Sergio Amaral, who served as Brazil’s ambassador to London (1999-2001), Paris (2003-2005), and Washington (2016-2019), died on Thursday night. He was 79.
He died of a stroke, but Mr. Amaral had been hospitalized since April, battling prostate cancer.
Born in São Paulo in 1944, Mr. Amaral had a law degree from the University of São Paulo and a postgraduate degree in political science from the Sorbonne University in Paris. He was also an assistant professor of international relations at the University of Brasília.
As a diplomat, he mediated negotiations between Brazil and international creditors over the country’s foreign debt in 1994. At the time, Brazil was considered the largest debtor in the developing world. The deal reduced the country’s USD 49 billion foreign debt (USD 101 billion in today’s money, adjusted by the U.S. Consumer Price Index) and provided it with lower interest rates and new, longer-term loans.
At the time, Mr. Amaral called the deal with 750 commercial banks a “turning point in a tumultuous moment of Brazil’s international relations.” The New York Times reported that the Brazilian agreement “effectively [ended] the international debt crisis that began in 1982.”
During the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration (1995-2002), Mr. Amaral served as spokesman for the president and industry and trade minister. He was also appointed chairman of the boards of the Brazilian Chamber of Foreign Trade and the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES).
In the private sector, he chaired the Brazil-China Business Council and served on the boards of WWF Brazil, the French companies Total (now called TotalEnergies) and Plastic Omnium, and several other Brazilian firms.
During Mr. Amaral’s tenure as ambassador to Washington, Brazil and the U.S. signed a technology safeguards agreement (TSA) in 2019, which had been decades in the making.
The two countries accepted the terms of a TSA designed to facilitate the launch of American satellites on Brazilian soil — in particular, from the Alcântara Launch Center in northeastern Brazil.
“[Mr.] Amaral was far more than a diplomatic leader. He was a remarkable mentor whose wisdom and dedication shaped the paths of countless young leaders,” Bruna Santos, director of the Wilson Center’s Brazil Institute in Washington, tells The Brazilian Report.
“Today, his influence extends from Washington to Beijing, from Paris to far beyond, as the lessons he imparted live on in the work of those who were privileged to learn from him.”
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