Milei and Bolsonaro met in Brazil behind closed doors

Argentine President Javier Milei met behind closed doors on Sunday with former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, in his first act during a private visit to Brazil to participate in a conference of Latin American far-right movements.

Milei arrived at Balneario Camboriú (southern Brazil) at the end of Saturday night and was greeted with a hug by Bolsonaro before the two gathered together to watch the final minutes of the match in which Uruguay eliminated Brazil in the quarter-finals of the Copa América football tournament.

The Argentine libertarian leader did not even leave the hotel where he was staying in this tourist resort highly sought following by Argentines today because all his interlocutors, including Bolsonaro, are staying there.

According to Argentine government sources, the meeting discussed ways to facilitate trade between the two countries, mainly with the border state of Santa Catarina, and the Brazilians took the opportunity to express their support for Milei in the liberal reforms he is promoting in the neighboring country.

Although nothing else was revealed regarding the content of the meeting between Milei and Bolsonaro, since the press did not have access, some of the participants published videos of the meeting on their social networks.

The governors of the Brazilian states of Sao Paulo, Tarcísio de Freitas, and Santa Catarina, Jorginho Mello – important allies of the far-right leader – also participated in the meeting, as well as the deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, one of the sons of the former president and organizer of the meeting of right-wingers.

Also present were the Argentine President’s sister, Karina Milei, and the Argentine Minister of Defense, Luis Petri.

According to one of the videos posted by his son, Bolsonaro took advantage of the meeting to award him a symbolic medal, ironically honoring his political allies.

It is the notched “three i’s”, in allusion to the Portuguese words “imorrível, incomível and imbrochável” (immortal, inedible and an expression to refer to someone who is always strong enough for sex).

This is Milei’s first visit to Brazil since he took office last December, which caused discontent in the government of the progressive Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, since the Argentine president refrained from requesting a meeting with his Brazilian counterpart.

The discontent was also due to Milei’s claim that she had scheduling problems to attend the Mercosur summit on Monday in Asunción, where she would meet with Lula, but she confirmed her participation this Sunday in Brazil in the fifth Latin American version of the Conservative Action Policy Conference (CPAC), the largest and most influential right-wing forum in the world.

The libertarian leader has not had any private meeting with Lula until now, with whom he has not even spoken by telephone.

Relations between the two have been non-existent since Lula expressed his support for Peronist candidate Sergio Massa during his election campaign, to which Milei responded by calling the Brazilian head of state “corrupt” and “communist.”

Last week, Lula said that he had not yet had any contact with Milei, as he hopes that he will apologize to him and to Brazil for his statements, but the Argentine immediately responded that he would not apologize for telling the truth.

Caracas / EFE