Brazil's nominated US ambassador spends his days with a gun-toting Trump figurine
By Olivia Goldhill
July 13, 2019
Brazil’s far-right leadership is very much a family affair. President Jair Bolsonaro, known as the “Trump of the Tropics,” relies on his sons—Eduardo, Carlos, and Flávio—as his closest advisors. Other politicians despair at the dynastic state of affairs. “I’m despondent that crucial decisions about Brazil are being made between spaghetti and dessert on a Sunday night,” Brazil’s Worker’s Party congressman Orlando Silva told Quartz.
So far, there’s no infiltrating the Bolsonaro ranks. On Friday (July 12), President Bolsonaro announced he’s inviting his son Eduardo to be ambassador to the United States, and Eduardo told reporters he plans to accept the nomination.
Eduardo Bolsonaro has a strong affinity for the US and President Trump in particular. His effusive personal enthusiasm will likely to go down well with Trump, who recently declared he would never work with UK ambassador Sir Kim Darroch after leaked cables showed the UK ambassador said Trump “radiates insecurity” and will never “look competent.” Brazil’s ambassador nomination suggests President Bolsonaro hopes to use his son to get closer to the US.
Eduardo Bolsonaro’s affection was on display when Quartz visited his office in Brasilia’s National Congress in June. The room is decorated with a copy of the US constitution (but no constitution of Brazil); plastic figurines of Donald Trump carrying a gun, George Washington, and Ronald Reagan; a pen topped with an automated plastic Donald Trump that punched the air and said “don’t touch the hair” at the touch of a button; and a plaque of the second amendment, alongside other gun paraphernalia. (The Bolsonaro family advocates widespread gun use.) Other international influences include an Israeli flag (Bolsonaro is a strong Israel supporter) and a mug decorated with Margaret Thatcher’s face.
Read more: https://qz.com/1665165/eduardo-bolsonaros-vision-for-brazil-and-the-us/
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Trump May Name Son Eric as Ambassador to Brazil, in Exchange for Eduardo Bolsonaro
https://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-politics/trump-to-name-his-son-eric-as-ambassador-to-brazil-in-exchange-for-eduardo-bolsonaro/
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Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro to appoint son as ambassador to US
Eduardo Bolsonaro, a congressman, has strong links to the Trump administration and American far right
Reuters
Thu 11 Jul 2019 21.15 EDT Last modified on Fri 12 Jul 2019 13.00 EDT
The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has invited his son Eduardo to become ambassador to the United States, underscoring his family’s influential role in the country’s diplomacy and domestic politics.
Eduardo Bolsonaro, currently a federal congressman, told reporters he would accept the role if nominated. His father said earlier that the appointment would hinge on his son’s acceptance.
“If it is a mission given by the president, I would accept,” Eduardo told reporters, adding he was prepared to resign from Congress if the president appointed him.
He added that the ultimate nomination still depended on conversations with his father and the foreign minister Ernesto Araujo.
The appointment would need to be approved by the Senate foreign relations committee before passing to the full upper house for confirmation.
Brazil’s previous ambassador to Washington retired in April.
The far-right Brazilian president, who said his campaign of 2018 was inspired by Donald Trump, has made friendly overtures to the American leader and made similar use of family members as official advisers.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/12/brazil-president-jair-bolsonaro-to-appoint-son-as-ambassador-to-us
Also posted in LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142340976
= new reply since forum marked as read
Published on
Friday, July 12, 2019
by Common Dreams
One critic said that it's "only a matter of time now before the son of Brazil's wannabe despot has an official meeting with the daughter of America's wannabe despot."
byJessica Corbett, staff writer
Eduardo Bolsonaro (L) joined his father, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, for a March 2019 meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House. (Photo: Eduardo Bolsonaro/Instagram)
In a move critics condemned as "embarrassing nepotism," right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday appointed his son Eduardo to serve as ambassador to the United States.
Though the appointment still needs approval from Brazil's Federal Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a confirmation vote by all members of the upper house, Eduardo has said he would resign from his current post in the lower house of the country's National Congress to serve as ambassador. As Eduardo put it, according to Reuters, "If it is a mission given by the president, I would accept."
Even before the appointment, Eduardo was "dubbed Brazil's 'shadow foreign minister' at the Brazilian foreign ministry because of the strong influence he has on his father's foreign policy ideas," BBC News reported Friday.
In March, the Brazilian president brought Eduardo along for a trip to D.C. for his first bilateral meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. Eduardo, Al Jazeera noted in its reporting on his appointment, "sat by his father during an Oval Office chat while Brazil's foreign minister and ambassador in Washington were nowhere to be seen." During the March trip, as Common Dreams reported at the time, the Bolsonaros also made an unannounced visit to CIA headquarters, nearly 55 years after the U.S. spy agency backed a coup d'état that overthrew their country's democratically-elected government.
More:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/07/12/embarrassing-nepotism-brazilian-president-jair-bolsonaro-appoints-son-ambassador-us
“Obviously I am not a career diplomat,” he said on Thursday, but he added: “The nomination or indication of a person so close to the president … would be well seen by the American side.” The Viriginia-based far-right astrologist and conspiracy theorist Olavo de Carvalho, a guru to the Bolsonaro clan, could be an “adviser”, he said.
Viriginia-based far-right astrologist and conspiracy theorist Olavo de Carvalho
Brazil's President Bolsonaro with "Viriginia-based far-right astrologist and
conspiracy theorist Olavo de Carvalho"
Carvalho's Wikipedia:
. . .
Olavo Luiz Pimentel de Carvalho (born 29 April 1947)[1] is a Brazilian polemicist, self-educated philosopher,[2][3][4][5] pundit, literary critic, astrologer and journalist living since 2005 in Richmond, Virginia.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]
While publishing about astrology, literature and philosophy since the 1980s, he made himself known to wider Brazilian audiences from the 1990s on, mainly writing columns for some of Brazil's major media outlets, such as the newspaper O Globo. In the 2000s, he began to use personal blogs and social media to convey his strongly conservative and anti-communist ideas[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. In the late 2010s, he rose to prominence in the Brazilian public debate, being dubbed the "intellectual father of the new right"[24] and the ideologue of Jair Bolsonaro,[25] a label that he has rejected.[26]
As a polemicist, Carvalho has been praised for not complying with political correctness but also criticized for often resorting to obscene ad hominem attacks.[27] His books and articles commonly spread conspiracy theories and falsehoods[28][29][30][31][32], and he has been accused of fomenting hate speech[33] and anti-intellectualism.[34] As a philosopher, he positions himself as a critic of modernity. His interests include historical philosophy, the history of revolutionary movements, the Traditionalist School[35] and comparative religion.[36] His views are disputed by multiple other philosophers.
More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olavo_de_Carvalho
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