Ernesto Henrique Fraga Araújo (born 15 May 1967) is a Brazilian

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

and Brazil's former

Minister of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and foreign relations, relations, diplomacy, bilateralism, ...

. Chosen by Brazil's president

Jair Bolsonaro Jair Messias Bolsonaro (; born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and former military officer who served as the 38th president of Brazil from 2019 to 2023. He previously served as a member of Brazil's Chamber of Deputies (Brazil), Chamb ...

in January 2019 following a suggestion made by Olavo de Carvalho, Araújo subscribes to theories such as man-made climate change is untrue and a "communist plot", " globalism" is a process driven by " cultural Marxism", and the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

is the result of another communist plot he dubbed "comunavirus".

Career

Araújo is a career diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (often called Itamaraty after its headquarters). He served in Itamaraty's division of

Mercosur The Southern Common Market (commonly known by abbreviation ''Mercosur'' in Spanish and ''Mercosul'' in Portuguese) is a South American trade bloc established by the Treaty of Asunción in 1991 and Protocol of Ouro Preto in 1994. Its full me ...

affairs from 1991 to 1995, from 2007 to July 2010 and from 2010 to 2015 he was deputy chief at the Brazilian Embassies in

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

and in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, respectively. In June 2018, he was promoted to the rank of First Class Minister in the Brazilian Foreign Service, a career diplomat's top rank, that allows them to be posted as Ambassadors. In the custom of the Brazilian Foreign Service, First Class Ministers are styled "Ambassador" even when they have not yet assumed the direction of an embassy, as was the case with Araújo.

Foreign Affairs Minister (2019–21)

After the election of

as President of Brazil in October 2018, the newly promoted Ambassador Araújo was chosen to be the Foreign Minister in the new Administration. The choice was considered unusual. Araújo was not an influential member of Itamaraty, being described by ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'' as "hitherto-obscure diplomat", and got the job after a suggestion by Olavo de Carvalho. An anonymous group of Brazilian diplomats published a manifesto lamenting his appointment and claiming Araújo is "manifestly unprepared" and holds "ridiculous" and "absurd" opinions. Others, also speaking anonymously, described him as an "extremely scholarly man", with profound knowledge of ancient history. Araújo assumed office as foreign minister on 1 January 2019. On 8 January 2019, he asked diplomats to inform the UN that Brazil had withdrawn from the

Global Compact for Migration The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) is an intergovernmentally negotiated agreement, prepared under the auspices of the United Nations, that describes itself as covering "all dimensions of international migration in a ...

. Araújo resigned from office on 29 March 2021, after pressure from Brazilian senators due to his behaviour with foreign partners, specifically China.

Positions

During the PT administrations, Araújo publicly supported the core elements of Lula da Silva's and

Dilma Rousseff Dilma Vana Rousseff (; born 14 December 1947) is a Brazilian economist and politician who served as the 36th president of Brazil from 2011 until her impeachment and removal from office on 31 August 2016. She is the only woman to have held the ...

's foreign policy. In 2008, for instance, he criticized those who called their progressive agenda "ideological" and defended the right of

Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; ; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician, Bolivarian Revolution, revolutionary, and Officer (armed forces), military officer who served as the 52nd president of Venezuela from 1999 until De ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

to be a member of

. More recently, he began to state opinions that apparently denied his own previous positions. In a 2017 article published by the International Relations Research Institute (IPRI), Araújo praised U.S. President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

for his nationalist rhetoric and holds that he is restoring Western values that have been challenged by

nihilism Nihilism () encompasses various views that reject certain aspects of existence. There have been different nihilist positions, including the views that Existential nihilism, life is meaningless, that Moral nihilism, moral values are baseless, and ...

, which he believes is the Western enemy that replaced

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

. In the same article, he praises the self-declared neo-fascist political analyst Aleksandr Dugin, whose books, according to Araújo, "should be studied". According to Paulo Roberto de Almeida, a senior Brazilian diplomat, Araújo's apparent ideological U-turn was a "deliberate" move to please Olavo de Carvalho and "get the job" in the Bolsonaro administration. Araújo also maintains a blog entitled "Metapolitics 17 – Against Globalism", where he writes that globalism "is the economic globalization that has been driven by cultural Marxism" and that is "essentially anti-human and anti-Christian". On his blog, Araújo has also claimed that climate change is a "cultural Marxism" plot to undermine Western countries in order to support China's growth, and has also lamented the "criminalisation" of

red meat In gastronomy, red meat is commonly red when raw (and a dark color after it is cooked), in contrast to white meat, which is pale in color before (and after) cooking. In culinary terms, only flesh from mammals or fowl (not fish) is classified ...

, oil and

heterosexual Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions ...

sex. He has also claimed that

Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

was a leftist movement. His statement was criticised by German historians and scholars, such as Stefanie Schüler-Springorum and Wulf Kansteiner, as "nonsense" and "scientifically absurd". He has called for Brazil to build a new alliance with the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

Serbia , image_flag = Flag of Serbia.svg , national_motto = , image_coat = Coat of arms of Serbia.svg , national_anthem = () , image_map = , map_caption = Location of Serbia (gree ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

and the

Visegrád Group The Visegrád Group (also known as the Visegrád Four or the V4) is a cultural and political alliance of four Central European countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The alliance aims to advance co-operation in military, e ...

nations.

Personal life

Araújo was born in

Porto Alegre Porto Alegre (, ; , ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian Federative units of Brazil, state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of roughly 1.4 million inhabitants (2022) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, 11th-most p ...

on 15 May 1967. He graduated from the

University of Brasília A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

, where he studied linguistics and literature, and was trained as a diplomat at the Rio Branco Institute. Araújo is a practising

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

. His father, , worked as an Attorney General of the Brazilian military dictatorship. During his tenure, Henrique Fonseca de Araújo acted to prevent Gustav Franz Wagner, a Nazi official and deputy commander of the Sobibór extermination camp, from being extradited to Germany. After the War, Wagner had managed to escape to Brazil, where he died some years after having his extradition denied by the Brazilian dictatorship. In his blog, Araújo defended his father, saying that he was not a Nazi supporter and only acted according to the "rule of law".

References

External links

Profile at Wilson CenterPersonal Blog

Trump and the West
by Ernesto Araújo {{DEFAULTSORT:Araújo, Ernesto 1967 births Living people 20th-century Roman Catholics 21st-century Roman Catholics Anti-globalization writers Brazilian anti-communists Brazilian conspiracy theorists Brazilian diplomats Brazilian male non-fiction writers Brazilian Roman Catholic writers Far-right politics in Brazil Ministers of foreign affairs of Brazil People from Porto Alegre University of Brasília alumni