Friction between the United States and Brazil over thorny issues related to Iran and Honduras look set to feature when a senior US diplomat’s visits Brasilia on Sunday and Monday.
US Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela, who is in charge of Western hemisphere affairs, is making the trip as part of a six-day South America tour that will take him on to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
In an apparent “snub” from Brazil, Valenzuela will not be seen by Foreign Minister Celso Amorim but rather by a presidential adviser of foreign affairs, Marco Aurelio Garcia, the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper noted.
That lower-level meeting reflects is being seen as a sign of growing divergences between Washington and Brasilia born from Brazil’s increasing clout in Latin America at the expense of the United States.
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