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.