Argentina won’t retaliate after Brazil downgrades diplomatic ties

Argentina says it will not retaliate after Brazil downgraded diplomatic ties over a new round of attacks by President Javier Milei against Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno said on Wednesday that Buenos Aires would not respond with diplomatic measures after Brazil announced it would handle relations through a charge d’affaires instead of a full ambassador.

Brazil made the move after Milei once again called Lula “a thief”, “corrupt” and an “ex-convict” in a television interview on Sunday.

“He’s been in prison, so it’s true that we can call him a convict,” Milei said.

Lula, who previously served as Brazil’s president from 2003 to 2010, spent 580 days in prison after being convicted in the sprawling Operation Car Wash corruption investigation in 2018. But that conviction was overturned on procedural grounds, and the judge who oversaw the case was subsequently found to have acted with bias, paving the way for Lula’s return to the presidency in 2023.

Brazil’s ambassador, Julio Bitelli, will not return to Buenos Aires, marking the lowest point in relations between the neighbouring countries since the Argentinian leader took office. The presidents have not held an official bilateral meeting during Milei’s presidency, which also began in 2023.

The dispute is unfolding less than two months before Brazil’s presidential election, in which Lula is seeking a fourth term against Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. Milei has thrown his support behind the Bolsonaro family, appearing at the launch of Flavio Bolsonaro’s campaign last month and using the event to criticise Lula and a Brazilian Supreme Court justice.

Lula has seized on the growing tensions to cast himself as the defender of Brazil’s sovereignty.

“We cannot accept interference,” he said in an interview on Wednesday, adding that Brazil “will also confront anyone from the outside who seeks to interfere in our electoral process”. He also defended his government’s decision to downgrade ties with Argentina, saying Brazil expects “to be treated with respect”.

The spat with Argentina comes as Brazil is also locked in a separate diplomatic dispute with the United States.

Washington this week revoked the visa of Brazil’s ambassador after Brasilia declined to approve the appointment of Daniel Perez, a prominent Florida Republican, as the US ambassador to Brazil.

Lula called the appointment “irresponsible and ill-advised”, saying Washington had taken too long to appoint someone and, with elections coming up, he wasn’t receiving new ambassadors.

“The United States doesn’t attach importance to the embassy in Brazil. [President Donald] Trump has been in office for a year and a half, yet he hasn’t sent an ambassador here. So they try to send one and think we are obligated to accommodate them on the date they want?” he said.

“That isn’t right, nor is it feasible. We want to be treated with respect.”

Lula also defended Brazil’s earlier refusal to grant visas to two Trump administration officials who had planned to visit the country to discuss what Washington described as election integrity. Lula accused them of trying to “meddle in, monitor, and investigate Brazil’s voting machines”.

Trump has been a critic of Lula and a prominent supporter of Jair Bolsonaro. Both he and Trump have made claims of rigged elections causing their election defeats.

The diplomatic standoff comes as foreign interference has become a central theme of Lula’s re-election campaign with his government accusing Milei and allies of the Bolsonaro family of trying to undermine confidence in Brazil’s electoral system.