All the clashes between the US and Brazil on Javelin missiles
The United States is delaying the delivery of Javelin missiles to Bolsonaro's Brazil. Here because. Marco Orioles's article
In Washington, you always keep your word, unless your name is Bolsonaro and you tell them about electoral fraud.
The suspended agreement on the Javelins
A fresh revelation from Reuters shows that the Biden administration is delaying the delivery to Brazil of 220 Javelin anti-tank missile systems, as agreed by the Brazilian president with his then colleague Donald Trump, due to US irritation over the continuous firing. of Bolsonaro on possible electoral manipulations that would compromise his re-election in the next presidential elections in October.
The deal worth $ 100 million received the green light last year from the State Department, despite the fact that, according to Reuters sources, critical voices had been raised within it because of the excesses of the "Trump of the tropics" .
The concerns of US parliamentarians
Now the agreement is under open discussion due to the mounting concern among parliamentarians close to President Biden about the possibility that Bolsonaro, defeated at the polls, unleash a constitutional crisis in Brazil similar to that experienced by the US after the 2020 presidential elections.
"(The deal) has slowed down at the Capitol and is not going anywhere in the short term," an American source familiar with the facts told Reuters.
The Biden administration warns Brazil
The specter of an assault on the Brazilian capitol made the Biden administration wary, which, fearing a possible authoritarian drift in Brasilia, began sending delegations to the Latin American country to warn everyone.
In July it was Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's turn to deliver a pompous democracy lesson in the context of a meeting with his colleagues in the region. But already last year CIA director William Burns made a stop in Brazil, who allegedly urged men close to Bolsonaro to stop undermining confidence in their country's electoral process.
Bolsonaro shoots straight
These warnings went unheeded, however, to the point that Bolsonaro, who is now lagging behind his main challenger Lula, continued to question the reliability of Brazil's e-voting system and, at the end of the recent local election. , reiterated the accusation of fraud without a shred of evidence.
Washington's fears
The fears of the US are also centered on the possible role of the Brazilian armed forces. Indifferent to the memory of Brazil's two decades of military dictatorship since 1964, Bolsonaro even evoked the possibility that the army, after the vote, would proceed to a bare parallel, underlining that "the army is on our side ".
But these are not the only fears of Washington, which looks with growing concern at Brazil's backward steps in terms of environmental protection and above all at the cementing of a friendly relationship between Bolsonaro himself and Vladimir Putin, whom the former refused to condemn for his military adventure in Ukraine.
Does Brasilia Really Need Javelins?
Other doubts, according to Reuters sources, would be mounted in Washington about the actual need for Brazil to equip itself with the deadly weapon system manufactured by US defense giants Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies.
It is pointed out, in particular, that the task of the armed forces of Brasilia is essentially limited to the defense of even extensive borders and to the support of some international peacekeeping missions. "Brazil doesn't need (Javelins)," commented a former congressional official who worked on arms deals.
The internal clash within the Administration
Reading the exclusive Reuters article, however, one gets the impression that within the Biden administration there is a sort of internal struggle over the Javelin affair, with the State and Defense Departments undecided on what to do.
"There are those," a government source told Reuters, "within the State Department who have expressed reservations about this sale, given Bolsonaro's behavior and rhetoric and some past actions of the military and security services. of Brazil. (…) These concerns are not shared by Defense Department officials or the State Department leadership ”.
Indeed, the latter would have given his preliminary assent to the agreement, but only after discussions that an informed source describes as superficial, and without heeding the concerns of diplomats seconded to Brazil and of lower-ranking officials.
The role of foreign commissions
In light of this diatribe, the Dicastery chaired by Antony Blinken sent the documents of the agreement, in view of a review that is defined as "informal", to the two Democratic Presidents and two Republican members of the foreign committees of the Chamber and Senate. The latter four, obviously perplexed about the controversial affair, have inundated the State Department with questions about respect for human rights in Brazil and the actual need for the country led by Bolsonaro to have Javelins.
All this, suggests Reuters, suggests a delaying tactic on the part of the two Commissions, evidently willing to authorize the delivery of the Javelins only after the presidential elections in Brazil have been celebrated.
US openings?
Reuters also notes that, despite the surge between Biden and Bolsonaro, Washington would remain open to the possibility of selling sophisticated weapons to Brasilia.
As a senior member of the Biden administration commented, the prevailing view is that "Brazil has the right to procure the military equipment it deems appropriate in compliance with our laws."
The Obstacle of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee
But even if the agreement were to overcome doubts, it would face another formidable obstacle: the obstruction of Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, who chairs the Western Hemisphere subcommittee and wants to study the dossier in depth. And, as Kaine himself told Reuters, selling arms to Brazil "is not something I feel we should do immediately."
Chinese risk?
But, as Reuters points out, if at the end of these complex procedures there is a denial, Washington could regret it because, as some sources have revealed to the agency, Brazil could turn to China which would make its HJ system available to it. 12, considered the cheapest version of the Javelins.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/stati-uniti-brasile-missili-javelin/ on Tue, 09 Aug 2022 06:53:41 +0000.