Brazil’s Foreign Minister is more Bolsonarista than the president himself

</p> <p>Atop the search results was Mr. Araújo&#8217;s personal blog, <a href="https://www.metapoliticabrasil.com/">Metapolítica 17</a>, by way of which the new foreign minister aimed to show people exactly who he was. On the blog&#8217;s About page, Mr. Araújo laid out his <em>raison d&#8217;être</em> in direct and cutting terms:</p> <p>&#8220;I&#8217;m Ernesto Araújo. I have worked for 28 years in public service and I am also a writer. I want Brazil and the world to be free from globalist ideology.&#8221;</p> <h2>The Anti-Globalist Foreign Minister</h2> <p>According to Mr. Araújo&#8217;s writings and public statements, &#8220;globalism&#8221; is the root of all society&#8217;s ills. Framed as a left-wing plot, it is propagated by what he calls &#8220;cultural Marxism,&#8221; an antisemitic right-wing conspiracy echoed by figures such as Canadian psychology professor Jordan Peterson and Norwegian mass shooter Anders Breivik.</p> <p>Days before being officially appointed, in October, Mr. Araújo wrote a post on his blog entitled <a href="https://www.metapoliticabrasil.com/post/eu-vim-de-gra%C3%A7a">“I came for free,&#8221;</a> which reads more like a job application for the Bolsonaro government than any coherent critique. The essay had everything a future cabinet member in the far-right administration would need, calling the center-left Workers&#8217; Party a “Totalitarian Project” that &#8220;hates human beings,&#8221; criticizing them for criminalizing God, people’s faith, patriotism, and WhatsApp Messenger.&nbsp;</p> <p>Once in government, he transplanted his far-right crusade against cultural Marxism into Brazil&#8217;s Foreign Affairs Ministry, <a href="https://brazilian.report/coronavirus-brazil-live-blog/2020/05/20/foreign-affairs-ministry-criticizes-mention-of-sexual-services-in-who-resolution/">isolating the country</a> on the international stage.</p> <p>While his personal blog was left largely untouched after taking office, he recently found time during the Covid-19 pandemic to post a <a href="https://www.metapoliticabrasil.com/post/chegou-o-comunav%C3%ADrus">2,800-word screed</a> on Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek&#8217;s latest book on the coronavirus. Referring to Sars-CoV-2 as the &#8220;commie virus,&#8221; he likened social isolation measures to Nazi Germany concentration camps, drawing rage from <a href="https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/mundo/2020/04/liderancas-judaicas-exigem-desculpas-de-ernesto-por-analogia-com-campos-de-concentracao.shtml">Jewish organizations around the world</a>.&nbsp;</p> <div id="buzzsprout-player-1766182"></div> <script src="https://www.buzzsprout.com/299876/1766182-79-bolsonaro-flips-off-the-world.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-1766182&#038;player=small" type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"></script> <hr class="wp-block-separator"/> <h2>A far-right metamorphosis</h2> <p>Mr. Araújo’s personal blog is the best source to understand his view on foreign policy, but it does not accurately represent the opinions he held over the majority of the diplomat&#8217;s career.&nbsp;</p> <p>Unlike his predecessors at the head of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mr. Araújo did not enter the job as a prestigious academic or former ambassador. Instead, he only became a first-class diplomat in 2018, when holding the title of the United States, Canada, and Inter-American Affairs (DECIN) director.&nbsp;</p> <p>Previous incarnations of Ernesto Araújo&#8217;s foreign policy stances differ greatly from the radical conservative antagonism he exudes today. In a 2007 article, entitled “<a href="http://funag.gov.br/loja/download/0080-O_Mercosul_negociacoes_extra_regionais.pdf">Mercosur &#8211; extra-regional negotiations</a>,” no such anti-leftist crusade can be seen. In fact, he is largely even-handed toward the government of then-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, noting what he calls the &#8220;openly critical line of the private sector&#8221; toward Lula&#8217;s foreign policy.</p> <h2>Ernesto Araújo by his peers</h2> <p>On May 8, a number of former Foreign Affairs Ministers and ex-President Fernando Henrique Cardoso co-signed an article printed in Brazil&#8217;s major newspapers, criticizing the country&#8217;s foreign policy, without a single mention of Ernesto Araújo&#8217;s name.</p> <p>On Twitter, Mr. Araújo hit back at the article, calling the distinguished authors &#8220;the paladins of hypocrisy.&#8221;</p> <p>Among the authors was Rubens Ricupero, former Finance Minister and ex-Ambassador in Washington D.C. <strong>The Brazilian Report </strong>spoke to Mr. Ricupero about the current situation at the Foreign Affairs Ministry. You can read the main takes of this interview below:</p> <p><strong>Ernesto Araújo and the Covid-19 pandemic</strong></p> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p><em>“In his blogs and articles, he is a person who has a very distorted perception of international reality. To start and be successful, any policy requires a correct version of reality. In the case of foreign policy, this also includes the international reality, in addition to that of the country itself. </em></p><p><em>And the truth is that Ernesto Araújo joins a wing of thought that has a very strange and eccentric view of that international reality. In a situation, as we have now, for example, where everyone understands the threat of the pandemic, Mr. Araújo sees it as a kind of conspiracy. Calling it the &#8220;commie virus&#8221; is a conspiratorial view of history.”</em></p></blockquote> <p><strong>Olavo de Carvalho and global warming denialism</strong></p> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p><em>“His view is similar to that of [Jair Bolsonaro’s ideological guru] Olavo de Carvalho. Mr. Araújo behaves as if the current scenario is a campaign to exterminate what they call Judeo-Christian traditions and values. He also threatens multilateralism with his conspiratorial message. When Mr. Araújo talks about the United Nations, he accuses the organization of attacking those values.</em></p><p><em>According to his opinions, gender-related issues — such as sexual diversity and abortion, for example — are powered by ‘hidden forces.’ This also happens when he talks about climate change. [In 2019, </em><a href="https://epoca.globo.com/guilherme-amado/ernesto-araujo-nega-aquecimento-global-fui-roma-em-maio-havia-uma-onda-de-frio-23851347"><em>Mr. Araújo denied the existence of global warming</em></a><em>]. The vision is not shared by anyone who has any serious position — not in academia, not among intellectuals, not in diplomacy. It is a marginal view. This corresponds to what the U.S. calls the ‘lunatic fringe.&#8217;”</em></p></blockquote> <p><strong>Brazil-China relations</strong></p> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p><em>“Perhaps the most serious example is how things are gradually leading to a worsening </em><a href="https://brazilian.report/coronavirus-brazil-live-blog/2020/03/19/why-picking-a-fight-with-china-is-a-very-bad-idea/"><em>relationship with China</em></a><em>. It is our main market and </em><a href="https://brazilian.report/opinion/2019/10/24/china-necessity-bolsonaro-brazil-not-choice/"><em>trading partner</em></a><em>. Even in the pandemic, in the first four months of 2020, the only countries to which Brazilian exports grew were China and other Asian nations.</em></p><p><em>And this [anti-China] behavior happens not only because of Mr. Ernesto’s statements. </em><a href="https://twitter.com/BrazilianReport/status/1247253641263820800"><em>Other members of the government</em></a><em> always attack China.&#8221;</em>