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election campaign, a rarity for a foreign policy issue in Brazilian politics, with theparty committed to Brazil’s withdrawal from the negotiations should it enter power.Other international goals were evident during the campaign:PT’s discourse also included the need for Brazil to diversify its bilateral relationswith large countries and regional powers, clearly with counter-hegemonic ends inmind, and the sense of strengthening multilateralism in the economic, political andstrategic-military arenas. 549b. Party individuals in key postsIn a far less documented fashion, moreover, PT – more in the person of Lula daSilva, than by any overarching party machinery – has managed to steer Brazil’sesteemed Foreign Ministry in its preferred direction. With the appointment ofsympathetic individuals to key posts, such as Celso Amorim as Minister of ExternalRelations, and Samuel Pinheiro Guimarães as Secretary-General of Itamaraty 550 ,Lula ensured that his vision for Brazilian foreign policy would be in safe hands.Guimarães, a career diplomat of 40 years by the time of his appointment as topadministrator in Itamaraty has been described as a throwback to another era. As anuncharacteristically outspoken diplomat, he held some strong views during histenure as Secretary-General of Itamaraty, from 2003 to 2009. According to Brazil’sVeja magazine, he “hates the idea of FTAA, detests globalisation, doesn’t likeeconomic liberalisation, and believes in imperialism…”. 551 He is also described asbeing a ‘militant defender of the Third World’. However, Guimarães’ role has beenlikened more to ‘executor’ than ‘formulator’ 552 of foreign policy, when comparedwith those of his then-superior, Celso Amorim, and Marco Aurélio Garcia, foreignaffairs advisor in the presidency. Another individual whose name is mentioned aspart of the President’s close foreign policy circle is José Dirceu, 553 who was Lula’sformer Chief of Staff and resigned following the mensalão scandal 554 of 2005. In549 Amâncio Jorge Oliveira, “O governo do PT e a Alca: política externa e pragmatismo”,Estudos Avançados,17, Issue 48, (2003): 319.550 Guimarães had previously been dismissed under Cardoso as president of theInstitute for the Research of International Relations (IPRI) of the Foreign Ministry, underpressure from the US, for his views on the FTAA.551 Veja online. 2003. “Um diplomata alternativo”, in Veja on-line, 22 October 2003,accessed online at: http://veja.abril.com.br/221003/p_040.html, on 15 July 2010.552 Ibid.553 Almeida, Paulo Roberto. 2010. Email correspondence with author.554 The mensalão scandal took place in 2005. It involved the alleged payment, with theknowledge of senior PT party figures, of governing coalition members in the Chamber ofDeputies, in order to persuade them to vote for legislation proposed by PT. The scandalcame close to threatening Lula’s re-election in the 2006 presidential election.218