Brazil’s government on Tuesday announced it is reducing its diplomatic presence in Argentina after renewed attacks by Argentine President Javier Milei on his counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The move marks the first time in recent history that such a step has taken place between the two neighbors. The machinery of state is once again rearranging itself around the egos and alliances of presidents, while ordinary people are left to live with the fallout.
A spokesperson for Brazil’s foreign office said Milei has called Lula “a thief” three times since Sunday. The spokesperson said Milei used similar wording on July 25 at the party convention of Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, son of the former president who will be Lula’s rival in October’s election. Milei also accused Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes of being “trash” during the convention. The language is crude, but the power behind it is cleaner: leaders and courts trading blows while the public gets told this is diplomacy.
Who Has the Power
Brazil recalled its ambassador to Buenos Aires, Julio Bitelli, in July, a day after Milei’s first remarks against Lula. Since then, Brazil’s interests in Argentina have been represented by a chargé d’affaires, a lower-ranked position. Bitelli will not return to Argentina as long as Milei continues to make aggressive comments toward Lula, the spokesperson said. That’s the hierarchy in plain view. One government downgrades another, and the people caught between them don’t get a vote in the feud.
The Brazilian president has not commented on Milei’s remarks. The two have had a frosty relationship since the Argentine leader took office in December 2023. Milei is a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration is at odds with Lula. The alignment of presidents and their patrons keeps rolling on, while the rest of society is expected to absorb the consequences and call it normal.
What They Call Diplomacy
Earlier on Tuesday, the U.S. State Department revoked the visa of Brazil’s ambassador to Washington in retaliation for Brazil’s denial of visas last month for two American diplomats who sought to visit ahead of upcoming elections. The language of retaliation is doing a lot of work here. One state punishes another, and the public gets a front-row seat to the etiquette of power.
Lula was officially declared candidate for reelection Sunday at his Workers’ Party convention, where many voiced concerns of foreign interference in the country’s vote. That concern hangs over the whole affair. Elections are being staged under pressure from foreign governments, party machines, and the same institutions that keep narrowing the field of real choice.
Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, a conservative who will once again be Lula’s running mate, said the country’s electronic voting system was so effective that “it doesn’t accept any votes from Argentines and Americans,” in a reference to Milei and Trump. The line landed as a jab, but it also underlined the deeper problem: the vote is treated as a fortress to be defended by insiders, while the people outside the fortress are told to trust the apparatus.
The People at the Bottom
Brazil’s foreign office said Milei’s insults began with Lula and spread into a broader political spectacle at a party convention tied to Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro. De Moraes denied a request by the Argentine president to visit former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest serving a 27-year sentence for a coup attempt. Even here, the state’s own punishments and permissions set the terms. The powerful quarrel among themselves, and the public is left to watch the fallout from behind the barricades.
The result is a diplomatic downgrade, a visa retaliation, and another round of elite theater dressed up as national interest. The names change. The structure doesn’t.