Source: Map Resources, adapted by Congressional Research Service 

Brazil: A Rising Power

With the fifth largest landmass in the world and the largest population in Latin America (home to roughly one third of the region’s total population), Brazil is a prominent regional power. The country has become a cornerstone of South American growth, which can be attributed to its vast resource-rich territory, which contains most of the Amazon rainforest. With the world’s eighth largest economy, Brazil has been recognized as an emerging world power. Brazil is part of BRICS, the acronym used to designate the world’s most influential emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). Brazil has also asserted its growing international influence by advocating for better representation of developing nations in international bodies; for example, Brazil has claimed it has a right to a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. As Brazil’s role in hemispheric and global affairs becomes more prominent, so does the influence the country exerts on international policy issues that affect the United States. 

Fact sheet

• Population: 213,445,417
• Capital: Brasília
• System of Governance: Federal Representative Democratic Republic, under a Presidential System
• President: Jair Messias Bolsonaro
• Majority Language: Portuguese 
• Majority Religion: Roman Catholic (64.6%)
• GDP Per Capita: 6,796.8 
• Global Freedom Score: 74/100
• GINI Index: 53.5

Brief History with the U.S. 

U.S.-Brazil relations are characterized by unsatisfactory efforts to establish a so-called ‘special relationship’ based on the features these countries share: both are young, multi-racial democracies with open economies. For the most part, Brazil has largely avoided this special status and replaced it with cautious distancing. Still, and despite mutual misunderstandings and tensions, the United States enjoys a friendly relationship with Brazil. The U.S. was the first nation to recognize Brazil’s independence from Portugal in 1822. After breaking off from Portugal, Brazilians established a constitutional monarchy and retained its slave-based plantation economy. It was not until 1888 (23 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in the U.S.) that Brazil finally abolished slavery and put an end to its longstanding monarchy by founding a constitutional republic. 

The first decades after independence were characterized by the rule of an authoritarian oligarchy. Coffee plantation owners remained in control of Brazil’s economic and political power. This oligarchical rule came to an end with the rise of the populist Getúlio Vargas from 1930-1945, who devised a unique development model known as Estado Novo, or “New State,” characterized by a combination of union participation and industrialization projects. This model, which endured for much of the 20th century, propelled Brazil to become a South American giant. Brazil sided with the Allied Powers during World War II, ultimately sending 15,000 troops to support the U.S.-led military campaign in Italy. Brazil was the only Latin American country to send military personnel to the battlefield. However, the relationship frayed after the US allocated most of its resources to Europe’s reconstruction under the Marshall Plan, leaving Latin Americans virtually unaided. 

Brazil’s democratic rule came suddenly to an end in 1964, following a military coup that was encouraged and welcomed by the United States. The military government indirectly advanced U.S. interests in the region during the Cold War. For example, the dictatorship actively repressed urban guerrillas and targeted leftist leaders as part of what is known as “Operação Condor,” a secret multi-country counterinsurgency campaign carried out by several military governments in the region and backed by the United States. However, there was no direct coordination between Washington and Brasília; during the Cold War, Brazil sought to pursue an independent foreign policy to distance itself from the United States. This distancing approach became a characteristic element of Brazilian foreign policy for decades to come. The military regime in Brazil was highly repressive, killing more than 8,000 people and at least 434 political dissidents, and detaining and torturing an estimated 30,000-50,000 others. The military rule lasted for more than two decades, until the civilian rule was restored in 1985.

Brazil’s record high inflation during the 1990s triggered political instability and culminated with a set of market-oriented reforms known as “Plan Real“. The government privatized many state-run industries and opened the Brazilian economy to foreign investment. In 2003, center-left President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva expanded welfare programs and, by 2010, poverty rates had fallen from 28.2 to 13.6%. Although President Lula maintained a traditionally distant relationship with the United States, he became an important ally for George W. Bush, which was advantageous in a moment when the anti-American sentiment in the region grew, embodied by figures like Hugo Chávez in Venezuela.

In 2008, as the U.S. economy shrank due to the global Great Recession, the Brazilian economy withstood the economic blow, catapulting the South American nation as a prominent voice in global macroeconomic discussions ever since. The result was an assertive Brazilian foreign policy that often soured relations with the United States during the center-left administrations of Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff. For example, Brazil’s decision to support Iran’s nuclear program was resented by Washington. The U.S. has also been hesitant to support Brazil’s membership to the United Nations Security Council. Conversely, Brazil criticized the U.S.’ role in Honduras’ 2009 political crisis, and expressed opposition to Washington’s embargo to Cuba and to the U.S.-Colombia security agreements. 

After Brazil fell into an economic recession in 2014, and a series of corruption scandals led to President Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment, Brazilians elected Jair Bolsonaro. A far-right conservative, he has departed from his predecessors’ traditionally independent foreign policy by deliberately moving Brazil towards alignment with the U.S, especially during the Trump administration. Nevertheless, President Bolsonaro has proven to be a controversial figure. He defended the crimes committed by the dictatorial rule of 1964 and has expressed prejudice towards marginalized communities in Brazilian society. Bolsonaro has also been criticized for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, after the healthcare system collapsed. The death toll has surpassed half a million, only overtaken by the U.S. and India. Although the Brazilian president was among the few leaders who refused to recognize Biden’s electoral victory, he has expressed interest in cooperating with the new White House. 

U.S. Strategic Interests:

• Trade: Although U.S. trade relations with Brazil have been robust, (mutual trade amounts to $103.9 billion), they have been a major source of controversy. Unlike most Latin American countries, who have heavily relied on U.S. trade, Brazil has turned south and eastward by prioritizing trade through the Southern Common Market, or Mercosur (a free trade agreement between members of the Southern Cone) and the World Trade Organization. In fact, Brazil blocked U.S. efforts to establish a hemispheric-wide free trade agreement in the 1990s and 2000s. In addition, Brazil’s strong trade ties with China have led to animosity between Brasília and Washington. Brazil’s main trading partner is China, not the U.S. The Brazilian economy has benefited from accessing China’s populous market. Chinese presence in Brazil has interfered with U.S. interests in this country. For example, China’s imports of Brazilian soybeans are devastating the Amazon rainforest, threatening U.S. investments in environmental protection. China is also set to install a 5G network in Brazilian territory, a prospect that has raised concerns among the intelligence community in Washington, since intelligence sharing with Brazil might be less secure. Yet, trade with Brazil has given the U.S. a $12.2 billion trade surplus.

• Military and security cooperation: Brazil has coordinated humanitarian assistance efforts alongside the U.S. military. In 2010, the Brazilian government began to work more closely with U.S. intelligence agencies by facilitating and sharing classified information. Intelligence cooperation was further strengthened in 2017 with the implementation of the Master information Exchange Agreement, which allowed both countries to pursue defense-related military technology. The U.S. has also appropriated $666,000 to train the Brazilian military and strengthen coordination efforts between both military forces, as well as selling Brazil military equipment worth $11.2 million dollars. President Bolsonaro aligned Brazilian defense strategy with the U.S., particularly during the Trump administration, which designated Brazil as a major non-NATO ally. The Biden administration has endorsed the designation. 

• Environmental conservation of the Amazon: Because of its tremendous size and biodiversity, the Amazon rainforest plays a crucial role in regulating the globe’s climate. The Amazon Basin absorbs 560 million tons of carbon dioxide per year and holds 76 billion tons of carbon—an amount equivalent to seven years of global carbon emissions. The U.S. government has supported environmental protection of the Amazon since the 1980s. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has implemented comprehensive conservation programs through the establishment of the U.S.-Brazilian Partnership for the Conservation of Amazon Biodiversity (PCAB). The U.S. has also provided technical assistance to Brazilian authorities on fire prevention, and NASA offers close monitoring of the rainforests.

• Narcotics: Although Brazil is not known for being a major drug producer, it is the world’s second largest consumer of cocaine hydrochloride. Recent increases in violence, particularly in the northern region of the country, have been attributed to clashes between criminal organizations that seek to control strategic trafficking routes. In 2008, the U.S. supported counternarcotics capacity-building efforts in Brazil under a U.S.-Brazil Memorandum of Understanding on Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement. A decade later, the U.S. trained nearly 1,000 Brazilian law enforcement agents on counternarcotics and community policing. 

• Human rights concerns: The U.S. Congress has expressed interest in ensuring that the U.S.-trained Brazilian forces strictly comply with human rights standards. In a 2020 report, the U.S. government also expressed concerns about the standing of human rights in Brazil under the Bolsonaro presidency, including extrajudicial killings of Afro-Brazilians at the hands of police, mass incarceration and inhumane imprisonment, extreme violence against journalists, Jews, women, and LGBTQ+ individuals, as well as violence and threats against environmental, indigenous and black activists. The killing of human rights defender Marielli Franco in March of 2018 shocked the country and revealed how hostile Brazil is to activists. A couple of years later, after the killing of George Floyd in the United States, the Black Lives Matter movement became widespread in Brazil, pushing back against police brutality and racism.