U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday condemned the attack by pro-Bolsonaro radicals on government institutions in Brazil’s capital, and said the new U.S. ambassador to the country, Elizabeth Bagley, is ready to work with the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva administration.
“This was an obvious and clear attack on a democratic process and we condemn it,” Ms. Harris said after swearing in Ms. Bagley as ambassador to Brazil. “I am very confident in her ability to represent the U.S. and to extend to President Lula all that we mean in terms of the work we will do together as allies,” she added.
Ms. Bagley — a long-standing fundraiser and supporter of the Democratic Party — was confirmed last month by the Senate to be the new U.S. ambassador to Brazil, after a protracted discussion.
The U.S. Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations split 11-11 last year on a vote on her nomination. She began to face fierce opposition from the Republican Jewish Coalition after remarks made in a 1998 interview resurfaced. Ms. Bagley spoke about the “major money” and influence of the “Jewish lobby” in politics.
Ms. Bagley, aged 70, has served as a diplomat under three presidents, starting with the Jimmy Carter administration. She also served as a senior advisor in the U.S. State Department under Secretaries John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and Madeleine Albright, and worked as a special representative to the UN General Assembly, special representative for global partnerships, and U.S. ambassador to Portugal.
She is the owner and a board member of Cellular One, a mobile communications provider founded by her late husband, Smith Walker Bagley (1935-2010), and based in Arizona.
Ms. Bagley is the first non-career diplomat to be nominated U.S. ambassador to Brazil since 2006, when George W. Bush nominated business executive Clifford Sobel to head the embassy in Brasília. From 2009 to 2021, the embassy was led by four consecutive career diplomats. As a rule in U.S. diplomacy, political appointees are given the most prestigious embassies, notably in rich countries, while career diplomats lead almost all posts in Africa.
The U.S. Embassy in Brazil has still not said when Ms. Bagley will arrive in the country.
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