Two days after the end of the G20 Leaders’ Summit, which took place in Rio de Janeiro, the National Union of Servants of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Sinditamaraty) published an open letter calling for “the urgent need to restructure Itamaraty for large-scale international events “.
According to the document, the department’s employees have faced logistical problems and work overload during events such as the G20 and COP-30, which Brazil intends to host in Belém.
“We are dealing with a budget that barely supports our daily lives, let alone a global event of this size. Outdated computers and old systems. Servers often need to invest from their own pockets to ensure that they can carry out their activities, as the daily allowances are never enough”, said Ivana Vilela, president of Sinditamaraty, in a note sent to People’s Gazette.
In the letter released by the union, Palácio Itamaraty employees complain about the “lack of human resources” and the “inadequate infrastructure” in organizing the events. “The staff is increasingly reduced and overloaded, without adequate staff replacement and with budgetary limitations that directly impact working conditions”, says the document.
“The planning and execution of events such as COP 30 require a coordinated and multidisciplinary effort that will only be possible with reinforced teams and appropriate logistical support”, explains the letter. The body also compares the Itamaraty’s staff, which has just over three thousand employees, with the French chancellery, which has 17 thousand employees, and the American one, which has 30 thousand.
Ivana Vilela also explains that the staff considered insufficient to hold these events overloads the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ employees and conditions them to scales that border on “physically unsustainable”. “We do it, because we know how important it is for the country. However, it is possible to have better working conditions, just think about the work structure in advance. We cannot continue working on the basis of bravery. There has to be professionalism and respect for the servant”, he points out the president of the body.
In addition to the legal and conciliation part carried out by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the department’s employees are also responsible for the logistics behind the events in which the country receives international authorities. The union also claims that there is a lack of adequate infrastructure, with “the absence of adequate spaces for multilateral meetings and outdated technological infrastructure representing barriers to diplomatic work and the organization of international events.”
“In many international events, resources, such as computers and printers, from the servers themselves and devices such as mobile personal internet networks are used, due to the overload of work amidst structural deficiencies”, alleges the document. “COP 30 will be a milestone for the global agenda to combat climate change. For this moment to be conducted with excellence, it is imperative that Itamaraty receives the necessary resources so that Brazil can exercise its strategic role and continue to exercise its already traditional excellence to its institutional mission.
Union demonstration follows reports of chaos behind the scenes at the G20
Between November 18th and 19th, Brazil hosted the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The group brings together the 20 largest economies in the world and the event that took place in the capital of Rio was one of the main events in President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s (PT) foreign policy during this term. The PT member ended the meeting with a feeling of victory after having achieved, amidst impasses, a declared consensus between the presidents to approve the meeting’s final document.
However, even though obstacles were overcome, the behind-the-scenes of the event show logistical disorganization that ended up having negative repercussions for the government in the international press. The North American news site Bloomberg classified the summit held in the capital of Rio as “the most chaotic in recent times”.
“The chaotic G20 summit he [Lula] based in Rio de Janeiro highlighted its inability to overcome growing divisions between global superpowers. Gaffes marked meetings that many called the most disorganized G20 in recent memory,” the outlet wrote.
Despite not having detailed what the logistical problems would have been, the report heard from diplomats who worked in organizing the event that the scenario was not the most pleasant. With a number of guests apparently greater than the capacity of the Museum of Modern Art (MAM), where the summit took place, would be able to accommodate for the event, invitations to international authorities were canceled on the eve of the summit.
The disorganization also impacted important aspects of the event, such as the traditional “family photo”, which records all the presidents present in a common diary. The portrait on the first day of the summit symbolized the adherence of all countries to the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty launched by Lula on the margins of the G20. In the portrait, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni, are not present. The absence would have occurred due to a “delay” of the two leaders.
On the second day of the summit, President Lula canceled, after almost three hours of delay, the press conference he would give to journalists present at the Summit. The G20 organization justified the cancellation due to the delay in the Brazilian president’s schedule prior to the meeting with journalists. The PT member had the day dedicated to the closing of the summit and bilateral discussions with presidents and international authorities.
The chaos experienced at the G20 seems to have raised an alert for the need for improvements in the organization regarding COP-30, which Brazil will host next year. President Lula has insisted that the United Nations Climate Conference, the main event to discuss environmental and climate actions in the world, be held in Belém (PA). The choice of location justifies the desire to take the main world leaders to the “heart of the Amazon”.
The setbacks of COP-30 in Belém
COP-30, based in Belém, has been a major challenge for both the federal government and the government of Pará, because the city does not have the appropriate infrastructure to host an event of such size. The expectation is that around 50 thousand people will be present in the city during the event, which brings together the main countries of the world.
Belém does not have the capacity to receive this number of people. Until the middle of last year, the municipality had only 5,712 hotel rooms, according to the Brazilian Association of the Hotel Industry of Pará (ABIH-PA). In total, the city’s hotel network would be capable of hosting just over 12 thousand people – taking into account all available room categories.
In addition to using nearby cities as “sub-hosts” for the event, the government has also studied the use of ships to host all the people who will go to the city next year to attend the COP. There are also incentives for the population living in the city to welcome tourists into their homes by renting rooms.
With the intention of preparing the city to host an event of this size, high investments have been made in Belém through infrastructure works and renovations. Works such as Parque da Cidade, the venue for the main summit meetings, and tourist attractions such as Porto Futuro and Mercado Ver-o-Peso, still need to be completed less than a year before the summit.
In an interview with Lookthe elected mayor of Belém, Igor Normando (MDB), spoke about the need to accelerate such works. “We have two big challenges. One is to get the city’s maintenance up to date, that is, to make public and basic services work. The other is to carry out the COP-30 works at an accelerated pace. There is slowness in some interventions by the city hall , but, as soon as we take over, our main goal will be to have everything delivered by November”, he said.
Behind the scenes of organizing the event, the possibility of changing the location where the COP would take place is being discussed, to another city such as Rio de Janeiro or even Brasília. The information, however, was never confirmed by the Federal Government or the Planalto Palace, which still support the event in Pará.
