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Download - LSE Theses Online - London School of Economics and ...

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negotiations, for example. 287 This division risked promoting two parallel, <strong>and</strong>potentially conflicting, foreign policy agendas for Brazil, while at the same timediversifying its diplomatic options.On the one h<strong>and</strong> is the party-to-party diplomacy <strong>of</strong> PT, exhibited to great effectduring the Venezuelan crisis <strong>of</strong> 2002, the year <strong>of</strong> Lula’s ascent to power. This crisissaw the despatch <strong>of</strong> Garcia to Venezuela, even before Lula had assumed thePresidency, in an attempt to mediate between Hugo Chavez <strong>and</strong> the opposition. Inaddition, some reports stated that Lula had played a pivotal role in convincingPresident Cardoso to approve emergency shipments <strong>of</strong> 520,000 barrels <strong>of</strong> oil toVenezuela. The shipment helped to ease the effects <strong>of</strong> a crippling strike in protest atChavez’s rule in December 2002. 288 On the other h<strong>and</strong> is the <strong>of</strong>ficial diplomacy <strong>of</strong>the Brazilian state that seeks to disavow entanglements in the domestic affairs <strong>of</strong>other states. Keeping these two ‘tracks’ <strong>of</strong> diplomacy separate has becomeincreasingly difficult for the government, as it faces accusations <strong>of</strong> keeping ‘bad’company on account <strong>of</strong> the Party’s relations with leaders <strong>of</strong> the Left in LatinAmerica.The role <strong>of</strong> the Executive: Itamaraty (Ministry <strong>of</strong> External Relations, MRE)Itamaraty’s influence on the exercise <strong>of</strong> Brazilian diplomacy is a historicalcornerstone <strong>of</strong> Brazilian foreign policy. The Foreign Ministry has a significant - yetnot always decisive – role in the process <strong>of</strong> foreign policy formulation <strong>and</strong>implementation. The last major analysis in English <strong>of</strong> this formidable institution wasconducted by the eminent Brazil scholar, Ronald M. Schneider, in 1976. Now asthen, “Not surprisingly, the Foreign Ministry …tends to respond somewhatdefensively to the suggestion or even the implication that it is not the central actorin the Brazilian foreign-policy process”. 289 A commonly held view is that Itamaratyhas been a conservative force in Brazilian foreign policy, owing to its recruitment287 Tullo Vigevani <strong>and</strong> Gabriel Cepaluni, “Lula’s foreign policy <strong>and</strong> the quest forautonomy through diversification”, Third World Quarterly, 28, Issue 7 (2007): 1316.288 Rohter, Larry. 2002. “Venezuela gets fuel aid / Brazil ships gasoline to show supportfor Chavez”, in San Francisco Chronicle, December 27, 2002. Accessed online at:http://articles.sfgate.com/2002-12-27/news/17576932_1_venezuelan-october-chavezbrazilian-governmenton 13 August, 2010.289 Schneider, Brazil.129

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