Brazilian Embassy in Washington lays empty for the longest time since 1925

In his first year in office, President Jair Bolsonaro’s foreign policy was marked by a near unwavering alignment with the U.S. The northern ally was so important to the president that at one point he wanted to appoint his son, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, as Brazil’s ambassador to Washington.

The move backfired, and President Bolsonaro never went ahead with nominating his son, settling instead for current chargé d’affaires Nestor Forster Jr.

Mr. Forster, however, won’t officially take office until March 2020. His confirmation hearing before the Senate’s Foreign Affairs Committee is only likely to happen at the end of February. If approved by the committee, he’d still have to face a Senate floor vote before being officially confirmed.

By that point, the post of Brazilian Ambassador to Washington will have lain vacant for at least 266 days.

This will be the longest vacancy period in the most-coveted post of Brazilian diplomacy since 1925. Back then, President Artur Bernardes nominated Sylvino Gurgel do Amaral, who took office on June 19, putting an end to a 471-day streak without a Brazilian ambassador in the U.S.

Last week, Senator Nelsinho Trad, president of the Foreign Affairs Committee, took the rapporteurship of Mr. Forster’s nomination. “We have 15 days to present a report on the nomination and then we...