Amid the crisis with Brazil, the US Senate confirms Daniel Perez as ambassador

With the approval, which took place hours before the five-week parliamentary recess, Perez completes the legislative stage of his nomination and is ready to assume the post. First, however, it still depends on the granting of the agrément by the Brazilian government - the diplomatic authorization through which a country formally accepts the head of mission appointed by another State.

If Brasília receives approval, Perez will occupy a position that has been vacant since January last year, when Donald Trump began his second term. In the meantime, the United States Embassy in Brazil is headed by the chargé d'affaires. Members of the Lula government, however, have already indicated that they do not intend to grant the agrément to new ambassadors before the end of the presidential elections in October.

Perez's appointment became the main focus of the most recent diplomatic crisis between Brazil and the United States. The American government accuses Brazil of deliberately delaying the granting of the agrément and claims that it gave Brasília "every opportunity to do the right thing", but that it encountered successive postponements and obstacles.

In response, Washington announced this week the revocation of the visa of the Brazilian ambassador to the United States, Maria Luiza Viotti. The State Department classified the decision as a reciprocal measure and stated that the diplomat will continue to be recognized as an official representative of Brazil. In practice, Viotti will be able to remain in Washington and continue carrying out his duties normally, but, if he leaves American territory, he will need to request a new visa to return.

American politicians criticized the measure. Democratic senator Jeanne Shaheen, deputy leader of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, wrote in a social media post that the measure goes against US interests and harms the bilateral relationship.

"Nothing represents the advancement of US interests better than revoking the visa of the top diplomat of one of our partners", he published, ironically. "Once again, this government wasted diplomacy, to the detriment of the American and Brazilian people."

Despite the criticism, Shaheen and Tim Kaine, also a Democratic senator, voted to approve Perez. Kaine's justification, in an interview with Folha de S.Paulo, is due to the long time that the ambassador position has been empty in Brazil. For him, it is better for the country to have a representative, even if it is a nominee from the opposing party, which it does not have.

The Brazilian side's justification for not granting approval is related to the fact that the request broke with the traditional diplomatic rite. In general, the name of an ambassador is only announced to the public after the host country grants the agrément, a confidential rite. In Perez's case, the Trump administration publicly announced the appointment before receiving Brazilian authorization, making the process an additional element of tension between the two countries.

Privately, interlocutors from the Brazilian government stated that there was concern that Perez's appointment could be used to increase American pressure on the Brazilian electoral process. For this reason, according to these reports, Brasília already indicated that it would not analyze the request at the pace expected by Washington.

The same interlocutors claim that Ambassador Maria Luiza Viotti was warned by members of the State Department that some form of retaliation could be adopted if the impasse persisted.

Despite the measure announced by the United States, the assessment at Palácio do Planalto is that there is, at this moment, no reason to remove Viotti from Washington or respond immediately with new diplomatic actions. Government members argue that the ambassador should remain in office and believe that a hasty reaction could worsen the crisis or offer new arguments to the Trump administration.

This Wednesday (5), President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) criticized the American decision during an interview with the YouTube channels Meteoro Brasil and Os Três Elementos. The PT member recalled that Trump remained without appointing an ambassador to Brazil for more than a year and stated that he subsequently began to pressure Brasília to quickly accept the name chosen by his administration.

Lula classified the restriction on the Brazilian ambassador's visa as an "irresponsible attitude" and "thoughtless". He also stated that he intends to leave the analysis of new foreign ambassadors until after the presidential elections in October, a position that, in practice, leaves Daniel Perez's future undefined.