JAKARTA — Indonesia said Saturday that it has recalled its newly designated ambassador to Brazil to protest the abrupt postponement of the approval of his credentials. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff welcomed ambassador Toto Riyanto at a ceremony Friday in the capital, Brasilia, but delayed approving his credentials amid tensions over the impending execution of a Brazilian citizen in Indonesia for a drug offense. Indonesia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Saturday that it was unacceptable to delay the approval of the credentials when the ambassador designate was already at the palace. Rodrigo Gularte, 42, is awaiting execution in Indonesia along with seven other foreigners from Australia, France, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria and the Philippines. All have also lost their bids for presidential clemency — the final avenue of appeal for a death row convict in Indonesia. Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla has said the executions will take place in about three or four weeks. Another Brazilian citizen, Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, was executed by an Indonesian firing squad last month for a drug offense, along with four other foreigners from Malawi, Nigeria, the Netherlands and Vietnam, with Jakarta brushing aside last-minute appeals by foreign leaders. Indonesia has extremely strict drug laws. There are 133 people on death row in the country, including 57 for drug crimes. — AP
