HISTORY
Brazil and Paraguay are still arguing about a war that ended in 1870
The Battle of Riachuelo was the decisive naval engagement of the Paraguayan War. Photo: Eduardo de Martino/National Museum
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was arguing for investment in Brazil's defense industry at an event in the São Paulo countryside on July 24, when he reached back a century and a half to make his case. "We like peace," he said, "but we cannot forget that one fine day Paraguay decided to invade Brazil. It invaded Corumbá; at the same time, it invaded Uruguay and Argentina. And that war that seemed like nothing lasted five years."
Asunción heard a caricature. On Thursday, President Santiago Peña's government summoned Brazil's ambassador, José Antônio Marcondes de Carvalho, to explain the remark, and Paraguay's Congress approved motions of repudiation, as we explained this week.
An improvised aside became an interstate incident, which says something about how little time has passed, emotionally, since 1870…
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