Brazil asks Argentine ambassador to leave, Buenos Aires says

Argentina's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Brazil had asked Argentina's ambassador to leave the country and would downgrade its mission in Argentina to the level of charge d'affaires.

The move escalated a diplomatic dispute over Argentine President Javier Milei's repeated insults against Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Milei repeated the remarks in an interview broadcast Sunday on Argentine television. Speaking about Lula, he said: "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 made similar remarks during a speech in Brazil last month supporting Flavio Bolsonaro, Lula's right-wing opponent in the upcoming presidential election. Brazil recalled its ambassador to Argentina for consultations over that speech.

Buenos Aires later sought to play down the dispute. Presidential spokesperson Adrian Ravier described it as a matter of "ideological and political differences."

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.