Lula's return returns Brazil to the world

Itamaraty Palace is the headquarters of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It has a reflecting pool in front and a concrete bridge that opens onto the largest column-free lobby in Latin America: 2,800 square meters that on its left bank has one of the most beautiful spiral staircases in the world.

The complex, designed by Oscar Niemeyer, is crowned by a first floor that forms a circular balcony.

On Sunday night, the balcony was packed with people.

17 presidents and heads of state and representatives of 120 countries awaited the arrival of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who at that time, around 9:00 p.m. in Brazil, was still in the Planalto Palace, the seat of the Executive, taking the oath to its 37 ministers.

When the host finally arrived there was a great uproar.

A "Lula, Lula" was heard and the cell phones flashed like stars.

After four years in which Brazil feuded with its neighbors, severed ties with the United States and attacked Chinese communism, a new president vowed to bring it back to the world.

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President Lula da Silva: “Love defeated hate.

Long live Brazil!"

During the first two Workers' Party governments, between 2003 and 2010, the world adored Lula and adored Brazil.

Impossible not to be dazzled by that mechanical turner without university studies who was coming to the presidency in the largest democracy in Latin America.

And that also lifted millions of people out of poverty.

Those were years of telephone diplomacy.

Dozens of commercial conflicts within Mercosur, the common market that Brazil shares with Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, were resolved with a call between presidents.

And if a stone was placed in the path of Unasur, a conversation between Lula and the Venezuelan Hugo Chávez was enough to remove it.

With Lula, Brazil joined the Bric, the select group of emerging countries completed by Russia, China and India.

He also managed to organize a World Cup and an Olympic Games.

The president has not lost his aura in the eyes of foreigners, given the reception he received in Itamaraty and the international call that prompted his inauguration in Brasilia, triple that received by Jair Bolsonaro four years ago.

Lula spoke this Sunday of "reconstruction", and that includes foreign relations.

“The eyes of the world have looked at us during the elections.

Our commitment will be with Mercosur and the rest of the sovereign nations of our region.

We will have an active dialogue with the United States, the European Union and China.

We will make more alliances to have more strength from now on.

Brazil has to be the master of its destiny, it has to be a sovereign country, ”he said in his inauguration speech before Congress.

If he wants to fulfill his promise, he will have to retrace the path of his predecessor.

Bolsonaro bet all of his foreign policy on the relationship with Donald Trump.

When Joe Biden won the election, he was the last president to congratulate him.

At the same time, he lashed out at China at the UN, considering it the villainous country behind a supposed communist offensive in the world.

Beijing sent its vice president, Wang Qisha, to Brasilia this Sunday, at the head of a high-level delegation that was evidence of the importance that both countries attach to their trade relations.

27% of all Brazilian exports go to China.

The King of Spain, Felipe VI, greets Lula, the new president of Brazil, in front of the Brazilian's wife, Janja, during a photo session after the inauguration ceremony.

Lela Beltrão

The new foreign minister, Mauro Vieira, has said that Lula will visit Beijing within the first three months of his term.

He will also travel to the United States, to meet with Joe Biden.

The relationship with the United States is the hardest hit.

Washington sent a second-line delegation to Brasilia, headed by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Juan González, the Colombian who is the president's top adviser for Latin America.

Foreign Minister Vieria referred to the relationship with the European Union, weighed down by the delay in ratifying the free trade agreement signed with Mercosur in June 2019. Countries like France have so far refused to move forward on the grounds that Bolsonaro was doing little to the defense of the Amazon.

"Taking into account the improvements in the environmental policy announced by Lula, I believe that a series of difficulties can be unraveled," Vieira said two weeks ago, during a press conference at the Cultural Center of the Bank of Brazil, seat of the government of transition.

This Sunday, Spain was represented by King Felipe VI.

Emmanuel Macron did not travel to Brazil, but he posted a message on his social networks in which he congratulated his "great friend" Lula with a "we are together" between exclamation marks.

Order of Progress: o Brazil honors its motto.

Congratulations dear President, dear friend @LulaOficial, for your possession.

We are together!

pic.twitter.com/TdBnam6e6S

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) January 1, 2023

Lula will have fewer problems among his neighbors, who have welcomed him with open arms.

Bolsonaro had broken bridges with most of the countries in the region - he did not speak with the Argentine Alberto Fernández and called the Colombian Gustavo Petro a "former left-wing guerrilla" -, which he accused of working at the service of communism.

Lula's arrival in power anticipates a radical turn in the relationship, because it consummates the turn to the left initiated by Fernández and continued by Petro and the Chilean Gabriel Boric.

The three were in Brasilia this Sunday, as were the presidents of Ecuador, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.

The great absence was the Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro, despite Lula's attempts to have him among the guests.

The new president managed to get the Bolsonaro government to withdraw the ban on entry to the country that it applied to Maduro, but it was too late.

Venezuela was represented by the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez.

Lula is back and it is to be hoped that Brazil will be too.

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