The solidarity of the Argentine government with the Brazilian government due to the tragedy that that country is going through due to the floods, mainly in the state of Río Grande do Sul, which raised the death toll to 100 and more than 1,500,000 victims, finished thawing the cold relations that the presidents maintained Javier Milei and Ignacio Lula Da Silva. Before, the chancellor Diana Mondino, had done his part to bring positions closer together. Today, at 2:30 p.m., a Hercules C-130 aircraft of the Argentine Air Force takes off from the El Palomar Military Air Base with two water purification plants with their operators. The aircraft will land at the Canoas Military Air Base, as requested by Brazil. The departure was delayed 24 hours due to inclement weather and because there was no suitable runway to operate on.
Officials from the Argentine Foreign Ministry in Brazil and the Military Attaché of our country will be present at the site to put the water treatment plants at the disposal of the Brazilian Military Joint Command that operates in the emergency zone. This was announced by officials from the Ministry of Defense, in charge of Luis Petrito Infobae. Petri personally supervises the operation that is in charge of the Operational Command of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces. This is a Humanitarian Assistance Civil Protection Operation called “Helping Hand”.
“Full collaboration”
On Monday, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement stating that: “As a result of the serious floods that occurred in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the Government of the Argentine Republic, through the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Security and “The White Helmets Commission of this Foreign Ministry has offered its full collaboration to the Government of the Federative Republic of Brazil.”
Mondino informed his Brazilian counterpart, the interim Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Maria Laura da Rocha, that the Milei Government made available to Brazil a brigade composed of twenty troops and canines from the Argentine Federal Police, as well as logistics experts from the White Helmets Commission, a plane to transport people and cargo, water purification pills, three helicopters for transfer and evacuations and two water purification plants, a mobile team with health personnel, tactical divers from the Argentine Navy and engineering units with boats. For now, Da Silva’s administration accepted and thanked the water treatment plants, but it is not ruled out that the donations will continue.
Two days before, on Saturday, May 4, the Foreign Ministry had already expressed: “The Argentine Republic expresses its solidarity with the Government and people of the Federative Republic of Brazil, and The deepest condolences to the families of the victims, in the face of the tragic consequences produced by the floods that affect the south of Brazil, in particular the State of Rio Grande do Sul.”
Relations between Milei and his neighboring peer had been strained after the leader of La Libertad Avanza described Lula Da Silva as “corrupt” and “furious communist”. For her part, Lula warned the president of the United States, Joe Biden that in Argentina the democratic system was in dangerin a clear allusion to Javier Milei.
Argentina’s departure from the BRICS, a group to which the then president Alberto Fernandez had agreed to join before leaving power, and Milei’s decision not to have ties “with communist countries” (among which he included the Lula government), complicated the bilateral relationship from the start.
The tensions came from before. The Brazilian president had expressed his support in the elections for the Union for the Homeland candidate, Sergio Masa. Milei was on close terms with Lula’s rival in that country’s elections, former president Jair Bolsonaro.
On December 10, the day Milei assumed office, Lula Da Silva did not attend the ceremony, he did. Bolsonaro.
On April 17, in a resounding change of strategy, Milei requested, through Foreign Minister Diana Mondino, a meeting with her Brazilian counterpart.
Yesterday, there was another sign of detente in bilateral relations, or the demonstration that diplomacy is on one track and personal preferences on another: the interim Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil received a visit from the secretaries of the Brazilian-Argentine Agency of Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials (ABACC), Agustín Arbor González and Marco March. From the official account of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil they expressed that it is “an innovative and pioneering mechanism to generate trust between Brazil and Argentina for best practices in the field of verification of nuclear activities.”
The humanitarian aid of the Government of La Libertad Avanza accepted by Brazil had already been announced on Tuesday by presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni: “First of all, the government of President Milei wants to express its condolences to the Federative Republic of Brazil for the tragic floods that occurred. there, which have left a balance of – so far – 86 dead and 134 people missing. Argentina, through the White Helmets Commission, will provide humanitarian aid through assistance led by specialists in logistics, shelter management and human rescue; and certain resources have been made available to you, which range from a Hercules C130 of the Air Force, to military helicopters and boats of the Argentine Navy”.
