O Senhor Embaixador is a novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by Erico Verissimo

Erico Verissimo

Erico Verissimo was an important Brazilian writer, born in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. His father, Sebastião Veríssimo da Fonseca, heir of a rich family in Cruz Alta, Rio Grande do Sul, met financial ruin during his son's youth...

, about the history of the fictional Republic of Sacramento. The story focus mainly on the staff of the Sacramentese embassy in Washington, showing the lives of those people and talking about the larger plot of the Sacramento "Republic".

Sacramento

The Sacramento depicted in the novel seems to be an amalgam of various Latin American countries of the time, exhibiting the common problems of dictatorship, corruption, instability, inequality and pressures from the superpowers, especially the United States, that are depicted in the novel as directly influencing through military incursions and economic pressure the political, economic and social state of Sacramento, mainly in order to benefit American multinational corporations in the country (references are made to "War is a Racket

War is a Racket

War Is a Racket is the title of two works, a speech and a booklet, by retired U.S. Marine Major General Smedley D. Butler. In them, Butler frankly discusses from his experience as a career military officer how business interests commercially benefit from warfare.After he retired from the Marine...

"). Sacramento also exhibits a resemblance to Cuba, especially by the end of the book, when a revolution led by a messianic figure (who is actually a puppet controlled by a radical communist), overthrows a US supported dictator.