When Uncle Sam played the tambourine

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's visit to his US counterpart, Joe Biden, was not a failure, contrary to what it may have seemed from a hasty and somewhat superficial perspective of someone observing this international agenda. Although Biden's enigmatic expression, with its seemingly complacent and unenthusiastic gaze, may have provoked disappointed interpretations, the enigma in the Yankee's eyes may have concealed his admiring perception of the mythical Brazilian labor leader. 

Indeed, Lula's visit to the White House in Washington, D.C., should be considered historic for several reasons, especially for marking an important point in the fight against the rise of a dangerous global far-right representing (neo)fascist movements interested in undermining democracy. In this sense, the partnership between the two Democrats is undeniable as a bulwark against all obscurantism and terrorism, against all political violence proposed and perpetrated by extremists in various countries. 

This counterpoint to the actions of these dystopian movements, bringing together people like Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro – and their entourage of followers – is certainly a fundamental point in the defeat of those who practice necropolitics to make the endless profit desires of predatory capitalism and lethal neoliberalism prevail. The meeting between Lula and Biden also served as an affirmation of a new geopolitical paradigm in which calls for environmental preservation will have more force as the destruction of the Amazon begins to be reversed. 

Reintegration into Brazil 

As the Brazilian president pointed out, this was not a money-grabbing commitment aimed at passing the hat around and collecting large sums of money for the Amazon Fund or in the form of multi-billion dollar productive investments to enable US economic activities on Brazilian soil, or anything of the sort. It is more a gesture of Brazil's reintegration into the international scene, with a leading role in the Southern Hemisphere and its global aspirations to establish a new world governance. 

Therefore, it was significant to hear Biden's words advocating for a reform of the United Nations Security Council, which would include permanent members such as Brazil, India, Japan, Germany, South Africa, etc. A Brazilian demand for decades, this reform is beginning to resonate more intensely even among the current five permanent members, who initially preferred to remain silent on the matter, either for or against it. 

The visit to the United States takes on significance regarding the new national diplomatic posture, no longer subservient to the influence of the Empire, but sovereign, without automatic alignments to absurd ideas of fomenting war in Ukraine. Lula scored another point in this regard, setting aside the haste of embarking on another cold war, this time against China, the largest trading partner – strategic within the BRICS sphere, a multilateral organization that tends to call the shots from now on.