China “penetrated” the Bolsonaro government, ex-Foreign Minister tells Bannon

Ernesto Araújo during a World Trade Organization meeting in January 2021. Photo: Arthur Max/MRE

In a brief interview to former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon’s popular War Room podcast on Tuesday, ex-Brazilian Foreign Affairs Minister Ernesto Araújo dubbed Brazil the “world champion in corruption,” and mused that Chinese interests had “penetrated” the far-right Jair Bolsonaro government.

During his more than two years as Brazil’s Foreign Minister, Mr. Araújo and President Bolsonaro agreed that the country should distance itself from China, to avoid being overtaken by what the former Foreign Minister calls “narco-socialism.”

Long since jettisoned from the Bolsonaro government, Mr. Araújo is not currently a relevant actor in Brazilian politics — so much so that Mr. Bannon incorrectly introduced him to his listeners as “Ernesto Aroo-ha” — but the far-right figurehead’s decision to invite him onto his podcast highlights that the pro-Trump movement in the U.S. sees Brazil as a key battleground for global conservatives.

As The Brazilian Report columnist André Pagliarini pointed out in a piece for The New Republic last August, Messrs. Bannon and Trump found in Jair Bolsonaro and his...

Amanda Audi and Euan Marshall

Amanda Audi is a journalist specializing in politics and human rights. She is the former executive director of Congresso em Foco and worked as a reporter for The Intercept Brasil, Folha de S. Paulo, O Globo, Gazeta do Povo, Poder360, among others. In 2019, she won the Comunique-se Award for best-written media reporter and won the Mulher Imprensa award for web journalism in 2020