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One foreign agenda, many problems along the way

When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returned for his third term as president, the people who voted for him had high hopes on one indispensable issue: the country’s return to a solid but balanced foreign policy agenda.

The widespread desire for a revamped foreign policy did not come from nowhere, as the four years under President Jair Bolsonaro, from 2019 to 2022, saw Brazil abandon its post as a regional aggregator and instead become an international pariah.

But now things are different. And for the first time, Lula wears the presidential sash in times of massive vigilance, not to mention the impact of very destructive social media. And although he is much more committed to a sober diplomacy, Lula has to watch out for the gaps. Especially when he’s the one creating some of them.

Lula had a clear mission: to rebuild Brazil’s relations with many countries that were kept in a winter of isolation by Mr. Bolsonaro’s Brazil, which includes restoring relations with South America’s crisis-ridden Venezuela and the controversial — to say the least — Nicolás Maduro, who has led the country since 2013. Last but not least, the leftist leader’s return comes as Western and Eastern agendas collide with the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Mr. Maduro is Venezuela’s head of state, even if several governments do not recognize him. Nevertheless, the evidence of human rights violations and political persecution require Lula to be more pragmatic with his neighbor, instead of denying problems in Venezuela, controversially blaming them on “narratives.”

And this need for pragmatism goes far beyond matters with Venezuela in the name of regional integration. A down-to-earth protagonist stance could bring Brazil some benefits in the eyes of the rest of the world, including powerhouses like the U.S. and China — which have their own interpretations regarding the Ukraine war, Venezuela, and everything else in between.