São Paulo.- The Brazilian ambassador to Buenos Aires, Julio Bitelli, will remain “for now” in Brasilia, amid the diplomatic crisis opened with Argentina following the insults from President Javier Milei to his counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, official sources reported this Wednesday.
Bitelli met today with the Brazilian Foreign Minister, Mauro Vieira, after being recalled for consultations by Lula’s government as a form of protest against the insults that Milei launched against the progressive leader on Brazilian territory, a Brazilian diplomatic source indicated to EFE.
President Lula himself also participated in the meeting, according to local media.
This was the second hearing between Bitelli and Vieira, following a brief meeting last Monday, the same day he landed in the Brazilian capital from Buenos Aires.
“It was not a conclusive meeting. The ambassador will remain here for now until the consultations are finished,” the aforementioned source indicated.
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The origin of the tension between Lula and Milei
Brazil and Argentina are going through a serious diplomatic crisis after Milei’s participation in the proclamation ceremony of Flávio Bolsonaro as a presidential candidate for the October elections, in which Lula will seek his fourth non-consecutive term.
At the ceremony, the Argentine leader referred to Lula as a “convict” and a “thief,” in a fiery speech full of insults on Brazilian territory, in which he also accused him of “squandering” Brazil’s public money.
In the same act, Milei openly supported Flávio Bolsonaro as the only candidate capable of “stopping the socialist trash” at the polls.
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Milei also called Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the judge overseeing the trial that led to former President Jair Bolsonaro being sentenced to twenty-seven years in prison for a coup attempt, and who also prohibited him from visiting his “friend” under house arrest, “bald trash.”
The Argentine Foreign Minister’s response
In addition to the firm official condemnation, the Lula administration has taken diplomatic action. It recalled Bitelli for consultations and also summoned the Argentine ambassador in Brasilia, Daniel Raimondi.
The Milei Administration, for its part, has downplayed the episode, which it frames within the very marked “political and ideological differences” between both leaders.
“There is no chance that the relationship will be broken on our side. We are not taking it to the institutional level,” said the Argentine Foreign Minister, Pablo Quirno, today in an interview with the radio station Radio Mitre.
The head of Argentine diplomacy did not apologize and ratified that Milei “evidently supports the Bolsonaro family.”
