Exclusive – Brazil off the US short List

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visit Guyana President Dr Irfaan Ali, on 27MAR2025 @presidentaligy

Edgar C. Otálvora
Special for DefesaNet
23 April 2025

DefesaNet Note

Texts in:

Spanish – Exclusivo – Brasil fuera de la short list de EEUU

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in the Donald Trump administration, likes to say that “the United States wants to be a friend to our friends.” The US government seems not to see Brazil as a friend, and perhaps that is why Brazil is not on the list of priorities for US diplomacy.

In an interview conducted by Donald Trump Jr. with Rubio on 08APR2025, the first Latino to serve as Secretary of State stated that “for a long time, if you were a US or pro-US ally in the region, we ignored them and, in some cases, even treated them badly. But if it was a nuisance, like Nicaragua, Cuba, or Venezuela, we made all these deals with them to keep them happy. So we made deals with those who hated us, and we either neglected or, sometimes, were openly hostile to the pro-US countries.”

The truth is that Brazil, to date, does not appear in public references to the Trump administration’s foreign policy efforts, beyond the global issue of the tariff war launched by Trump.

During his career as a senator from Florida, Rubio maintained confrontational positions against the continental left, including Lula da Silva, which began to be reflected in the position of the State Department. On 26FEB2025, the State Department’s Western Hemisphere office’s X account, now under Rubio’s leadership, made it known that it was closely monitoring and criticizing the censorship and media persecution carried out by the Brazilian judiciary.

“Respect for sovereignty is a two-way street with U.S. partners, including Brazil. Blocking access to information and imposing fines on U.S.-based companies for refusing to censor U.S. individuals is incompatible with democratic values,” the State Department stated, in what is perhaps the Trump administration’s only political reference to Brazil, in this case regarding the suspension of the Rumble website by Brazil’s highest court.

Brazil not on Contacts lists

Donald Trump has only received Salvadoran Nayib Bukele at the White House, met informally with Javier Milei in Florida and Maryland, and held telephone conversations with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

According to publicly available information from the State Department, Secretary Rubio and Under Secretary Christopher Landau have held in-person meetings in Washington or abroad and/or telephone conversations with leaders and senior officials from Argentina, Barbados, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guyana, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Panama, Suriname, the Dominican Republic, and Trinidad & Tobago. Rubio has already made two trips to Latin America, with stops in El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Guyana, Jamaica, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Suriname, two of which border Brazil. Additionally, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem made a trip that included El Salvador, Colombia, and Mexico. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visited Panama. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent visited Buenos Aires the day Trump received Bukele at the White House. And Richard Grenell, the President’s Special Envoy for Special Missions, met with Nicolás Maduro.

US Assures It Is Meeting with Brazilian Authorithies

When the State Department consulted about Secretary Rubio’s or Undersecretary Landau’s contacts with senior Brazilian officials, they initially suggested a review of the officials’ public agendas. A statement attributable to a State Department spokesperson, received on 14APR2025 for this report, stated that “senior U.S. government officials from the interagency have met with their Brazilian counterparts since President Trump took office.” In an “off-the-record” statement, the spokesperson stated that the Department “allows other federal agencies to speak on their own behalf regarding their meetings with the Brazilian government.” There was no additional information about the actors or topics involved in these meetings, which, in any case, were between lower-level officials. When contacted for this report, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ press office offered a generic, almost dismissive response on April 15, 2025: “The contacts between Minister Mauro Vieira and US authorities are public and recorded in the calendar available on Itamaraty’s website and on the Ministry’s social media.”

When asked about this report, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave a generic, almost dismissive response on 15APR2025: “The contacts between Minister Mauro Vieira and US authorities are public and recorded in the calendar available on Itamaraty’s website and on the Ministry’s social media.”

The page to which Itamaraty’s press office referred only refers to one telephone conversation between Mauro Vieira and a senior US official: US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, with whom the minister spoke on 02APR2025. Four days after Vieira’s conversation with Greer, a teleconference took place between Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. The imposition of tariffs on Brazilian products appears to be, for now, the “big issue” in the limited relations between the US and Brazil. The negotiations have been directly handled by Alckmin, who on March 14, 2025, led the first of a series of meetings between teams from both governments in Brasilia. Alckmin, in addition to his presidential position, also serves as Minister of Development, Industry, Commerce, and Services.

Minister Vieira appears to have little interest in rapprochement with the US government. In fact, he preferred to travel to Cape Verde instead of attending the extraordinary General Assembly held by the OAS in Washington on 10MAR2025 to vote for the organization’s new Secretary General. The Brazilian Foreign Ministry, like the other Mercosur ministries, is awaiting Milei’s efforts with the US, confident that an Argentina with friends in Washington will act as an umbrella in the face of the tariff war. In fact, on14APR2015, Milei boasted of having achieved a tariff reduction of only 10% for his country and its Mercosur partners, rather than the 35% he claimed would be appropriate, applying the calculation “table” used by the Trump administration.

During Joe Biden’s administration, US relations with Brazil, governed by Jair Bolsonaro, were very low-intensity. Jair Bolsonaro’s difficulties in generating a narrative distinct from his Trumpist militancy with the US affected relations with a White House that also had no particular liking for the Brazilian president. Now, with a leftist government in Brasilia and a MAGA-leaning White House, it seems that Brazil will continue to be off the US’s list of diplomatic priorities.

President Lula’s International Advisor, former Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, considered by many to be the “de facto” Foreign Minister, told the newspaper O Globo on 17 April 2025:

“China now has resources available for investment abroad that the United States does not. It is a pragmatic issue. China now offers Brazil more opportunities and less risk“ (Text in Portuguese)

Relevant Facts

A major event that should attract Washington’s attention will be President Lula da Silva’s visit to the 80th anniversary Victory Day Parade in Moscow, Russia, 09MAY2025, and later on 12-13MAY, 2025, to Beijing for a meeting between representatives of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Another relevant event is the military exercise scheduled to take place between September and October of this year in the Amazon region (Amazon Military Command – CMA). Operation Atlas will focus mainly on the region of the state of Roraima, which borders Venezuela and Guyana. It will also include the disputed Esequibo area in Venezuela.

Operation Atlas will employ approximately 8,000 military personnel from the three Armed Forces and will take place before the COP30 environmental meeting scheduled to take place in the city of Belém do Pará in November of this year.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Guyana President Dr Irfaan Ali, on 27MAR2025, in the back the map wit contested by Venezuela the Esequibo region.

Clear message in the X post by President Dr Irfaan to Mr Maduro: “Our discussions focused on strengthening cooperation in energy security, trade, investment, human capital development, regional stability, and reinforcing the enduring partnership between our nations.”

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