Brazil retreats from its South-South cooperation policy by closing five of its embassies in the Caribbean.

Brazil confirmed the closure Wednesday of five Caribbean embassies to include those in Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The Brazilian Foreign Ministry is also considering more embassy closures in two African countries.

Brazil’s Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo made the official confirmation Wednesday through a press release to the media. His stated justification for the closures was based on “adjusting foreign policy needs to the realities of our resources, both human and financial.”

According to the Itamaraty, the name for the headquarters of the foreign ministry, the closures “will not diminish bilateral relations,” assuring that Brazil’s interests “will be covered by other diplomatic missions in the region that are already prepared or can be optimized to take over new duties.”

These closures represent a departure from the policies backed by former President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and his Workers Party, which opened at least 67 embassies in countries throughout the Global South in a bid to enhance political and economic ties with Brazil and as part of a larger strategy of South-South cooperation.

Despite the insistence that the move is related to costs and available personnel, Brazil's former Foreign Minister, Celso Amorim, told a local media outlet that “the costs of those embassies is minimal. This just shows a lack of interest.”

Araujo was appointed as head of Brazil’s Foreign Ministry by President Jair Bolsonaro in November 2018. His appointment came as a surprise since the relatively young top diplomat was low on the foreign service hierarchy.

Some media reports have speculated that Araujo’s appointment was made in part thanks to a pro-Trump essay he wrote back in 2017 which praised U.S. President Donald Trump, lambasted the United Nations and globalism, and advocated for a Trump-Brazil alliance.

Two other embassies are being assessed for possible closure, both in Africa. Brazil’s Liberian embassy in the capital of Monrovia and Sierra Leone’s embassy in Freetown. Another embassy in Africa, that of Libya, is technically active, but has no staff appointed to it. </s> Patterson emphasized that a divided stance on Venezuela will be “suicidal” for the bloc, reiterating that the Caribbean is a powerful entity but only as a united voice.

Former Prime Minister of Jamaica, Percival James Patterson called on Monday for Caribbean nations to support a united stance on the situation in Venezuela, reminding regional leaders that they had reached a common position repudiating external intervention in the country’s internal affairs.

“We expect all our leaders to act in accordance with that decision and not to veer off in support [of those] who have a contrary view, whether in the halls of the OAS (Organisation of American States) or the corridors at Mar-a-Lago,” Patterson said during the launch of his book, “My Political Journey” at the University of the West Indies (UWI).

Jamaica’s sixth prime minister (1992 - 2006) was referring to a questionable meeting held on March 22 between U.S. President Donald Trump and the presidents of Bahamas, Haiti, Jamaica, and Saint Lucia, held without true representation of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) as their representatives were not invited.

PJ Patterson, as he is widely known, also emphasized that a divided stance on Venezuela will be “suicidal” for the bloc, reiterating that the Caribbean is a powerful entity but only as a united voice. “The Caribbean, we at the OAS are 14 nations strong; we have the voting power,” he added.

If not, the former PM warns that the region will be “reverting to a time we thought we had passed long ago to the days of subservience and being subject to the dictates of others based on their interest.”

On May 1, Caricom called to recommit to a peaceful solution in Venezuela. Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis and Chairman of the group, Timothy Harris said the bloc “has been working earnestly to promote meaningful dialogue and diplomacy, as well as a four-phased process called the Montevideo Mechanism, whose aim is an inclusive and lasting solution.”

While the Caribbean nations of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, all members of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America-Peoples Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP) rejected U.S. imperialism and intervention on Venezuela during the group’s 18th Political Council. </s> The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has mounted an Observation Mission for Antigua and Barbuda’s General Elections on 21 March 2018.

The eight-member Mission, headed by Mr Keith Lowenfield, Chief Election Officer of the Guyana Elections Commission, and including experienced representatives from The Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago, and support staff from the CARICOM Secretariat, began arriving in Antigua and Barbuda on 15 March.

Since its arrival, the Mission met with the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, the Commissioner of Police, and the Leaders of the United Progressive Party (UPP) and the Democratic National Alliance (DNA), and has paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Gaston Browne.

Meetings have also been held with other key stakeholders including the Acting Executive Director of Gender Affairs to gather information and discuss issues which have emerged in the electoral process.

Over the remaining days, the Mission plans to meet other political parties and stakeholders and attend rallies to get a sense of the general atmosphere and the overall level of preparedness.

On election day, the Mission will monitor activities in most constituencies, including the opening of the polls through to the tabulation and announcement of the results. It will then issue a Preliminary Statement outlining its initial assessment of the electoral process and thereafter prepare a Final Report for submission to the CARICOM Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque. </s> Countries & Areas

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"Venezuela expresses its absolute solidarity with the former president of the Federative Republic of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, victim of a judicial inquisition," the foreign ministry said in a statement about the leader who was a potent symbol of Latin America's left.

"The Brazilian and international right, in agreement with servile imperialism, intends to prevent" Brazilian people from re-electing Lula in October elections.

"Comrade Lula is the greatest popular leader in the political history of the South American nation," the ministry said.

Hyperinflation, scarcities of basic food and medicine, and skyrocketing violence are gripping Venezuela.

The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions on President Nicolas Maduro and his officials, with Washington calling him a "dictator."

Brazil's Lula served the first day of a 12-year prison sentence for corruption on Sunday.

The 72-year-old, who served two terms as head of state between 2003 and 2010, entered the prison in the southern city of Curitiba late on Saturday (April 7), becoming Brazil's first ex-president to be jailed as a criminal. </s> Basseterre, St. Kitts-With many countries imposing bans on importing meat from Brazil, the question remains on what will be done in St. Kitts and Nevis?

As of press time, no formal indication has been made from any official in St. Kitts and Nevis on whether there will be a ban implemented on meats from that market which the Federation has been using as a source for importing pork and other meats.

However, investigations reportedly are underway in St. Kitts and Nevis to determine if the local market had been stocked recently with any meat from Brazil.

The Observer reached out to the Permanent Secretary on the Ministry of Agriculture who directed us to speak to either the Chief Medical Officer Dr. Hazel Laws or the Chief Veterinary Officer Dr. Tracy Challenger.

Dr. Challenger told The Observer a decision had been reached in the matter and that a statement would be released shortly. However up until press time Thursday, no such information had yet been disseminated and this publication was able to confirm with a food distributor that no corn beef product had been recalled.

The Observer understands that whatever decision that had been reached would have to be passed on to the relevant Ministers for ratification.

In other parts of the Caribbean Jamaica was the first country earlier this week to announce an embargo on Brazilian corned beef following the reports. Government officials also warned people not to consume Brazilian corned beef indefinitely and announced plans to remove the product from supermarket shelves.

Quickly following Jamaica’s lead were Trinidad and Tobago where media reports indicate that the Ministry of Agriculture made requests for a recall of the possibly contaminated products and put a ban on any meats coming from Brazil.

Other Caribbean countries such as St. Lucia, Barbados and Dominica have also announced plans to ban importing meat from Brazil

CNBC reports that raids conducted last week by Brazilian federal police at several meat-producing plants and the arrest of more than two dozen people was the result of an investigation that multiple major Brazilian meat processors had been selling rotten beef and poultry.

The scandal also involves allegations that government inspectors allowed the rotten and salmonella-tainted meat products to be marketed around the world in exchange for bribes.

The Brazilian companies at the center of the investigation are JBS and BRF. Both deny any wrongdoing. The Brazilian government has since shut down those companies. </s> Brazil's Lula Da Silva Defies Deadline To Hand Himself Over To Police

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's deadline has come and gone, and still the former Brazilian president remains a free man — for now, at least. He has hunkered down with his supporters in a São Paulo suburb, some 280 miles from the southern city of Curitiba, where a judge's order had mandated that he present himself to police by 4 p.m. ET Friday.

Just an hour earlier, the country's top appeals court rejected da Silva's latest bid to stay out of custody while he continues to fight a corruption conviction handed down last year. The latest decision backed the supreme court's 6-5 ruling Wednesday, which concluded he must begin his 12-year prison sentence for graft and money laundering.

Da Silva, 72, has been free during the appeals process.

The ruling has deeply complicated the political prospects for the wildly popular two-term ex-president, who left office about seven years ago with high approval ratings and now commands a significant lead in the 2018 presidential race.

That popularity was on display at the metalworkers' union in São Bernardo do Campo, where da Silva is staying — and where, as NPR's Philip Reeves reports, thousands of people have gathered all day. As soon as the clock passed the appointed surrender time, those supporters burst out in song: "Olê, olê, olá, Lulá, Lulá!"

Da Silva, his Workers' Party and his supporters have cast the conviction as the machinations of a ruling elite seeking to prevent him from running. The party tweeted that Wednesday's ruling was "a tragic day for democracy and for Brazil," adding in another tweet that "there is no justice in this decision."

Da Silva was caught up in Operation Car Wash, a massive corruption probe that has also implicated Brazil's sitting president, Michel Temer, and several of the country's most influential business leaders. According to investigators, da Silva accepted illegal kickbacks in exchange for favors on government contracts.

"It's important to show that people are going to jail for doing wrong things, even if it was an ex-president," one protester told Philip earlier this week, during a demonstration urging the supreme court to rule against da Silva.

On Tuesday, not long before the ruling against da Silva, the commander of Brazil's army weighed in. The military, like "all good citizens, repudiates impunity and respects the Constitution, social peace and democracy," Gen. Eduardo Villas Boas tweeted, according to a Reuters translation.

"In Brazil's current situation," he said, "it is up to the institutions and citizens to ask who is really thinking of the well-being of our country and its future generations and who is only concerned about personal interests." </s> RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s justice minister on Saturday questioned the authenticity of leaked personal messages published by a news website that appear to show him when he was still a judge improperly advising prosecutors in a case against former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The Intercept posted purported chats between then-judge Sergio Moro and ex-prosecutor Carlos Dos Santos Lima in which Moro offers strategy advice to the prosecutor in the corruption case against da Silva. According to the website, the conversation suggests Moro acted “as an informal coordinator” of the prosecution in the judicial process that led to da Silva’s conviction for receiving a beachfront apartment as a bribe.

The website said Moro at one point suggested the prosecutors release a statement highlighting contradictions in da Silva’s declaration.

The conviction ended da Silva’s 2018 presidential run and Moro went on to become justice minister in President Jair Bolsonaro’s government.

A statement from the Justice Ministry, led by Moro, said it did not recognize the authenticity of the messages. It said the messages were leaked because of a “criminal invasion by hackers.”

It reiterated that “the supposed material must be presented to an independent authority for certification.”

Moro and prosecutors deny any wrongdoing, but the Brazilian Bar Association has called for the suspension of the minister and others pending an inquiry.

On Thursday, Bolsonaro offered words of support for his justice minister, saying Moro’s accomplishments in the sprawling Car Wash investigation have “no price.”

Launched in 2014, Car Wash has looked into billions of dollars in contracts with oil-giant Petrobras and ended the careers of some of the most prominent business and political figures in the South American nation.

In an interview recorded earlier this week in Curitibia, where da Silva has been held in a federal prison since April 7, 2018, Brazil’s former president said the leaked communications between the members of the Car Wash task force and then-judge Moro demonstrate what he has been saying all along.

“I take advantage now to tell you that I’m happy because the country is finally going to know the truth. I always said that Moro is a liar,” da Silva said.

Copyright © 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area. </s> Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was negotiating his surrender Friday from the headquarters of the steelworkers union where he began his rise to national prominence.

Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was negotiating his surrender Friday from the headquarters of the steelworkers union where he began his rise to national prominence. Photo: SEBASTIAO MOREIRA/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock

SÃO PAULO—Brazil’s former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, missed a deadline to turn himself in Friday as he negotiated the terms of his surrender to begin serving a 12-year jail term in a case that has mesmerized this country, said a person familiar with the talks.

The 72-year-old was expected to spend at least a second night in a trade union hall after being ordered on Thursday to surrender by 5 p.m. local time Friday or face arrest.

Mr. da Silva was holed up in the headquarters of a metalworkers union hall in São Bernardo, the industrial suburb of São Paulo where he began his rise to national prominence as a union activist in the 1970s. Both a polarizing and popular figure, the man known across Latin America as Lula had quickly attracted supporters from his Workers’ Party, who gathered outside the union hall and pledged to protect their leader from the police.

The former president’s defenders gathered on a narrow, mostly residential street as Mr. da Silva conferred inside the six-story building, which was draped with banners reading “No to Lula’s imprisonment” and “Election without Lula is a fraud.” A sound truck was parked outside, its giant loudspeakers blasting samba between speeches from Mr. da Silva’s supporters. Street vendors sold beer, ice cream and barbecued meat.

“An innocent man does not surrender,” said Ângela Kinzu, 62, who was among those who arrived at the union headquarters. “We are in a war.”

They and other Brazilians who support Mr. da Silva see the court order and last year’s conviction against him—part of a broad investigation of corruption that has led to the jailing of dozens of public officials and businessmen—as a conspiracy to end his drive to win back the presidency. Polls showed the former president topped all candidates ahead of the October election.

At the union hall, Mr. da Silva’s supporters formed a human barrier to protect their leader through much of Friday. Many wore the red that symbolizes the Workers’ Party, which held power here from 2003 until 2016.

“The right-wing wants to keep the workers away from power,” said Marcos Ferraz, 58, who was selling $7 red T-shirts with Mr. da Silva’s image. “There is a prejudice against the working class.”

Marco Antonio Silva, 26, a law student, said that he joined in to “support and defend democracy.” To him, arresting Mr. da Silva amounts to “an aggression against the constitution.”

The case against Mr. da Silva has led to a spectacular fall from grace for a man who went from fighting a military dictatorship in the early 1980s to leading an increasingly powerful labor movement that brought him to the presidency in 2003.

Assisted by high commodity prices and demand from China, Brazil under Mr. da Silva maintained a balanced federal budget while attracting investment and funding social programs that helped 30 million rise from poverty. That made him famous world-wide, with Barack Obama once hailing him as “the most popular politician on Earth.”

But the China-fueled boom waned in the last decade. His handpicked successor, Dilma Rousseff, saw Brazil’s debt plunge back into junk status as the economy sank into recession. In 2016, she was impeached and replaced by her conservative former ally, Michel Temer.

Mr. da Silva was found guilty of accepting a penthouse apartment from a construction firm in exchange for favors. The ex-president has denied the charges, and his lawyers have said that he should remain free as he exhausts all appeals.

Write to Jeffrey T. Lewis at jeffrey.lewis@wsj.com, Luciana Magalhães at Luciana.Magalhaes@wsj.com and Paulo Trevisani at paulo.trevisani@wsj.com
Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirms the closure of five of its embassies, the ones in Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis and Dominica. Former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had opened more than 65 embassies in countries throughout the Global South in a bid to enhance political and economic ties with Brazil.