Brazil and Nicaragua have expelled each other’s ambassadors in a tit-for-tat diplomatic spat, and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva appears to be reconsidering his approach to the authoritarian leftist ruler once seen as an ally.
The pair’s ouster this week comes amid rising tensions between Lula and another supposedly progressive leader, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whose reelection bid has yet to be recognized by the Brazilian president. Lula and his colleagues in Colombia and Mexico have called on Maduro to publish the results of all polling stations to affirm his victory.
Brazil announced on Thursday that it was expelling its ambassador to Nicaragua, “applying the principle of reciprocity,” following Nicaragua’s decision two weeks ago to expel the Brazilian ambassador.
Ambassador Breno de Sousa da Costa, at the behest of the Brazilian government, has reportedly refused to take part in events marking the 45th anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution, in which leftist revolutionaries overthrew then-dictator Anastasio Somoza.
Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega played a key role in the revolution but has in recent years unleashed an increasingly brutal crackdown on dissent, jailing dozens of opposition leaders, including former comrades-in-arms, and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee the country.
Nicaraguan envoy Fulvia Patricia Castro had been in the job for just three months before she was ousted on Thursday, the same day she was appointed the new minister of family economy by Nicaragua’s vice president, Rosario Murillo, wife of President Ortega.
According to the Brazilian newspaper O Globo, Brazilian diplomats have confirmed Lula’s stance. Strategic Moves This is to counter accusations that he has been lenient toward Venezuelan President Maduro.
Brazil has resisted recognizing Maduro’s alleged victory, while Lula has faced criticism, especially from the right, for following the lead of the United States, Argentina and other countries in refusing to recognize opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez as Venezuela’s legitimate president.
Feliciano de Sá Guimarães, an associate professor of international relations at the University of Sao Paulo, said Lula’s change of attitude toward Ortega and Maduro reflected the domestic political costs of being seen to support two “dictatorial regimes”.
“This is an adjustment of attitude, not a change of stance. It’s about the huge domestic costs of being seen as close to a government that is rejected by the Brazilian people,” Guimarães said.
Relations between Presidents Lula and Ortega, once allies, have been deteriorating for at least a year.
Last year, at the request of Pope Francis, the Brazilian president tried to intervene in the release of Bishop Rolando José Álvares, a critic of the Ortega dictatorship who was imprisoned for “plotting and spreading false news to undermine the unity of the nation.”
The Catholic leader was finally released in January after more than 500 days in prison, but was forced to leave the country.
In July, Lula said he had been ignored by Ortega: “The fact is that Daniel Ortega did not answer my calls, did not want to speak to me, so I never spoke to him again, never again,” he told a press conference.
