Tim Padgett reports on how the Obama administration continues to err in its handling of relations with Brazil:

In the often Sisyphean exercise known as U.S.-Latin American relations, old habits die hard on both sides. Even the Obama Administration, which came to power pledging a less high-handed hemispheric policy, snubbed Brazil this week by not designating President Dilma Rousseff’s trip to the U.S. next month as a high-level “state visit.” That’s largely because the White House is still mad at her predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, for independently brokering a deal two years ago to let Iran pursue nuclear energy.

As Padgett notes, this is even more foolish than it sounds because Rouseff has “distanced Brazil from Iran since taking office last year,” so the administration is punishing Lula’s successor for aspects of Lula’s foreign policy that the successor has already started to modify to Washington’s liking. It’s true that Brazil is on friendlier terms with Cuba than the U.S. would like, but this is exactly the sort of tangential, minor issue that shouldn’t be unduly hindering U.S. relations with any other major government. Harming the relationship with India because of its refusal to back the oil embargo on Iran is misguided enough, but needlessly snubbing a rising power when it is becoming less adversarial on the Iran issue makes no sense at all.