Brazil President to Cancel Visit to Washington

Relationship damaged over spying allegations

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will call off her state visit to Washington next month after President Barack Obama failed to smooth over relations shaken by allegations of espionage, two government officials said.

The decision to cancel came less than a day after Obama personally called his Brazilian counterpart, the officials said, asking not to be named because Rousseff hasn't publicly announced her decision. She said in a radio interview this morning the announcement would be made today.

The decision is the latest fallout from revelations about U.S. interception of Internet and telephone traffic that was expanded after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Brazil has more to lose than the U.S. by canceling the trip, Gabrielle Trebat, a director at strategic advisory firm McLarty Associates in Washington, said.

Comments

[Killazontherun]

We get along so much better with the world now that George W. Bush is no longer bumbling his way through one foreign policy disaster after another. I knew it would improve when we elected a Constitutional scholar with a deep international background to draw much experience, appreciation and knowledge from, but five years in, it has been beyond my wildest dreams how much the tide has turned. That delightful feeling in the air? It emanates from a grateful, more enlightened nation of people proud of their leader.