US President Joe Biden should ignore the demands of Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro and talk about the environment and free elections at the bilateral meeting that the two presidents will have this Thursday (9) in Los Angeles, said the National Security Adviser. , Jake Sullivan, to American journalists.
According to the Democrat’s adviser, the climate agenda will be “an important topic of conversation” to advance “in the relationship between Brazil and the US, especially in tangible actions to protect the Amazon.”
In addition, leaders must address the “free, transparent and democratic elections” that Brazilians will face in October. According to Sullivan, there will be no forbidden topics in conversation between presidents.
It was everything Bolsonaro didn’t want to hear. The counselor’s message contradicts the agreement made by emissaries of the American president with the Brazilian, who was reluctant to participate in the Summit of the Americas because he did not want to be pressured by the Democrat, with whom he has no political affinity.
Bolsonaro only accepted to travel to Los Angeles after an emissary that Biden sent to BrasÃlia convinced him that he would not be embarrassed precisely with matters related to the environment and attacks on the electoral system. The meeting is scheduled for 15:15 (19:15 in BrasÃlia) this Thursday. It will be the first conversation between the two presidents since the American took office a year and a half ago.
Even with Sullivan’s message, given this Wednesday (8), aboard Air Force One, the American presidential plane, Brazilian diplomats said, on condition of anonymity, that they maintain the expectation that Biden avoids friction with Bolsonaro and that the meeting serve to advance some guidelines of Brazilian interest, such as the removal of barriers to steel imports. Likewise, there would be advances in American priorities, such as strengthening the fight against human trafficking and illegal immigration networks.
But the Democrat has been under pressure from activists and politicians in his party to hold Bolsonaro accountable. The lawsuit gained strength after the disappearance of the English journalist Dom Philips and the indigenist Bruno Araújo Pereira while they were producing a report in the Amazon. The Bolsonaro government reduced inspection instruments and was accused of rigging bodies such as Ibama and Funai, which, according to opponents, worsened security conditions in the region.
A supporter of former Republican President Donald Trump, who lost re-election to the Democrat, Bolsonaro said several times that there were suspicions of fraud in the American election. On Tuesday (7), in an interview with SBT, he again questioned the result of the US election. “Who says [sobre fraude] it’s the American people. I will not go into detail on the sovereignty of another country. Now, Trump was doing very well, and a lot of things came to us that we are wary of. We don’t want that to happen in Brazil,” he said.
The American embassy reacted and responded on Wednesday. “Elections are the most visible expression of a democracy, and the United States is proud of the long history of free, fair and credible elections that undergo a thorough process and stand the challenge of time,” the country’s diplomatic representation said in a statement. sent to the newspaper O Globo and confirmed by the Sheet.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, a group of 50 activists protested outside the city hall on Wednesday, urging Biden not to make any deals with Bolsonaro during the summit.
“The Amazon and all ecosystems in Brazil have been attacked, which literally kills indigenous people,” said Leila Chicana, director of the NGO Amazon Watch. Some posters showed Bolsonaro amid flames, with phrases like “climate criminal” and “liar in the city”.
“We cannot normalize bilateral relations in a context where human rights have been systematically violated. Biden must hold Bolsonaro more widely to respect democratic norms, which he is not doing, and to respect the law,” Steven said. Donziger, an American lawyer who sued companies such as Chevron for environmental damage and participated in the Los Angeles protest.
In addition to the act, activists put two trucks with big screens to drive through the streets of the Californian city, with messages against Bolsonaro, accusing him of expanding the destruction of the Amazon and attacking democracy. The vehicles also displayed messages questioning the whereabouts of Philips and Pereira.
The pressures also come from the Democrats. Representative Jim McGovern took to social media to demand more effort in the search for the missing in the Amazon. “I ask the Brazilian government to intensify efforts to find respected journalist Dom Philips and indigenist Bruno Araújo Pereira.”
In a statement, Representatives Raul Grijalva and Susan Wild called on Biden to “send a strong message that efforts to sow distrust in the electoral system, intimidate voters and endorse violence are unacceptable.”
Appointed by Biden to occupy the position of US ambassador to Brazil, Elizabeth Bagley had already expressed the US government’s position on the Brazilian Saturday election in the Senate in May.
[O presidente Jair] Bolsonaro has said many things, but Brazil has been a democracy, it has democratic institutions, independent judiciary and legislature, freedom of expression. They have all the democratic institutions to hold free and fair elections,” he said at the time.
In addition to the meeting with Biden, Bolsonaro is expected to participate in the opening plenary of the summit and speak at another event on Friday. There were no plans for bilateral meetings with other presidents.
