Summit of the Americas: The event picks up the pace with a hostile Biden-Bolsonaro encounter

the American president, Joe Bidenwill meet this Thursday for the first time with the Brazilian colleague, Jair Bolsonaroin a meeting preceded by strong tensions and controversies.

The head of the White House will have a bilateral meeting with the leader of Brazil as part of the Summit of the Americas, the continental meeting that takes place in Los Angeles and which brings together most of the leaders of the region, with some sensational absences such as Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua (uninvited) and Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Bolivia and some Caribbean, who did not travel because they criticized the exclusions.

The meeting was organized during a visit by Biden’s envoy to the Summit, a former senator Christopher Dodd, who traveled to Brasilia weeks ago to try to persuade Bolsonaro to go to Los Angeles.

The Brazilian leader was reluctant to attend the leaders’ meeting because does not have a good relationship with Biden and, moreover, he claimed to have been involved in the presidential election campaign that pits him against Lula.

Bolsonaro arrives this Thursday to meet the American and participate in the last stretch of the summit ending Friday. The White House did not disclose what time the meeting would take place, but it is estimated that it would be tomorrow morning.

This Thursday will be the first meeting between the leaders since Biden took office in January 2021 and he will try to smooth out the tension between the two.

Trump fan

Bolsonaro, a great admirer and ally of former President Donald Trumphe was one of the last heads of state in the world to acknowledge Biden’s victory in the last election, in which Trump was defeated despite the unsubstantiated claims of the electoral fraud tycoon.

Furthermore, he criticized the Biden government, which put the fight against climate change at the top of its agenda Amazonian deforestation policy. Brazil concentrates much of the Amazonian territory and Bolsonaro is in favor of the commercial exploitation of that lung of the planet, a position criticized by environmentalists and the White House.

Before leaving for Los Angeles, Bolsonaro lit the fire further. In an interview on Tuesday he said that ties between Brasilia and Washington have suffered a kind of “freeze” ever since Biden reached the White House, and covertly reiterated that there may have been some irregularities in the US election.

The US embassy in Brasilia reacted immediately and issued a statement that seemed to refute Bolsonaro: “Elections are the most visible expression of a democracy and the United States is proud of the long history of free, fair and reliable elections, which go through a And withstand the challenge of time“, they stated.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Biden and Bolsonaro will speak at the meeting about “open, transparent and democratic elections” and also about the environment.

US officials who recently traveled to Brazil expressed reservations about Bolsonaro’s interrogation of the electronic ballot boxes and statements about the risk of fraud in the Brazilian elections next October.

Sullivan said the presidents’ agenda it will be wide but he did not say whether the disappearance in the Amazon of the British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian environmentalist Bruno Araújo Pereira will be analyzed.

Environmentalists, journalists, politicians and members of civil society have expressed dismay at this disappearance and are lobbying the Brazilian government to increasing efforts to find them.

Beyond this bilateral, Biden plans to open the discussion sessions of the Summit plenary, where the Heads of State and Government will discuss the text of a possible closing statement.

At the end of the day, Biden and his wife Jill will host a welcome dinner for all leaders.

Los Angeles, special correspondent

Paula Lugones is a Washington correspondent

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