By PAULO NOGUEIRA BATISTA JR.*
Tribute to the recently deceased ambassador
Ambassador Marcos Azambuja died a few days ago, aged 90, from what I understand from cancer, which he had been battling for years.
He was one of the greatest diplomats of his generation and also superior to most diplomats of the younger generations. He held important positions, he was ambassador in Buenos Aires, for example, one of the most important embassies for us. He did not become minister of state. But that does not matter, none of that matters. After all, what is a minister of foreign affairs or an ambassador anywhere? All of that passes and what remains is the memory we leave behind, the physical and spiritual descendants.
As Nelson Rodrigues said, referring to Roberto Campos, “a minister of state is little more than a luxury janitor”. The mark that Campos left, said Nelson, was his personality, his intelligence, not the positions he occupied.
That was Marcos Azambuja. Having been a friend of my father, a diplomat of the same generation, I inherited his friendship. He was, among other things, an unparalleled phrase-maker – like no other, I believe, at the Itamaraty.
For example, after my time in the negotiations on the foreign debt and the moratorium that I helped to create, during the time of Dilson Funaro (unjustly forgotten, by the way), Marcos Azambuja said to me, affectionately: “Paulinho, Dilson and you are excellent, but think about it, imagine that Brazil is a creditor of Angola, which does not pay. You have to collect the debt and their minister is the owner of a toy factory (Funaro was a businessman in this sector). I ask you: would you take it seriously?” What mattered was his way of saying it. Without being offensive or raising his tone, he cracked jokes and made ironic and severe criticisms.
From this comment, it is clear that he was politically conservative and inclined to look down on Africans and the left-wing economists who worked with Funaro. But so what? Do political positions or racism define a person's fundamental qualities? Wagner, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Thomas Mann, to give a few examples, were right-wing or politically indifferent; Wagner was anti-Semitic. And there are, on the other hand, countless progressives who are worth little or nothing.
Marcos Azambuja didn’t write much. Only articles in newspapers and magazines, as far as I know. It seems that he was working on a book in recent years, which remained unfinished. I hope they publish it posthumously. In any case, he was unmatched in conversation. One could say about him what Nelson said about Otto Lara Resende, another memorable phrase-maker: “The Brazilian State should pay a stenographer to follow Otto around, writing down everything he says, in a polished way, but he never puts it on paper!”
At one time, Marcos Azambuja was serving in Buenos Aires, while my father was in Montevideo. He called my father, with whom he was a political and professional rival, and said: “Paulo, what are you doing in Niterói? Come visit me!” It was a cutting joke, since my father was at a low point in his brilliant career, serving in a minor post. But, again, there was no acidity in Marcos Azambuja’s speech and he provoked more laughter than resentment (although I’m not sure if my father took the phone call lightly).
On another occasion, we were walking down Oscar Freire, in São Paulo, the street where (in the past, at least) the most beautiful women walked all day, and he exclaimed: “But this is the National Geographic – wonderful places I will never visit!”
I also remember a comment, equally accurate, that he made about my mother, Elmira: “Paulo, if I were married to Elmira, I would already be President of the Republic!” – a reference to her political acumen, superior in that regard to everyone in our family and, at the same time, another dig at my father.
At my mother's seventh-day mass last year in Rio, I gave a short speech in which I quoted this phrase of his. Everyone laughed. He was there and came to give me an emotional hug. I said I would visit him the next time I went to Rio, but I didn't have time. That was the last time we saw each other.
It's the eternal lesson – you should never postpone a hug, a visit to dear friends.
*Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr. is an economist. He was vice-president of the New Development Bank, established by the BRICS. Author, among other books, of Shrapnel (countercurrent) [https://amzn.to/3ZulvOz]
