MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian VP attends presidential inauguration in Argentina, calls for mutual help

“In a political gesture, President @jairbolsonaro appointed me to represent him at the inauguration of #Argentina President Alberto Fernández @alferdez. I leave Brasilia now for Buenos Aires,” posted

Brazil's Vicepresident Hamilton Mourao Tuesday said in Buenos Aires that his country and Argentina must help each other as he attended President Alberto Fernández' inauguration after news reports had heralded the Jair Bolsonaro administration was not sending any dignitaries for the occasion.

Mourao, a retired army general, hinted the Argentine crisis played a role in Brazil's low economic growth in 2019.

“Many of the things we had this year in Brazil, of not having reached certain levels of growth, are the result of the crisis that Argentina is going through, the two countries that must help each other,” Mourao.

The Argentine recession prevented, according to Brazilian industrialists, an increase in exports of cars manufactured in Brazil, among other products.

The vicepresident arrived in Buenos Aires Monday evening after extensive debate within the Bolsonaro government, who favoured Mauricio Macri's reelection and threatened to break up Mercosur if Fernández won, but eventually gave in and appointed Mourao to head his country's delegation.

“It is obvious that the president's political gesture was to send the vicepresident to represent him,” said Mourao, who is considered a conciliator who has managed to bring China closer to a government aligned with Washington. “It is obvious that he [Bolsonaro] took into account [the fact] that Argentina is Brazil's third largest trading partner” behind China and the United States as well as the top buyer of Brazilian industrial exports.

Mourao also said Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo and his newly-appointed Argentine colleague future Felipe Solá should meet “in due course.”