Brazil Downgrades Ties With Argentina After Milei Insults Lula

Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno said Wednesday that Buenos Aires would not respond with diplomatic measures after Brazil announced it would handle relations through a charge d'affaires instead of a full ambassador. Brazil made the move after Milei called Lula "a thief, "corrupt" and an "ex-convict" in a television interview Sunday. Lula spent 580 days in prison after a 2018 conviction in the Operation Car Wash corruption investigation, but that conviction was overturned on procedural grounds.

Brazil's ambassador, Julio Bitelli, will not return to Buenos Aires, marking the lowest point in relations since Milei took office in 2023. The dispute comes less than two months before Brazil's presidential election, in which Lula is seeking a fourth term against Flavio Bolsonaro. Milei has backed the Bolsonaro family, appearing at Flavio's campaign launch last month. Lula has cast himself as defender of Brazil's sovereignty, saying "we cannot accept interference.