Venezuela Ratchets Up Rhetoric Against Brazil Over BRICS Veto

(Bloomberg) -- Relations between Venezuela and Brazil are deteriorating quickly after Nicolas Maduro’s hopes of joining the BRICS bloc of emerging market countries were dashed by his neighbor.

A key Maduro ally lashed out Wednesday at one of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s top aides, saying he was serving US interests and would be declared persona non grata by Venezuela’s legislature. 

The foreign ministry then announced Venezuela was recalling its ambassador from Brasilia and summoning Brazil’s chargé d’affaires for a dressing down in Caracas, since Lula’s ambassador is on vacation.

Lula himself skipped last week’s summit in Kazan, Russia after suffering a head injury and hasn’t commented publicly on the issue. But his chief foreign policy adviser, Celso Amorim, told lawmakers Tuesday that Venezuela was excluded from the group’s expansion because of concerns about its regional standing after July’s disputed presidential election.

“You behaved in a malicious manner, more like an interlocutor of the US government than in the role supposedly assigned by President Lula,” National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez said Wednesday of Amorim. “That explains your interference in matters that only concern Venezuelans.”

Lula’s foreign policy adviser said during a congressional hearing that Brazil’s position is that potential BRICS additions should carry international influence and serve as good representatives of their region, criteria it doesn’t think Venezuela meets.  

Maduro, who declared himself the winner of the July 28 election but hasn’t yet presented voting records to prove it, traveled to Russia for the summit hoping Venezuela would be admitted as a partner country alongside Latin American peers Cuba and Bolivia, as well as 11 other nations. When that didn’t happen, Venezuela accused Brazil of vetoing the move despite what it described as the full support of the other members.

The days that followed saw escalating attacks by Maduro and other members of his government on Brazilian officials, including Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira and Eduardo Paes Saboia, the foreign secretary for Asia and the Pacific.

Describing Venezuela’s rejection as a “stab in the back” by its neighbor, Maduro himself also lashed out this week, though he avoided blaming his Brazilian counterpart directly. “No one shuts Venezuela up or vetoes it,” the socialist leader said Monday on his television show. “I will wait for Lula to observe, be well informed and say what he has to say.”

Amorim, in his remarks to lawmakers, described Venezuela’s reaction to the bloc’s decision as “totally disproportionate.” He declined to comment on Wednesday’s developments.

Lula and Colombian President Gustavo Petro tried without success to mediate with the Venezuelan president in the aftermath of July’s vote. But unlike Petro, Brazil’s leader has taken a more critical stance on Maduro’s crackdown on dissent since then.

Venezuela’s regime-controlled electoral authority said Maduro won a third term by a narrow majority, a result that was later ratified by the country’s Supreme Court. The opposition, however, has published records from about 80% of voting stations that show its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, secured at least 70% support. He has since fled to Spain while opposition leader Maria Corina Machado remains in hiding under threat of arrest.

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