Brazil-Argentina ties stay downgraded over Milei

Brazil’s diplomatic relations with Argentina will remain downgraded as long as President Javier Milei’s “attacks” on Brazilian democratic institutions persist, a Brazilian Foreign Ministry source told AFP on Wednesday.

“We have decided to downgrade the relationship,” the source said. “This decision remains in effect as long as Javier Milei’s attacks on Brazilian democratic institutions persist.”

Brazil has downgraded its mission in Buenos Aires to the level of charge d’affaires after repeated insults from Milei against Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Argentina’s government said Tuesday that Brazil had asked its ambassador to leave Buenos Aires. The Brazilian Foreign Ministry source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that was Argentina’s decision.

The dispute began when Milei attended a July event in Sao Paulo launching the presidential bid of right-wing candidate Flavio Bolsonaro. During the event, Milei called Brazil’s incumbent leader a “convict” and a “thief” without explicitly naming Lula. He also appeared to refer to Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes as “bald trash.”

Milei repeated his criticism in an interview broadcast Sunday on Argentine television. “He’s a thief, he’s corrupt, he’s been convicted of theft and corruption, he’s been in prison, so it’s true that we can call him a convict,” Milei said of Lula.

Lula, who was previously president from 2003 to 2010, spent 580 days in jail beginning in April 2018 after being convicted in the Operation Car Wash anti-corruption probe. He was freed after his conviction was overturned on procedural grounds, and the presiding judge was later ruled to have been biased. Lula returned to the presidency in 2023.