AFP, Brasilia :
Brazil’s far right President Jair Bolsonaro will meet US counterpart Donald Trump next week to strengthen ties in the nascent regional conservative alliance aiming to ramp up the pressure on Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.
After decades of fractious relations between Brasilia and Washington, things have improved with the assumption to power of ex-army captain Bolsonaro – nicknamed the “Tropical Trump” both due to his admiration for the US president and his ideological proximity in terms of nationalism and anti-globalization.
“It’s the president’s first foreign bilateral visit, which demonstrates the priority the government is giving to building a solid association with the United States,” Bolsonaro’s spokesman Otavio do Rego Barros said on Wednesday.
Alongside six ministers and his federal lawmaker son Eduardo – who has been active in building links with fellow conservatives – Brazil’s president will spend four days in Washington from Sunday to Wednesday.
He will stay at Blair House, an official US state residence opposite the White House used for visiting dignitaries.
As well as a “private meeting” with Trump at the Oval Office on Tuesday, Bolsonaro will sit with Organization of American States Secretary General Luis Almagro, and participate in various forums discussing the opportunities offered by the Brazilian economy.
The US is Brazil’s second biggest trade partner after China.
On Sunday night he will dine at the residency of Brazil’s ambassador with “several opinion formers” including, according to press reports, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and US-based Brazilian writer Olavo de Carvalho, considered Bolsonaro’s guru.
Trump and Bolsonaro will discuss one of the issues that most unites them:
their desire to drive Maduro from power.
The US was the first of more than 50 countries, closely followed by Brazil, to recognize Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president, boosting his power struggle with Maduro.
Brazil’s far right President Jair Bolsonaro will meet US counterpart Donald Trump next week to strengthen ties in the nascent regional conservative alliance aiming to ramp up the pressure on Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro.
After decades of fractious relations between Brasilia and Washington, things have improved with the assumption to power of ex-army captain Bolsonaro – nicknamed the “Tropical Trump” both due to his admiration for the US president and his ideological proximity in terms of nationalism and anti-globalization.
“It’s the president’s first foreign bilateral visit, which demonstrates the priority the government is giving to building a solid association with the United States,” Bolsonaro’s spokesman Otavio do Rego Barros said on Wednesday.
Alongside six ministers and his federal lawmaker son Eduardo – who has been active in building links with fellow conservatives – Brazil’s president will spend four days in Washington from Sunday to Wednesday.
He will stay at Blair House, an official US state residence opposite the White House used for visiting dignitaries.
As well as a “private meeting” with Trump at the Oval Office on Tuesday, Bolsonaro will sit with Organization of American States Secretary General Luis Almagro, and participate in various forums discussing the opportunities offered by the Brazilian economy.
The US is Brazil’s second biggest trade partner after China.
On Sunday night he will dine at the residency of Brazil’s ambassador with “several opinion formers” including, according to press reports, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and US-based Brazilian writer Olavo de Carvalho, considered Bolsonaro’s guru.
Trump and Bolsonaro will discuss one of the issues that most unites them:
their desire to drive Maduro from power.
The US was the first of more than 50 countries, closely followed by Brazil, to recognize Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president, boosting his power struggle with Maduro.
