US gov’t nominates new ambassador to Brazil
The US government nominated a new ambassador to occupy the diplomatic post in Brazil. Elizabeth Frawly Bagley will lead the US Embassy in Brasília as well as the diplomatic relations between the two countries.
To confirm the position, the appointment must be considered by the US Senate. The embassy did not state when the vote should take place.
Bagley is a lawyer and a diplomat. She is currently director at a telecom company in Arizona state. Her only experience as an ambassador was in charge of a US diplomatic representation in Portugal.
The diplomat worked as adviser for state secretaries during the administration of democrats Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. In her diplomatic career, she has also occupied special representative posts for the UN Assembly and global partnerships.
In the view of Ana Garcia, International Relations Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), the move must be seen as part of President Joe Biden’s revamp, an attempt to step up the fight against the pandemic and recover both the economy and his external policy.
“In Brazil’s case, the change in ambassadors takes place in an electoral year, and this is not irrelevant in the field of external relations. Brazil is crucial for the US in the continent, because it’s a country that can still have diplomatic force ahead of China, something that’s been difficult to find in other Latin American countries
Elizabeth Bagley stands in a fairly advantageous position in the Democratic Party, Professor Garcia went on to mention, and has a long history in the private sector. “The Brazilian government should have in this ambassador an important reference figure for building closer ties with the US,” she concluded.
