On Wednesday, the man named to be the new army chief, Tomas Ribeiro Paiva, until now the head of the southeastern army command, vowed that the military “will continue to guarantee democracy”. And he suggested that the results of the October election in which Lula defeated Bolsonaro should be accepted.
On Sunday Lula will head to Argentina, the customary first stop for Brazilian presidents. Beyond tradition, however, the trip will also allow him to meet with a faithful ally, President Alberto Fernandez, as well as regional counterparts at the summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
“Everyone wants to talk to Brazil,” Lula said this week in an interview with the Globo TV channel, promising to rebuild Brasilia’s ties with the international community after Bolsonaro’s four years in office were marked by international isolation for the country.
Latin America is only the initial phase of his international push, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz paying a visit on Jan 30, and Lula headed to Washington to meet with his US counterpart Joe Biden on Feb 10.
Lula’s priority is to “reconnect with Latin America” after ties with neighbors in the region were “relegated to the backburner,” Joao Daniel Almeida, a foreign relations specialist at Pontifical University in Rio de Janeiro, told AFP.
Lula arrives in Buenos Aires on Sunday and will meet with Fernandez the following day. The center-left Argentine leader has already traveled to Brazil for a bilateral meeting, held on Jan 2, the day after Lula took office.
Discussion is expected to include trade, science, technology and defence, Brazil’s foreign ministry said.
PINK TIDE
Brazil’s 77-year-old leader could also meet several leftist counterparts on Tuesday in Buenos Aires – Cuba’s Miguel Diaz Canel and Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, with whom Brasilia has recently normalised ties – who will all be attending a regional summit.
Under Bolsonaro, Brazil was one of fifty countries that recognised Maduro’s main opponent, Juan Guaido, as interim president of the country.
In Buenos Aires, the CELAC summit aims to bring together more than 30 states from the region. Lula, who served two previous terms as president from 2003 to 2010, was one of the founders of the group, formed when a so-called “pink tide” of left-leaning governments washed over Latin America.
With a number of leftist leaders having recently come to power, the region’s constantly see-sawing political map once again resembles that of the early 2000s.
Bolsonaro, a harsh critic of the left, suspended Brazil’s participation in CELAC, alleging the body “gave importance to non-democratic regimes such as those of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua”.
He also failed to establish warm ties with Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Colombia, where the left had come to power.
Foreign relations specialist Almeida said that Lula wants to “prioritise economic cooperation” in the region.
Lula also expressed this week his interest in a regional policy for the preservation of the Amazon, as the international community waits with bated breath for changes following Bolsonaro’s strong record of increased deforestation.
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