Brazil downgrades Argentina ties and clashes with US over visas weeks before elections

Brazil downgrades ties with Argentina

Brazil informed Argentina on 5 August that bilateral relations would be handled at the charge d'affaires level. Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said the measure would remain until what he called "the repeated insults and aggressions" from President Javier Milei cease. Brazil had already recalled its ambassador, Julio Bitelli, for consultations in July, a day after Milei first attacked Lula, and its interests in Buenos Aires have since been handled by a charge d'affaires. Officials described the downgrade as the first of its kind between the two countries in recent history. Vieira told Radio Perfil that Milei had made "four consecutive manifestations in the space of a week" attacking Brazil, its institutions, and Lula personally, using language Vieira called "very gross and very aggressive." The Argentine ambassador in Brasilia, Guillermo Daniel Raimondi, was informed he need not remain, though the decision is not a formal expulsion.

Argentina declines to retaliate

Argentine Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno said on Wednesday that Argentina would take no diplomatic action in response, accusing Brazil of "escalating" the dispute. He avoided apologising for Milei's remarks, which included calling Lula "thief," "corrupt," "convict," and "socialist trash."

This is a decision by Brazil to escalate issues that for us do not have that scale and should remain in the ideological and political sphere of an electoral contest where we are clearly opposed in our desired outcomes.

Quirno said the issue was "more a matter of substance than of form" and pointed to deep ideological differences, adding that the region is changing ideological direction and Argentina celebrates that.

US revokes Brazilian ambassador's visa

On the same day, the Trump administration revoked the visa of Brazilian ambassador Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, in response to Brazil's delay in granting agrement to Daniel Perez, the Republican speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, whom Trump nominated as US ambassador to Brazil on 1 June. Viotti remains ambassador and the embassy continues to function, but without a valid visa she would not be able to re-enter the United States if she left the country. Her status will be restored once Brazil grants agrement to Perez. Lula called the revocation "irresponsible" and "unthinkable" between countries with more than 200 years of diplomatic relations. Brazil's foreign ministry described the gesture as "very serious" and attributed it to "an inappropriate interest in interfering in the upcoming presidential elections."

Brazil denies entry to US diplomats and warns of interference

Days earlier, Brazil refused visas to Riley M. Barnes, an assistant secretary in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and Samuel Samson, a deputy assistant secretary in the same bureau. Their trip to Brasilia had been scheduled for 27 to 30 July 2026. Brazil argued the two officials intended to participate in a disinformation strategy by the Brazilian far right aimed at undermining confidence in the electoral system. Lula warned that Brazil would confront any foreign interference in the 4 October elections.

Brazil is not only prepared but will confront anyone from outside who wants to interfere in our electoral process.

The crises come two months before elections in which Lula, 80, seeks re-election against Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was sentenced to 27 years and three months in a closed regime over a coup attempt and has been serving since 25 November 2025, at home since March 2026 under a humanitarian arrangement with an ankle monitor. Milei visited Sao Paulo about 10 days ago to support Flavio Bolsonaro's candidacy. Retired diplomat Rubens Barbosa, a former ambassador to London and Washington, said Brazil has never faced a crisis with the United States like the current one during the republican period, and that ties with Buenos Aires had never been downgraded this way in recent decades. Separately, Trump applied 25% tariffs on Brazilian products, citing unfair competition including the Pix payment system, and later added a further 12.5% tariff.