The ambassador of Brazil in Washington, Nestor Forster, has been betting on getting closer to governments and state entities in the United States, in a strategy to improve dialogue and deflect the pressure that Brazil has suffered in the American Congress. Several parliamentarians have strongly criticized President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and called for a cooling off in the relationship between the two countries.
In the final months of 2021, Forster made at least four trips. The diplomat alternated between trips to states ruled by Democrats (such as Connecticut and North Carolina) with areas under Republican rule (such as South Carolina and Georgia), but it is in the latter that he has obtained more results.
In South Carolina, for example, the ambassador signed a memorandum of understanding to expand trade and investment exchange between the state and Brazil, at the end of October – in 2020, negotiations between the two moved US$ 910 million. It was the first term of its kind ever closed with a US subnational entity. “We will continue to work together on trade and investment and strengthen our partnership,” Republican Governor Henry McMaster said as he signed the document.
Critic of President Joe Biden, McMaster has been fighting mandatory vaccination mandates imposed by the White House to control the coronavirus pandemic. South Carolina was one of the states that sued the federal government and managed to stop the demand in court.
“We are shocked by the excesses of the Biden administration. I have never seen a president act beyond the law like this. No South Carolina resident should have to choose between his job and a Covid-19 vaccine,” the governor said in November. . He also signed an ordinance to ban state agencies from requiring employees to vaccinate.
The Republican still stands as a defender of conservative agendas. He publicly called on the state’s superintendent of education to investigate allegations of “obscene snippets” in public school libraries; as an example, he cited complaints from parents about the book “Gender Queer: A Memoir”, by Maia Kobabe, a comic book about gender transition. He also advocates that the Supreme Court revoke the right to abortion.
In neighboring Georgia, whose government also sued the White House to suspend vaccine requirements, Forster met with representatives from the state Departments of Agriculture and Development in early November.
Pat Wilson, commissioner of the Department of Economic Development, told leaf have been honored by the ambassador’s visit. According to him, the state’s relationship with Brazil goes back a long time, as Georgia has had an office in São Paulo for 25 years. “A large number of Brazilian companies employ thousands of Georgians. Taurus Business [fabricante de armas], from Guidoni [de extração de rochas ornamentais] and Embraer [aviação] have become an important part of our community,” he said.
In states under Democratic command, such as North Carolina and Connecticut, the ambassador’s agenda focused on visits to factories – such as Gerdau’s –, universities and local research centers. “Like Brazil, the US is a complex country, with great regional diversity, and it is important that the embassy seeks to expand its presence with local communities,” said Forster.
The visits are part of a plan to expand Brazil’s dialogue with American states and seek more partners outside Washington. The determination was encouraged by Bolsonaro, who before the pandemic also made visits to the US in cities far from the capital.
The president was in Florida in 2020 and a year earlier he went to Texas — on this last trip, to receive an award that would initially be given in New York, but had the ceremony changed after public pressure from Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio, so that Bolsonaro did not went to the city. The movements also sought to reinforce alignment with former President Donald Trump; The Brazilian campaigned openly for the reelection of the Republican, who ended up defeated by Biden in November 2020.
For Fernanda Magnotta, a researcher at Cebri (Brazilian Center for International Relations), this performance by Forster may be part of a new global scenario, in which local leaders expand their international presence, and also a response to recent actions by Brazilian governors. “They took the lead in importing vaccines and seeking to take a leading role in agendas such as the environment. In Glasgow [na COP26], there was the Brazilian delegation and representatives of the states, often dissonant”, he evaluates.
Embassy officials also hope that the state trips will help strengthen relations with US lawmakers in Congress. Forster had recent meetings with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Democratic Representative Bill Keatind of Massachusetts.
The Brazilian government has been the target of strong criticism in the US Congress. Since September, Democrats from Capitol Hill have sent at least three letters to the Biden administration, calling for a detachment in the relationship between the two countries. In the most recent one, in early December, eight Democratic senators called for a diplomatic “reset” and accused Bolsonaro of being responsible for the rise in deforestation in Brazil and for threatening democracy in the country.
as showed the leaf, the texts are inserted in a context of pressure made by activists and progressive groups of the American president’s party.
The ambassador responded to critics of the Brazilian government, also with letters, in which he defended Bolsonaro’s actions and even said that American lawmakers were misinformed.
.
