The meeting between Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and Joe Biden scheduled this Thursday (9), in the United States, should bring face to face the Brazilian and American leaders with the greatest ideological differences since Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT, 2003- 2011) and George W. Bush (2001-2009), who last met in 2008.
Bolsonaro and Biden will meet on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas, in Los Angeles, amid a troubled diplomatic relationship, shaken by suspicions raised by the Brazilian of the American electoral system and demands made by Washington over deforestation in the Amazon.
Bolsonaro only agreed to travel to the US after hearing from former senator Christopher Dodd that Biden would not create constraints for his government during the event. But this Wednesday (8), National Security adviser Jake Sullivan cast doubt on this version by saying that the American leader would also speak about thorny issues for Brazilians, including environmental and electoral issues.
Until recently, however, the relationship between the leaders of Brazil and the US was quite different. Two years ago Bolsonaro was received with pomp by then-President Donald Trump at a Republican resort near Miami, Florida. At the time, the American even said that the Brazilian did a “fantastic job” and that the relationship between the two countries had never been so good.
Bolsonaro has never hidden being a fan of Trump and has already endorsed the fanciful speech of suspected fraud in the American election, even without proof. The Brazilian also pointed out as a trump card more than once the fact that both are right wing.
With Trump in the presidency, Brazil and the USA signed a series of cooperation measures, including the signing of an agreement to launch satellites and rockets at the Alcântara base, in Maranhão, the release to American tourists to enter Brazil without the requirement of visa and the designation of Brazil as a non-NATO ally.
In addition to Bolsonaro, Trump received, in 2017, Michel Temer (MDB, 2016-2019). The Brazilian sought a rapprochement between Itamaraty and the White House, after the shudder caused by the leak of confidential documents that showed that Dilma Rousseff (PT, 2011-2016), ministers and advisers of the PT were wiretapped and spied on by a US intelligence agency. .
In the only meeting between Temer and the republican, the Brazilian said that there was “coincidence of positions” on Venezuela’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro. “I myself reported that I received the [oposicionista venezuelano] Leopoldo López, I have kept the most varied contacts to reveal Brazil’s position in relation to Venezuela, something that didn’t happen before, right?”, he said, at the time.
Temer was referring to the somewhat troubled relationship between Dilma and Democrat Barack Obama (2009-2017). Even before the spying scandal, governments had quarrels when, in 2012, the PT advocated that Cuba be invited to the Summit of the Americas that would take place in Colombia. Just like this year, the US vetoed Havana’s participation.
Obama also had an up-and-down relationship with Lula. The Democrat welcomed the Brazilian to the White House in his first year in office.
That same year the PT would be called “the guy” by the American during the G20 meeting. But the following year, the relationship soured after the US vetoed a nuclear fuel swap deal with Iran that was brokered by Brazil and Turkey. In an interview with Sheet in 2015, former chancellor Celso Amorim said that PT felt betrayed by Obama due to the retreat in the pact, which the Democrat encouraged to be negotiated, and that Bush was more direct and frank.
Although they were on opposing ideological spectrums, Lula and Bush maintained a friendly relationship. The two became so close that PT became, in 2007, the first Latino president in the Republican administration to visit Camp David, the country house of the US Presidency normally reserved for meetings with important allies.
Bush also met in person with Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2003), but the general relationship was colder.
Presidents of Brazil and the USA have also staged historic meetings. In 1943, Getúlio Vargas (1930-1945 and 1951-1954) and Franklin Roosevelt (1933-1945) met in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, and reached an agreement for Brazilian entry into World War II (1939-1945) . João Goulart (1961-1964), in turn, greeted John Kennedy at the White House in April 1962, about 18 months before the American was assassinated.
