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Piauí Magazine
March 2009

Family Matters
Diplomacy arrives on the scene
by Dorrit Harazim
Translation and adaptation by Rachel Glickhouse

[ Page 4 of 4 ]

avid Goldman took a train to Washington without even unpacking his suitcases from his trip to Brazil. A meeting with Antonio Patriota, the Ambassador of Brazil in Washington had been scheduled for that same day. Last December, the State Department had mediated a meeting request between the two parties, and the task of receiving the American visitor fell to the Consul General of Brazil, Ambassador Almir Barbuda.

A week later, in New York, while dozens of people rallied on the sidewalk in front of the Brazilian Consulate with signs demanding Sean’s return, Goldman was also received sympathetically by Minister Frederico Arruda. But the meeting on February 12th with Ambassador Patriota, which took place in Congressman Chris Smith’s office, can be considered an indication that the case is now definitively on the two countries’ diplomatic agendas.

In Brazil, it was Ash Wednesday. In the United States, the February 25th edition of the New York Times printed a long story on page 21, with 28 paragraphs, entitled “Custody case tests abduction laws and U.S.-Brazil ties.” Written by Kirk Semple with reporting from the newspaper’s correspondent in Brazil, Alexei Barrionuevo, the story had an immediate effect on the Brazilian media.

Until then, the case of the youngster had been buried in most of Brazilian editorial offices, due to personal choices of the reporters and the media corporation owners, or as the result of gag orders emitted at the request of the Lins e Silva family to block the story, in a strict interpretation of the fact that the case was protected by the secrecy of justice. The publication of the story by the most prestigious newspaper in the world, with first and last names in full, unleashed a great rush to go after the protagonists. Goldman and his lawyer responded to an average of five requests per day. The Lins e Silva family, who had so far always refused to be available for interviews on the record, eventually agreed to enter the dispute to try to influence public opinion. A news program anchored by Carlos Nascimento, from the channel SBT, ended up being the first Brazilian TV program to break the Goldman story.

The New York Times story of Feb 25 story was also a preview of what was to come that same afternoon in Washington. “The case has become a sore point in the relationship between the United States and Brazil, and will be on the agenda for the meeting [scheduled for that day] between Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Brazilian Chancellor Celso Amorim.” According to a State Department official, the case of the American father David Goldman from New Jersey was, indeed, not merely one of the items, but the first item on Hillary’s agenda with Celso Amorim. According to the same source, the Secretary of State was fully informed about the unanimous Brazilian Superior Court decision, and showed her satisfaction with the end of the legal impasse. Clinton asked for a “positive solution.”

At the Palácio do Planalto, President Lula’s staff was looking forward for his official visit to the United States, in March. The high point of his American agenda was to be the meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House. Therefore, Goldman’s case was being seen as “a pain in the neck,” according to a Brazilian senior government official used to translating the president’s moods. The same source added that the Brazilians wouldn’t bring up the matter themselves. That wasn’t expected to be necessary. A rally in Washington scheduled for President Lula’s visit promised a much larger crowd than the one previously seen in front of the Brazilian consulate in New York, four months ago.

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Copyright © 2009 Piauí Magazine - Brazil, Reprinted with permission

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