Bolsonaro’s Son Wins Backing to Become Brazil’s Ambassador to US

HAVANA TIMES – Brazilian congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of President Jair Bolsonaro [popularly dubbed the Brazilian Trump], said Friday the Foreign Ministry backs his father’s plans to appoint him as the country’s ambassador to the United States, reported dpa news.

“I am not a son of a president who is being raised out of nowhere to this position … I chair the foreign affairs committee [in the House of Deputies], and I have worldly experience,” Eduardo Bolsonaro said after meeting Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo.

The congressman added he had already “fried hamburgers” in the United States and “improved my English” there, the daily Folha de Sao Paulo reported.

Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday that he was considering Eduardo for the post – one of the most important roles for Brazilian diplomats – which has been vacant since April. He denied that the choice was based on Eduardo being his son.

“My son Eduardo speaks English, speaks Spanish … is friends with the children of President Donald Trump,” he said, adding that Eduardo would have to decide whether he wanted the post.

The appointment of a president’s son would be unprecedented in the diplomatic history of Brazil, where ambassadors are usually career diplomats, columnist Diogo Schelp wrote.

The younger Bolsonaro turned 35 – the minimum age for ambassadors – just before his father announced his plans.

“It is a total scandal … a flagrant case of nepotism that cannot be accepted,” Folha de Sao Paulo quoted opposition representative Randolfe Rodrigues as saying.

However, Eduardo Bolsonaro might have an advantage in that he is friends with Ivanka Trump, daughter and adviser to Donald Trump, with whom the far-right President Bolsonaro has formed a close alliance, O Globo quoted diplomats as saying.