to make it clear: There was no blunder, slip-up or simple breach in protocol when Mr. Obama announced the invasion of Libya while in Brazilian territory.

Brazil abstained from voting on that matter in the UN meeting. So, announcing his new war in our territory is more than a provocation by Mr. Obama. It is a serious threat that requires Itamaraty to publicly make it manifest to the U.S. embassy in Brasilia, which will probably never happen; undoubtedly, Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Aguiar Patriota was put on a pedestal to perform that role.

Let’s put the pieces together:

1. In the last months of president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration, his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Celso Amorim, conducted proposals with Ankara and Tehran, aiming for a negotiated and peaceful way out of the Iran question.

2. The White House protests. The head of the Department of State, Hillary Clinton, criticizes the negotiations in progress harshly.

3. With Mr. Obama’s endorsement, the Brazilian initiative is aborted.

4. President Luiz Inácio publicly denounces Mr. Obama as the person who had asked him to take the initiative on Iran.

5. At the end of the administration, appearances are maintained; let everything be attributed to “natural” changes of the transition.

6. Minister Celso Amorim doesn’t fall. He was only substituted in the new administration by the diplomat Antiono Aguiar Patriota.

7. One of the first and most important changes announced by president Dilma Rouseff after her inauguration: the change in foreign policy in regards to Iran.

8. Brazil abstains in the UN meeting to authorize the invasion of Libya.

9. Mr. Obama comes to Brazil. Ex-President Luiz Inácio doesn’t go to receive him; it is the birthday of one of his children.

10. In Brazilian territory, the chief of the White House announces the invasion of Libya.