Aos trancos e barrancos

Abstract

This article’s objective is to analyze Mercosur’s place in Brazilian foreign policy between 2015 and 2021, a period in which significant changes took place in Brazil’s position in relation to the bloc. Unlike the Lula da Silva (2003-2010) and Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016) administrations, when the country conducted a foreign policy distinguished by its protagonism and priority attributed to Mercosur, from 2015 onwards the bloc lost strategic importance on the Brazilian foreign agenda. The Michel Temer administration was marked by a retraction in regional integration with the expulsion of Venezuela from the bloc, an approximation with the Pacific Alliance and the return to open regionalism. Under the Bolsonaro administration, this agenda of disengaging Mercosur has intensified, as Brazil’s foreign policy had been marked by an “alignment without rewards” with Trump’s United States, up until January 2021. Thus, Mercosur has been going through one of the most difficult periods since its creation in 1991. We understand that, by distancing itself from the region and trying to reverse the previous administrations’ legacy, thereupon leaving Mercosur in a standstill, Brazil has inadvertently weakened its role in regional governance.