Before taking over as Brazil’s Chancellorship, Ernesto Araújo was just an obscure lower-ranking diplomat at Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

However, he was already known by the Brazilian far-right for maintaining a blog in which he defended American President Donald Trump and paraded conspiracy theories — which he continues to do, but with an infinitely greater reach and capacity for causing damages to the nation’s foreign policy.

To become Chancellor, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had to accelerate Araujo’s promotion from Minister of Second Class to Minister of First Class even though he never even headed a diplomatic mission abroad prior to becoming Foreign Minister. And his performance is proof of his political and diplomatic inability that has resulted in nothing but Brazil losing its long-fought space on the international scene after years of building a proactive foreign policy that sought to influence issues of great global relevance.

Full article at The Institute for Peace & Diplomacy’s website. Date of publication: 11/05/2020.