99 Brasilia 03166: ONDCP Director Meets President Cardoso: Affable, Useful Meeting*

*Note:  See also two previous posts.

99 Brasilia 03129: ONDCP Director McCaffery's Visit to Brasilia*

*Note:  One of my chief jobs -- given to me while I was still in Washington -- was to get along with Judge Maerovitch.  He was somewhat prickly and initially unfriendly towards DEA.  By the time I left Brasilia, our relations were cooperative.  The photo below shows a high point of our relationship when the Judge agreed to meet with me in the Embassy (ambassador's office).

From the Journal Entry for August 22, 1999: High Level Visits

The weather seems to be getting warmer again – after a record breaking cool snap – but that is only relative.  Still lower 80’s in the day and around 60 at night.  The light seems to be changing too, getting whiter, which makes sense since the sun is now two months past solstice.  I am typing away – hunt and peck as usual – despite having a metal appliance on my injured left pinky.  Shortly we will take our first trip to the Botanical Garden.

It has been a busy several days and the crescendo is still coming.  At midnight, I go to the airport to meet [ONDCP Director} General McCaffrey.  We will have a full day tomorrow including meetings with the President and various ministers plus press events and an evening reception.  On Tuesday arrives the President’s Special Envoy, Gov. Buddy MacKay, and on Thursday we get Governor Hunt of North Carolina.  The household staff has been preparing to feed some 200 people and everyone at the embassy has been working on schedules, etc.  All this amidst efforts to clarify that the U.S. doesn’t really expect Brazil to join us in invading Colombia and otherwise manage issues such as who outside the Embassy can use the Embassy pool.

99 Brasilia 02982: A/S Newsom Meets U/S Canabrava During Pol/Mil Consultations to Discuss Improving Dialogue and Colombia

99 Brasilia 02973: Brazilian Role in Angola

From Journal Entry for August 8, 1999: Typical "work" for a Chief of Mission

This morning, we all went to the Flag Changing ceremony at the Praca dos Tres Poderes (Square of the Three Powers). Every month there is an official ceremony in which the national flag – the biggest in Brazil – is lowered and a new one takes its place. The flagpole is a soaring sculpture in itself at one end of Brasilia’s version of the monumental mall. The space is flanked by the Congress, the Supreme Court and Planalto (the President’s offices) -- thus Tres Poderes. I was invited to attend with my family*. We all got dressed and were picked up by the Lincoln at 8:30. We had a bit of shade in the VIP area and were surrounded by more four-star officers than we ever saw. The Church was present too (some cardinal). We were treated to a marching band from the Military High School of Brasilia, which had a live sheep for its mascot.

 

Yesterday we had a newly arrived family over for lunch....  asked the staff to do a Brazilian barbecue. The food went great with the caipirinhas, the company, the sun and the pool. [My wife] – a bit reluctant at first to have our domestics asked to work on Saturday (it is part of their work schedule but we don’t usually utilize it) – enjoyed lunch enough to suggest we do it every weekend. On Friday night, we went to the Bolivian National Day reception while Andy went on a sleep over. This evening, Andy and I will have a guest box at the local soccer stadium to see Gama play Guarani. The workweek is pretty full and we are entering a busy period with lots of visitors coming down. But I like what I’m doing and we all are having a good time.

*Note:  My family joined me in Brasilia for a few weeks during the summer break.

99 Brasilia 02892: Brazil and Colombia