The roar of fireworks was a fresh memory. However, Brazil was not so excited for the New Year as it was for the inauguration of Dilma Rousseff, who was assuming her second term without imagining that a trick of fate would remove her from her post in August 2016.
World leaders, high representatives of governments, including the President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, attended her investiture at the Planalto Palace, located in the Three Powers Square of Brasilia.
He was a special guest, a fraternal friend from Brazil and its people. Planalto also included the Vice-president of the United States, Joe Biden.
A meeting between the two seemed imminent. Around him was the then President of Uruguay, José “Pepe” Mujica, who would have encouraged a conversation, even if it were short between Maduro and Biden.
Unexpectedly, Biden smiled in the direction of Maduro, the latter smiled back as a sign of cordiality. To say that the crowd was not observing the meeting would be a lie, all Planalto, all America waited for what was about to happen.
“With hair like that I could be president of the United States”, Biden told Maduro, as their hands melted into a tight grip.
They talked, but little is known about the subject, except for what Nicolás Maduro said hours later. “We asked the United States, I told Biden, and we have told the United States a thousand times, in public and private, that we want relationships of respect, nothing more.”
Back in Caracas, President Maduro said that they exchanged some words “some cordial, others not so much”, which on his part would not be revealed. He condemned that “things that happen in the political and diplomatic life of nations” are inteted to be turned into “intrigues or gossip.”
That moment was recorded in the collective memory. Despite the rapprochement, Biden stood by Obama when he declared that Venezuela was “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to United States’ security.
Today, Biden is in the running for the United States presidential chair. The Pennsylvania native faces Donald Trump, who on Sunday said he would be willing to meet with President Maduro, although he later faltered.
This statement of his political adversary became the argument for Biden’s attacks, who assured that “Trump speaks tough about Venezuela, but admires dictators like Nicolás Maduro.”
Did Biden forget how he smiled in that conversation on January 1, 2015?