on peru-bolivia
Readers of this paper will recall our coverage, some weeks past, of the collapse of talks at São Cristóvão. President Calvo Cuéllar's now-infamous remarks on the "common Mestizo national character of Brazil", a branding shared by most in the hall. Most strategists believed the Amazonian question would be settled through war.
We are pleased and somewhat surprised to report otherwise.
Only days following the conference's collapse, quiet channels, supposedly led by Francisco Sabino, who coincidentally contributed to our last publishing on the conference, formalized an exchange of territories between Rio and La Paz.
Titled "The Treaty of La Paz", a cute if not a bit on-the-nose, solves all of Rio and La Paz's disagreements through a simple land transfer and monetary exchange.
Whatever hostilities passed between the delegations, cooler counsel prevailed. The document leaves it to the reader to decide whether Brazil has overestimated Peru-Bolivia's ability to defend itself, or if Bolivia underestimates the value of the land Rio covets.
On Texas
Readers will recall the press-conference held by Secretary of War Lamar, confirming a letter from La Paz conspiring against the Brazilian-Texan alliance. Texas, in what has been described as "a speech not fit for a schoolhouse classroom" Texas outlined its commitment to Brazil. It would be poor form for Brazil to now treat the matter as settled business and move on without comment.
Texas remains Brazil's clearest friend in the region. We consider the young, American, republic to be an ally in full. Not a treaty on paper, but a friendship the Empire intends to honor whether or not guns are ever required." - Juvenal Mourão, Foreign Minister to Brazil
If the letter is to be believed, and a Bolivian-allied Venezuela collides with Texas, Brazil may see itself at war with La Paz regardless.
ON CHILE
Chile, though largely silent on the matter of Peru-Bolivia at the conference. Has nonetheless found itself in the Empire's favor. We have it on good authority that Brazil regards Chile as the sole legitimate claimant of Patagonia's administration, and pledges support to Santiago's ambitions there. It is our belief that Chile and Brazil had agreed to mutual mobilization, had the backchannel talks with Bolivia failed. The culmination of these events, regardless of the outcome, throws Brazil backing Chile over rival Argentina. We reached out to Buenos Aires on the matter but they have declined to comment.
The Amazonian empire
While Brazil continues to tend to the Ragamuffin wars, their Empire will stretch to nearly cover the entire Amazon, not a small feat. We would be remiss not to note, in closing, that the author of this Treaty, Mr. Francisco Sabino, have aged rather better than President Calvo Cuellar's own. Whether La Paz's change of heart owes anything to Sabino's shrewd negotiation, or the outrage he helped stoke, we cannot say for certain. But it is not lost on this Journal that the man accusing Brazil of "Banditry" is the same man who signed her checks.
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