Vi o Mundo notes this comment on the expulsion of the American ambassador in Boliva by Brazil’s President da Silva, in an interview with TV Brasil.
The U.S. Dept. of State ought to as well.
We already pay them plenty of taxes to pay attention to things like this, but apparently they are spending all the money on Radio Hurra — “Madonna records and happy talk fake news programming will sow the seeds of peace and prosperity!” — and not really paying attention.
The President of Brazil boasts of calling the U.S. ambassador on the carpet, and says Morales should, too, if the U.S. ambassador was doing what Morales said he was doing. See also
TV Brasil: O Evo Morales acusa o governo dos Estados Unidos de interferir na vida interna na Bolívia, de estimular essa rebelião em Santa Cruz e em outras províncias da região. O Brasil tem boas relações com os Estados Unidos, o senhor inclusive tem excelente relação com o presidente Bush; o senhor chegou a conversar com as autoridades americanas ou com o Bush sobre esse problema na Bolívia?
TV Brasil: Morales accuses the U.S. government of meddling in the internal affairs of Bolivia, of stimulating this rebellion in Santa Cruz and other provinces in the region. Brazil has good relations with the U.S., and you are on excellent terms with Bush. Have you spoken to American officials or Bush about this Bolivian problem?
Lula: Eu conversei várias vezes com o Bush, até a pedido do Evo Morales para que os Estados Unidos aprovassem rapidamente as tarifas especiais para determinados produtos bolivianos e está para ser aprovada agora, mas como houve essa expulsão do embaixador eu penso que agora essas coisas podem ficar paralisadas. Se for verdade que o embaixador dos Estados Unidos fazia reunião com a oposição do Evo Morales, o Evo está correto de mandá-lo embora. O papel de embaixador não é fazer política dentro do país, não. Ele está como representante do seu país, numa relação de Estado com Estado, ele representa o Estado.
Lula da Silva: I spoke several times with Bush, including about Morales’ request that the U.S. speed up approval for special tariffs on certain Bolivian products, which is due to be approved soon, but now, with this expulsion of the ambassador, I think those things might come to a halt. If it is true that the U.S. ambassador was meeting with the opposition to Morales, then Morales was right to kick him out. It is definitely not an ambassador’s role to engage in politics inside the country. He is there representing his country, in a relationship between one state and another, he is representing the State.
Controversy rages here over the Ambassador’s agenda.
Aqui no Brasil, uma vez, uma embaixadora americana, em um jornal brasileiro, respondeu uma crítica que eu tinha feito ao Bush: eu mandei o Celso Amorim chamá-la e dizer que não era admissível ela dar palpite sobre a entrevista do presidente da República. E também não é de hoje, é famosa a interferência das embaixadas americanas em vários momentos da história do continente americano. Então, eu acho que houve um incidente diplomático, se o embaixador estava tendo ingerência na política lá, o Evo está correto.
Here in Brazil, a U.S. ambassador responded in a Brazilian newspaper once to a criticism I made of Bush, and I had my foreign minister call him in and tell him that it was unacceptable for him to react publicly to an interview with the President of Brazil. And this is not a new thing, the interference of American embassies at various moments in the history of the continent is infamous. So I think a diplomatic incident occurred, if the ambassador was meddling in politics there, then Evo is right.
Ouch. The President of Brazil has just (politely and diplomatically) endorsed telling the Yankee running dogs to go chase themselves.
Is being represented by people with this sort of reputation really good for your business venture here?
Susan “Mrs. International Republican Institute” Schwab’s behavior during the Costa Rican referendum on the bilateral free trade agreement was very similar to what the Brazilian president is describing here. And you wonder why Doha is bogged down? See also
- D’Oh Ha: Schwab’s Motormouth Diplomacy
- Costa Rica: Schwab Rewrites History
- “Sen. Brown Goes to Town on Schwab Job”
- Costa Rica: “FUD Mud Slung at Schwab Job”
- “Four Flavors of Fear”: Excerpts from the Casas Memo
American diplomacy has become identified with the radically anti-diplomatic style (“the rest of the world can go fuck itself!”) of John Bolton, Colin Powell’s “this is all bullshit!” PowerPoint presentation to the UN, and Condoleeza Rice’s “mushroom cloud” talking points campaign before the Iraq war.
Out here in the rest of the world, they think we gringos are psychotic, mendacious, and as crooked as Nigerian oil ministers.
And they are not just being paranoid, either.
It all began with “the drug-running, nun-raping Contras are the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers” and sort of snowballed from there. The Clinton years were not perceived as much different than the Reagan-Bush years, either.
You really have to hang out in a foreign country a while to feel the embarrassment of it.
Above, Lula thanks supporters on Orkut after his successful 2006 reelection bid.
Filed under: Brazil, Politics Tagged: | diplomacy, U.S. Department of State
