Just come across Gabriel Elizondo’s sharp piece on Aljazeera, in which he runs down how various Latin American governments have responded, or failed to respond, to recent events in Libya. The verdict on the Rousseff government is particularly damning:

Bottom line: Unlike every other country in Latin America, Brazil has some real diplomatic influence and leverage it could try to use in Libya and inside the halls of the U.N. But so far, the South American giant appears perfectly happy sitting on the sidelines as a quiet spectator.

Elizondo gently suggests that this might have something to do with the country’s massive trade surplus with the Arab world, something he explored in detail in an earlier piece on Brazil’s extensive business interests in Libya. Both articles are well worth a read.