RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – By building the democrat presidential slate with Senator Kamala Harris, Joe Biden seems to lead the political coalition that is most directly opposed to a Brazilian president in the history of the US elections.
This is because both Biden and Kamala have been openly, repeatedly and nominally critical of Jair Bolsonaro in recent months, in a move considered by experts to be unprecedented in the relations between the two countries.
“This is the first time in US election history that we see a presidential slate, with a presidential candidate and a vice-presidential nominee, standing so clearly against a Brazilian government. The fact that both Biden and Kamala are comfortable pointing a finger at Bolsonaro in their criticism shows that they intend to lend him the status of a Latin American caudillo, placing him in the position of an international pariah,” said Carlos Gustavo Poggio, professor of international relations at the FAAP (Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation).
According to Poggio, although during the administration of Democratic President Jimmy Carter, between 1977 and 1981, Brazil and the United States cut military ties in the wake of the US government’s reprimand for abuses committed by the Brazilian military regime, there is no record that even during the 1976 campaign, the then Democratic candidate Carter had attacked General Ernesto Geisel, Brazil’s president at the time.
Serial criticism
However, now both Biden and Kamala, who was also a presidential pre-candidate for the Democrats until December last year, have voiced their discontent with the Brazilian.
“President Bolsonaro needs to know that if Brazil fails in its task as guardian of the Amazon rainforest, my government will bring the world together to ensure that the environment is protected,” Joe Biden said in an interview with Americas Quartely in March 2020.
Later that month, in a Democrats pre-candidacy debate, he reiterated his intention to lead a global response against the devastation of the Brazilian forest.
“I would now be organizing the (Western) hemisphere and the world to provide US$20 billion for the Amazon, for Brazil to stop burning the Amazon, so that they could preserve the forests,” said the Democrat. The money would be part of a nearly US$2 trillion package that Biden is considering setting up to fight global warming, one of his administration priorities.
Elected to the Senate for California, Kamala was even more explicit and direct in her criticism of Jair Bolsonaro. In August last year, in light of information about the increase in burning in the Amazon, pictures of the rainforest destruction were printed on the covers of international publications and sparked a wave of criticism of the country from international leaders.
At the time, Kamala posted on Twitter: “President Bolsonaro needs to account for this devastation,” she said, commenting on images of an area of burning forest. Kamala said that 20 percent of the world’s oxygen comes from the Amazon and that the forest is home to a million indigenous peoples. “Any destruction affects us all.”
Kamala resumed her attacks the following day, August 24th: “While the Amazon is burning, Brazil’s Trump-type president, who allows loggers and miners to destroy the area, is failing to act. Trump should not close a trade deal with Brazil until Bolsonaro reverses his catastrophic policies and fights the burning. We need American leadership to save the planet.”
Four days later, she also criticized the closeness between the Brazilian representative and US President Donald Trump, whom she will face at the polls alongside Biden on November 3rd.
In addition to publicly expressing his support for the Brazilian President, Trump also played a part in the G-7 summit, meeting during those very days, to prevent recommendations or criticism against Brazil from being included in the final declaration of the most powerful countries in the world, as desired by the most vocal critic of the Brazilian government, French President Emmanuel Macron.
“President Bolsonaro has actively encouraged fires in the Amazon and rejected G7 assistance to fight them. Trump pledged his full support to Bolsonaro. At a time when the planet is dependent on American leadership, Trump has failed,” Kamala said.
Far beyond the environment
For experts in the relationship between the two countries, although criticism has been made within the environmental context, Biden, Kamala and the Democratic party’s rejection of Bolsonaro extends far beyond the green agenda.
“It is unprecedented that a government that says it loves the United States and which has decided to deepen this relationship to the detriment of others, such as with Arab countries or Argentina, now finds itself facing the possibility of being treated with great ill-will by its preferential ally. This shows that Brazil has approached Trump, but has not built bridges with the United States, in a very amateurish foreign policy,” says Poggio.
Since taking office, Bolsonaro has prioritized synergy with the Trump government. The two presidents have similar ideological agendas and political styles, with constant and direct interaction with voters through social media.
However, the closeness to Trump and the explicit position in favor of the Republican’s reelection in 2020 has been increasingly viewed with criticism by the Democrats, who are now emerging with a 70 percent chance of taking over the White House next year, according to the Five Thirty Eight forecast model.
In early June, 24 Democrat representatives on the House Committee on the Budget sent a letter to US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer saying they were opposed to any new trade agreement between Brazil and the United States.
“We are strongly opposed to seeking any kind of trade agreement with the Bolsonaro government in Brazil. Improving the economic relationship between the United States and Brazil at this time would undermine the efforts of Brazilian human rights, labor and environmental advocates to promote the rule of law and protect and preserve marginalized communities,” the Democrats said in the letter.
Late last month, in reaction to a tweet by Federal Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, the president’s son, who posted a video of Trump’s re-election campaign, the president of the House Committee on International Relations, Democrat Representative Eliot Engel, said the “Bolsonaro family needs to stay out of the US election” and denounced an attempt by Brazil to interfere in the US internal political process.
In an interview with BBC News Brasil, Engel stated that “my hope is that a United States-Brazil relationship with Joe Biden will focus on the various areas of mutual interest for people in both countries, including environmental protection and human rights for all.”
“We will have to make do around here”
Although he has already declared himself a fan of President Trump and often reiterates his support for the Republican, Bolsonaro accepts the chance that he may lose the elections.
“I support the Republican given the freedom I have, which Trump has granted me, to call him anytime I need him, and he is ready to cooperate with us,” he said in mid-July, to later point out that he would try to maintain closer business relations even when faced with a Biden administration.
“If they don’t want to, well, too bad, right? Brazil will have to make do around here,” said Bolsonaro.
To Bloomberg, current Brazilian Chancellor Ernesto Araújo, one of the main players behind the Brazilian alignment with Trump, said two weeks ago that “I’m sure that, despite some adjustments, we could maintain a very positive agenda under a potential Democratic government.”
However, members of the Foreign Office headed by Araújo accept that the body should approach party representatives to improve relations even before the elections. The Brazilian embassy in Washington has requested meetings with Democratic congressmen, but experts in international relations say the move is made with little consistency and poor result, as evidenced by the tone of public demonstrations by Democratic leaders.
Even John Bolton, Trump’s former adviser on international affairs, said in a recent interview that the Bolsonaro government should immediately open “communication lines” with the Democrats.
Biden has visited Brazil on several occasions and, as vice-president of the United States, he had to smooth the way with then Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff for bilateral relations, following the US secret service espionage scandal after targeting the Brazilian government and Petrobras.
Considered diplomatic and pragmatic, he is used to dealing with people he does not care for much. It is unlikely that the Democrat will take severe action against Brazil as soon as he takes command, should he indeed win the electoral race. But it is certain that Bolsonaro’s record will not help advance talks between the two countries and that the Democrats will wait for changes in the position of the Brazilian executive to push forward bilateral agendas.
International relations scholars say that American support for Brazil’s accession to the OECD will be compromised and that a free trade agreement between the two countries – as Bolsonaro initially wanted – is a remote possibility.
However, as Brazil is not a priority in American foreign policy, this issue is not on the candidate’s agenda, who still has 80 days before facing his opponent at the polls. Should he win, Biden has already declared that as soon as he takes over he intends to visit a Latin American country: Mexico.
Source: G1