Brazil’s new ambassadors non-committal on Venezuela-Guyana tensions

The Senate this week approved the nominations of Brazil’s new ambassadors to Guyana and Venezuela, two countries where border tensions have reached boiling point.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva chose two career diplomats for the posts: Maria Cristina de Castro Martins was nominated in late October to head the embassy in Guyana, while Glivânia Maria de Oliveira was nominated in late November for the position in Caracas. Their names were submitted to the Senate only after they received letters of acceptance from the host countries.

Under former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil closed its embassy in Venezuela in early 2020. At the time, a coalition of mostly South American countries known as the Lima Group recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s new president and led an effort to bring him to power. 

The Bolsonaro administration also expelled representatives of the Nicolás Maduro regime and, for a time, recognized Mr. Guaidó’s appointee, Maria Teresa Belandria, as Venezuela’s legitimate ambassador to the country.

The campaign for regime change failed, Mr. Maduro has remained in power, and countries in the region have begun to normalize relations with Venezuela. 

Even the U.S. announced a temporary lifting of Donald Trump-era economic sanctions on Venezuela’s oil, gas, and gold sectors — following an electoral agreement reached in October between the government of Mr. Maduro and representatives of the opposition.

At the time of the electoral agreement, the Venezuelan government had already decided to hold a referendum on its claim to Essequibo, an oil-rich region that makes up two-thirds of the territory...