In his second week in office, far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has pulled the country out of a U.N. migration pact, fulfilling a pledge he made before taking office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Brazilian diplomats told<\/a> local media on Tuesday that the country officially left the agreement. A diplomat also told Reuters<\/a> that Brazil has exited the pact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bolsonaro appeared to confirm the withdrawal on Wednesday, tweeting, <\/a>“No to the compact on migration.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Defense of national sovereignty was one of our campaign’s banners and it will be a priority of our government,” he wrote. “The Brazilians and immigrants who live here will be safer under rules that we ourselves make, without external pressure.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brazil’s departure from the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration marks the latest rejection of the non-binding agreement, which has drawn protest across the world, especially from far-right politicians in Europe. Nearly 30 countries, including the United States, refused to sign<\/a> the pact in December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n By subscribing, you agree to NPR’s terms of use<\/a> and privacy policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Brazil was among the majority of countries that signed onto the compact, under the country’s previous administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bolsonaro’s decision to leave the agreement follows guarantees the president-elect and his foreign minister made last month<\/a>, after a polarizing <\/a>election and runoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The Bolsonaro government will withdraw from the Global Compact on Migration being launched in Marrakech, an inadequate instrument for dealing with the problem,” tweeted<\/a> Ernesto Ara\u00fajo, now the country’s foreign minister, in December. “Immigration must not be dealt with as a global issue, but rather in accord with each country’s reality and sovereignty.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than 700,000 registered immigrants live in Brazil, according to the Migration Policy Institute<\/a>, along with several hundred thousand more undocumented immigrants. By far the largest segment comes from Portugal, followed by Japan, Italy, Paraguay and Bolivia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Brazil has become one of the primary destinations for an increasing number of Venezuelans fleeing a political and economic crisis at home. At least 65,000 Venezuelans have sought asylum in Brazil over the last four years, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Geoff Ramsey, assistant director for Venezuela at the Washington Office on Latin America, told NPR last fall<\/a> that about a dozen tent camps were operating on the Brazilian-Venezuelan border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last month, Ara\u00fajo tweeted that Brazil would “continue to welcome” Venezuelan asylum-seekers even when it withdrew from the compact, though it would also focus on the “restoration of democracy in Venezuela.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n The U.N. accord has become a focal point for anti-immigrant sentiment, particularly in Europe. Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right National Rally, called the agreement “a pact with the devil<\/a>.” And in Brussels last month, thousands of protesters took to the streets<\/a>carrying anti-immigration banners as they rallied against the pact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Trump administration refused to participate <\/a>in the agreement more than a year ago, while other countries agreed to the pact last summer but pulled out<\/a> before it was formally adopted, including Austria, Hungary, Italy, Chile and Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bolsonaro’s government, now just over a week old, has drawn comparisons<\/a> to the current U.S. administration, including in its rhetoric on refugees. On Wednesday, the Brazilian president echoed President Trump’s language comparing national security to home security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “If we decide who we let into our own houses, why would we do any differently when it comes to our Brazil?” he tweeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In a televised address on Tuesday night, Trump argued <\/a>for his proposed border wall by pointing out that “wealthy politicians build walls, fences, and gates around their homes.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bolsonaro has taken his victory as a “mandate” to change the country’s foreign policy, according to an op-ed by his foreign minister<\/a> published in Bloomberg on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “We are convinced that Brazil has a much larger role to play in the world than the one we currently attribute to ourselves,” Ara\u00fajo wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In his second week in office, far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has pulled the country out of a U.N. migration pact, fulfilling a pledge he made before taking office. Brazilian diplomats told local media on Tuesday that the country officially left the agreement. A diplomat also told Reuters that Brazil has exited the pact. Bolsonaro appeared to confirm the withdrawal on Wednesday, tweeting, “No to the… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2944"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2945,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2944\/revisions\/2945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/theamericasblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}EUROPE<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Protesters And Police Clash In Brussels At Rally Against UN Migration Pact<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
WORLD<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A U.N. Migration Pact Is Dividing Europe \u2014 And Has Become Fodder For Nationalists<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
LATIN AMERICA<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Brazil’s Far-Right Candidate Jair Bolsonaro Wins Presidential Election<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n