The Brazilian Foreign Ministry recalled its ambassador to Buenos Aires and summoned Argentina’s envoy in Brasilia for an explanation after President Javier Milei insulted his counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, during a visit to São Paulo to support Lula’s electoral rival, Flávio Bolsonaro. Speaking at a convention of Brazil’s Liberal Party on Saturday, Milei referred to Lula, without naming him directly, as a ‘thief,’ a ‘former convict’ and a ‘totalitarian.’ ‘If in Argentina we have what we used to call the ‘Kuka Risk’ as an economic factor, here in Brazil today you have the ‘Lula Risk’,” Milei said, referring to sovereign risk. Kuka is a pejorative term used in Argentina for supporters of former presidents Néstor and Cristina Kirchner and their political movement.
Milei also accused the Brazilian government of orchestrating and financing an “anti-Argentina campaign” during the 2026 World Cup, following accusations of racism and cheating directed at the country and its players. “Do you know who put the most money into this anti-Argentina campaign? The Brazilian government,” Milei said in an interview with Radio Mitre after returning from São Paulo on Sunday.
“Twenty-five percent of the funds came from the Brazilian government. And then they come and talk about interference,” he added, without providing evidence to support the claim. Although Da Silva and Milei have been at odds since the latter became president, the comments made by Milei and the decision taken by the Brazilian Foreign Ministry represent a new peak in diplomatic tension between the two governments.
Diplomatic crisis Following Milei’s remarks, Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira recalled Brazil’s ambassador to Argentina, Julio Bitelli, on Sunday. Vieira also summoned Argentina’s ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Raimondi, “to express the Brazilian government’s condemnation of the offensive remarks made by President Javier Milei during his private visit to São Paulo on July 25” and to demand an explanation “regarding the Argentine president’s conduct on Brazilian soil,” according to a statement from Brazil’s Foreign Ministry. “There is no precedent for a foreign president who, while on Brazilian soil, has repeatedly committed acts of aggression and hurled insults against the Head of State, democratic institutions — including the judiciary — and the Brazilian people,” the statement said.
Summary from source