Updated on August 5 at 11:45 a.m.
The Brazilian government has decided to downgrade diplomatic relations with Argentina, meaning neither country will be represented by an ambassador. Instead, the highest-ranking diplomatic representative in each country will now be the chargé d’affaires.
On Tuesday, Brazil permanently recalled its ambassador to Argentina, Julio Bitelli, and requested that Argentina’s ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Raimondi, return to Buenos Aires.
The decision comes in response to Argentine President Javier Milei’s insults directed at his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, first at an event organized by Brazil’s Libertarian Party in São Paulo in late July and again this week in a series of interviews.
Milei called Lula a “thief,” “corrupt” and a “convict.”
After the announcement, Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno said that “there will not be any diplomatic action in response to what Brazil does” from the Milei administration.
“It takes two for an argument. Don’t count on Argentina for that. We will continue to maintain relationships at the level Brazil decides,” Quirno affirmed during a press conference on Wednesday morning.
The previous evening, Argentina’s Foreign Ministry announced Ambassador Raimondi had been summoned earlier that day to a meeting with Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira.
During the meeting, Vieira informed Raimondi that Brazil had decided to “reduce the level of bilateral diplomatic representation to that of chargés d’affaires and to request his return to the Argentine Republic,” according to the ministry’s statement.
His Brazilian counterpart, Bitelli, is already in Brasília after being recalled on July 26, one day after Milei’s remarks at an event in São Paulo to launch far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro’s presidential campaign.
This latest decision means he will remain in Brazil indefinitely.
Since being recalled for consultations, Bitelli has met with Vieira three times to discuss the state of bilateral relations. Their most recent meeting took place on Friday.
Argentina criticizes Brazil’s decision
After Brazil’s announcement, Argentina’s Foreign Ministry said its neighbor had “unilaterally” decided to downgrade diplomatic relations and said it “regretted” what it described as Brazil’s “decision to continue isolating itself from the rest of the region for purely ideological reasons.”
The ministry added that despite public statements and comments exchanged by the two countries’ leaders in recent years, “in all such cases, without exception, Argentina chose not to turn them into diplomatic incidents.”
It also said the Milei administration had “never responded to a political difference with an institutional measure.”
On Wednesday, Quirno said that Argentina “had never decided to affect the diplomatic relationship between the two countries” despite the differences between the administrations and previous criticisms made by Lula against Milei.
He also questioned Brazil’s decision, back in January, to stop acting as Argentina’s consular representation in Venezuela, a country that severed diplomatic ties with Buenos Aires in 2024. Quirno said this happened “at a time in which there were Argentine citizens at risk” in Caracas.
In response to accusations by Lula’s Partido Dos Trabalhadores party and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin stating Milei had interfered in Brazil’s election during his visit in support of Flávio Bolsonaro’s candidacy, Quirno said that Da Silva’s previous visit to ex-Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, last year, before Argentina’s legislative race, while she was in house arrest, “could also be interpreted as interfering in an electoral process, and still no diplomatic action was taken.”
“The Argentine Republic reaffirms that relations between states must serve the enduring interests of their peoples and not be subject to the political and/or personal needs of those currently in power,” the ministry’s statement said.
“Argentine foreign policy will continue to be guided exclusively by the defense of the national interest, sovereignty, and the mandate conferred by the Argentine people.”
Milei’s insults
After Milei’s insults in São Paulo, officials from that country told local media they would consider sending Bitelli back to Buenos Aires depending on how relations between the two countries evolved.
Instead of apologizing or softening his rhetoric, however, Milei doubled down, once again calling Lula a “thief” and “corrupt,” while defending his earlier remarks. He also said his Brazilian counterpart had been freed from jail on a technicality, and “not because he’s innocent.”
Milei has repeatedly targeted Lula in the past, describing him as a “communist,” among other insults. However, this was the first time he made such remarks while on Brazilian soil.
The comments came during an event at which the Libertarian Party announced far-right politician Flávio Bolsonaro’s presidential candidacy. The son of former President Jair Bolsonaro is set to face Lula in Brazil’s October 4 presidential election.
