The U.S. Urges Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro to Defend Democracy in Meeting with Putin

After Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro disregarded a U.S. request to call off his upcoming meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the Biden administration still hopes the right-wing South American leader takes the opportunity to defend “democratic principles” in Moscow.

Brazilian media reported that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked the Brazilian government to cancel the president’s trip out of concern for the message it would send when the international community is focused on defusing the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. A defiant Bolsonaro defended his travel plans, saying Brazil is a sovereign country and that he wanted to discuss trade and defense cooperation with Putin…

“I think it’s a setback to have Latin American leaders going to Moscow in the run-up to a potential war; it’s exactly the wrong signal,” said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Washington-based Council of the Americas.

Farnworth, a former State Department diplomat, said that Bolsonaro’s refusal to cancel the trip also opens up questions about consequences.

“The question that Washington has to ask is, if we have made a request that’s ignored, what are we prepared to do to try to ensure that future requests are not ignored?” he said. “I do think that it’s time to engage over time, to re-engage because it’s not helpful to the international community to go over and land at least rhetorical support to a dictator who’s threatening his neighbors.”…

To Farnsworth, the Biden administration still has some fundamental questions to answer.

“At the end of the Cold War, the U.S. had a huge amount of influence, and naturally that was going to be reduced over time, just as other countries found a stronger voice,” he said. “But I guess the question I would add is, how much influence have we actually tried to use in the Western Hemisphere? What are we trying to accomplish?”

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