We are employees of the Brazilian Government, formally hired through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – (MRE), also known as Itamaraty, to serve in embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions around the world.
Because we are professionals based in the countries where we work, we are classified as Locally Employed Staff (LES). Our responsibilities are vital to the daily operations of Brazil’s foreign service, ensuring the continuity, credibility and effectiveness of Brazil’s diplomatic presence abroad. Despite our essential role, many remain unaware of our contributions or the challenges we face in securing equitable recognition and protections.
We are a team of 3,377* highly trained professionals, sometimes more qualified academically than some Diplomats and we represent Brazil with expertise and commitment.
We are mainly Brazilian nationals living abroad, often holding dual nationality or the right to work full time without restrictions in the host country. In some cases, LES hold other nationalities but are employed by the Brazilian Government for their proficiency in both the local language and Brazilian Portuguese as well as for their cultural knowledge and professional capabilities.
Together, we are the majority of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ overseas workforce. Paid with public money, we form the essential foundation supporting the work of Brazil’s embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions across the globe.
*Source: 2024 Management Report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE), page 232, table 6.
Where We Work
We operate in 225 locations in major cities and countries across all continents. We work in the following organizations:
- Brazilian Consulates and Embassies.
- Brazilian Government Representation Offices.
- Brazilian Offices within United Nations-UN own offices, as well as within some of UN agencies like Food and Agriculture Organization – FAO and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – UNESCO.
- Brazilian Offices within Independent intergovernmental organizations like World Trade Organization – WTO, South American Trade Bloc – MERCOSUR and Community of Portuguese Language Countries – CPLP,
- Residences of Brazilian Ambassadors and Consuls abroad.
What We Do
Brazil’s global presence depends on a dedicated network of professionals who work to build, maintain and strengthen diplomatic relationships around the world.
At the heart of this effort are Brazil’s embassies and consulates, distinct institutions that function together to uphold the country’s international influence.
Most LES serve in one of these two organizations, where we play vital and complementary roles within the broader structure of Brazil’s foreign service.
Embassies are Brazil’s main diplomatic missions, usually located in capital cities and headed by a diplomat ambassador. Their core mandate is to manage political and state-to-state relations at the national level. Embassies coordinate foreign policy, lead high-level negotiations, represent Brazil in multilateral forums and international organisations, and oversee the execution of bilateral treaties and agreements. They also work to promote Brazil’s interests across sectors such as trade, science and technology, education, innovation, culture, and environmental cooperation.
Consulates, by contrast, are typically located in major cities outside the host country’s capital and are led by a Consul or Consul General. Their focus is more local and service oriented. Consulates assist Brazilian citizens living or travelling abroad, process visas and civil registrations, issue passports and legalise documents, and provide emergency support to nationals in distress. In addition, they help cultivate cultural, commercial, and academic ties in their respective regions, often serving as Brazil’s first point of contact for local businesses and communities as well as the local Brazilian diaspora.
While their responsibilities differ, embassies and consulates work in close coordination to advance Brazil’s foreign policy objectives. Embassies provide strategic direction and political engagement, while consulates ensure operational support and grassroots connections. Together, we represent a unified system that enables Brazil’s diplomacy to be both effective at the top level and responsive on the ground.
As Locally Employed Staff, we are the professionals who make this system work. We carry out a wide spectrum of essential duties that ensure the daily operation of Brazil’s missions abroad are smooth, professional and efficient. From managing contracts and issuing official documents to facilitating accreditation for temporary diplomatic personnel, our responsibilities span every level of diplomatic support. We provide frontline assistance to tourists, entrepreneurs, the Brazilian diaspora, and foreign nationals with interests in Brazil. We also help to plan and execute the logistics of official visits, cultural and commercial programmes and events as well as bilateral educational agreements and engagements, functions that are critical to the visibility and success of Brazil’s diplomacy.
Recruitment for LES positions follows a public selection process pre-approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Itamaraty) in Brasília and executed by Brazil’s diplomatic missions abroad. These processes typically include rigorous written exams (as well as practical ones for drivers and chefs) and structured interviews, designed to uphold merit and integrity. While our job titles institutionally may vary, from administrative and technical assistants to operational support staff, we are united by a common mission: to represent and serve Brazil overseas with professionalism, competence, and unwavering dedication.
Our mission becomes tangible in everyday encounters. If you visit a Brazilian diplomatic post to apply for a visa, attend an event promoting Brazil’s interest, request emergency support, register or renew a document, the chances are the first person you meet and speak to will be a Locally Employed Staff member.
We are the ones who welcome and receive you, guide you, answer your questions, process your documents, and ensure your experience is respectful and seamless. From your initial request or visit to the outcome, it is often our quiet effort that ensures things run smoothly, an effort rooted not just in service, but in care and professionalism.
Unlike most diplomats, whose focus is often thematic or strategic or officials who are given the task to sign off work already done, LES accompany every stage of operational delivery. We are present from preparation and implementation through to follow-up and resolution. Whether handling your visa, issuing an official certificate, preparing your briefing, resolving an urgent issue or hosting a delegation, we are the steady hands behind the scenes.
Yet despite our essential contributions to Brazil’s diplomatic missions, we are rarely recognised as Government employees, denied both institutional benefits and the formal acknowledgment routinely granted to those we work alongside. It is time for this to be changed. Recognition is not just appropriate; it is a matter of fairness and institutional integrity.
Our contributions extend far beyond paperwork and logistics. LES bring an in-depth understanding of local languages, laws and cultures that is invaluable to Brazil’s engagement abroad. Perhaps more importantly, we carry insights into the informal and often unspoken nuances of cross-cultural interaction, those subtle codes of conduct, etiquette and local expectations that shape relationships and determine outcomes. This cultural fluency allows us to build trust, navigate complexities and sustain respectful partnerships with host communities.
Moreover, we are the institutional memory of Brazilian missions. While diplomats and other officials rotate every few years, Locally Employed Staff (CLs) ensure continuity, local knowledge, and long-term relationships with key stakeholders. We are the ones who maintain contact networks, remember past interactions, and ensure that transition strategies are smooth and consistent. In this way, we do not simply support diplomacy, we anchor it.
By navigating both the formal and informal dimensions of international engagement, LES ensure that Brazil’s diplomacy is not only delivered but deeply understood.
We translate policy into practice, intention into action and representation into meaningful relationships. We are the bridge between Brazil and the world. We are the continuity that holds together decades of presence and service. And we are the human foundation upon which the success of Brazil’s global missions truly rests.
Why Our Work Matters
Our work matters not only because Locally Employed Staff (LES) constitute the majority of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ overseas workforce, but because we form the indispensable foundation upon which Brazil’s embassies, consulates and diplomatic missions rely and depend on.
Through our steady presence and deep local expertise, we professionally sustain the continuity of relationships with local stakeholders, relationships that are essential to Brazil’s long-term international engagement. Long after diplomats and officials rotate out and return home, it is our enduring presence and contribution that preserves trust, coherence and institutional memory vital to effective diplomacy. Without it, Brazil’s global operations would face not only inefficiencies, but a significant loss of credibility and strategic continuity.
As Locally Employed Staff, we are not temporary residents of the countries where we serve and live; we are part of the fabric and culture of those societies. We speak the language, understand the culture and navigate local realities without the privileges experienced by diplomatic personnel posted abroad.
Unlike diplomats and administrative officials temporarily posted from Brazil, who rotate through assignments every few years and often arrive with full recognition, legal protections, and institutional benefits – we, the Locally Employed Staff (LES), remain the constant presence on the ground. We do not arrive in a whirlwind of briefings, nor do we settle into free diplomatic housing. We are already there, rooted, fluent, and fully integrated into the local context.
It is this permanence that enables us to carry the institutional memory, cultural fluency, and operational continuity that no rotating official can replicate. Brazil’s diplomatic presence abroad cannot, and does not, function without us. While posted officials selected from Brazil come and go, it is LES who uphold the daily functions, relationships, and long-term stability upon which Brazil’s global engagement depends. Yet, despite this indispensable role, we continue to serve without the same rights, recognition, or protections afforded to our rotating colleagues.
Relying solely on temporary officials posted from Brazil would be both economically unsustainable and operationally inefficient. The high costs, constant turnover and recurring learning curves would severely compromise continuity and effectiveness. It is the permanent and professional presence of Locally Employed Staff (LES) that upholds the daily logistics, public services and enduring relationships essential to any diplomatic mission. We are the ones who ensure seamless operations through transitions, staffing shortages, emergencies and routine service alike.
When diplomats and officials arrive at a new post, it often takes months for them to fully settle into their roles. During this period, it is the LES who provide local knowledge, institutional context and hands-on support to keep everything running smoothly. And just as diplomats begin to acclimate and engage with the local environment, many of them are already preparing for their next posting. For many, that next move is never far from their thoughts, even while adjusting to their current role, they are networking, planning and navigating pathways to avoid being recalled to Brasília too early or be reassigned to a less desirable or high-risk country.
This future-oriented career progression mindset is often mirrored and shaped within close-knit circles of fellow diplomats and administrative officials, those who have influence because of their senior positions, those who have moved ahead or those who can help others move forward. As a result, many relationships are nurtured not for deep local engagement, but for long-term career mobility. As a result, their ability to engage with local societies, beyond formal diplomatic circles and intentions, is significantly limited compared to ours.
By contrast, LES are not “parachuted” into new environments, we are grounded and already part of the environment itself. We do not see our roles as temporary, nor our settings as mere stations on a broader professional journey. The missions we serve are our workplaces, but they are also part of our own communities and lives. We are not external temporary actors navigating local terrain, we are the local terrain.
When rotations end and personnel change, we are the ones who remain. We are the ones who know the people, the systems and the unspoken nuances that keep diplomatic missions functioning.
This is not simply a matter of support, it is a matter of sustainability, of legitimacy and of long-term strategic vision.
Without us, the Locally Employed Staff, Brazil’s diplomatic strategy would collapse under the weight of disconnection and discontinuity. We are not a secondary workforce; we are the foundation. Not merely because we are made to be cost-effective or convenient, but because no foreign policy can succeed without those who truly understand the ground it stands on.
We are the long view. We are the memory, the language, the trust, the relationships and the infrastructure. We are the continuity that quietly holds Brazil’s global presence together. And without us, there is no foundation strong enough to sustain it.
Brazil’s diplomatic presence abroad is not built on the privilege of a few, but on the collective effort of all who serve it, diplomats, officials posted from Brazil, and us, the Locally Employed Staff, most of whom are Brazilian nationals. Its continued success relies not only on those who rotate in cycles through international assignments in a cycle, but even more so on us, those who remain providing essential continuity, cultural fluency, and institutional memory that no short-term assignment can replace.
But justice begins with recognition. While those sent from Brazil are afforded formal status, protections, dignified salaries and legal guarantees, we the long-term and permanent workforce on the ground, continue to serve without the rights or safeguards and recognition we equally deserve.
It is time to end this selective treatment and honour the vital role of every Locally Employed Staff member. Brazil cannot project dignity and respect on the world stage while disregarding the rights of its own employed professionals working to promote the country abroad.
A truly fair, effective, and globally respected foreign service can only be sustained when all contributors are treated with equity, dignity and the full backing of the State. Anything less compromises not only the integrity of our missions, but the values Brazil claims to stand for.