Even as the sex scandal surrounding Secret Service agents in Colombia continues to unfold, we have a new incident, involving a Brazilian woman, that the US may have to defend itself against.

Former prostitute Romilda Aparecida Ferreira (pictured) has said she will sue the United States Embassy this week.  She claims 3 Marines and another government worker ran her over and left her bleeding in a nightclub parking lot.

The Americans had been in the process of contracting her and her friends for sex  when a scuffle broke out, she says.

As I noted in this piece for the Los Angeles Times last week, the US government has already disciplined the military officers, all of whom have left the country.

I talked to Ms. Ferreira’s lawyer last week, who said the charge against the Embassy would be for supplying an automobile that was used in a case of attempted murder. This is on top of possible criminal charges that Brazilian government prosecutors could file against the individuals themselves.

The incident took place in December, but Ms. Ferreira and her lawyer waited until now to come forward, they say, because they were in negotiations with the US over a payment for her medical bills and to keep her quiet. The US Embassy denies this.

Of course, there are a lot more Marines than Secret Service workers, and they are not generally held to the same standards of conduct.  But no one representing the US government abroad – no, scratch that, no one at all – should be leaving women wounded in the streets.

If they did so in the US – regardless of the circumstances that led to the injuries – they would lose a lot more than one military rank.

We will see this week if the lawsuit materializes, and what becomes of it. We don’t really have the other side of the story at this point.

But this much is clear: As a US citizen working in Latin America, this is very embarrassing.

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But this is about much more than just the fate of 17 unhappy executives at Chevron, the major US oil company. The project to extract oil from Brazil’s offshore “pre-salt” reserves is arguably the most important challenge this country is facing over the next decade. The future of Brazil’s economy likely depends on its success as much as anything else.

Understandably, much attention has been focused on Brazil’s preparations to host the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016. But compared to the country’s oil plans, those investments are tiny.

One expert put it this way in my Los Angeles Times piece in December:

“This will be one of the largest investment projects in all of human history,” said Pedro Cordeiro, an oil expert at the Bain & Co. consultancy in Sao Paulo. “Putting a man on the moon, for example, cost 30% less in current terms than will be spent [on Brazil’s oil project] in just the next five years.”

So it was understandably a source of considerable concern when one well (though not a “pre-salt” well) sprung a leak in November, and then it seemed like operator Chevron had misrepresented the problem.

Brazil needs to find a way to efficiently extract the offshore oil deposits, while maintaining high environmental standards, but without scaring off international investors or partner companies. This is a tricky balance to strike.

Reuters today reported that the 17 employees could face charges Wednesday relating to safety standards, and cited experts that implied Brazil might be coming down too hard on Chevron, with the potential to slow down extraction plans or scare away other companies.

For example:

“We are in uncharted territory,” said Cleveland Jones, a Brazilian oil geologist at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. “Do we want better environmental standards? Yes. Did the environment get really hurt? No. If you applied the same standards to the whole industry, you’d probably have to shut it down, and we aren’t applying the same standards to others.”

and

The Chevron leak was less than 0.1 percent of BP’s massive spill and no oil reached shore, raising concern from Chevron and others that the charges may be politically motivated or unfair.

and

Much larger and more damaging spills by Brazilian state-run energy giant Petrobras, which owns 30 percent of the Frade field operated by Chevron where the leak happened, have not led to criminal charges against Petrobras or its executives.

Is all of this fair? It may be too early to tell. The Reuters documents don’t seem to be comprehensive and we haven’t seen the actual charges. For all we know, the issue is really the claim that Chevron may have lied to the government.

But one thing is certain: all of this matters very much. Like it or not, Brazil is on the path to become more of a petro-economy, and if this does not go according to plan, a lot of money will be lost. If you care about the hard numbers behind the Brazilian economy, take your eyes off the football pitch and look deep below the ocean’s surface.

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Dilma’s government is willing to stand up to the big powers, it seems, and Brazil’s status on the world stage these days means she can get away with it.

First Dilma attacked rich countries – but specifically the European Central Bank – for unleashing a ‘tsunami’ of cheap money, much of which could make its way to Brazil, further pushing up the value of the currency and exacerbating the currency wars.

Right away, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she understood Dilma’s concerns, and that they’d discuss them in their March 5 meeting.

Then, shortly after the US Air Force unexpectedly cancelled a contract to purchase Brazilian warplanes, the Ministry of Foreign affairs issued a very strongly worded statement:

“The Brazilian government learnt with surprise of the suspension of the bid process to purchase A-29 Super Tucano aircraft by the United States Air Force, in particular due to its manner and timing,” the communiqué reads.

“This development is not considered conducive to strengthening relations between the two countries on defence affairs.”

But by then General Chief of Staff Norton Schwartz had already said the cancellation was an “embarrassment” for the Air Force.

“There’s no way to put a happy face on this,” he said.

No, this was not a response to Brazil’s official statement, but it was a clear indication that parts of Washington know they gave Brazil a bit of a raw deal.

Of course, it’s one thing for the rich countries to play nice, and another to actually change European monetary policy, or restore the contract to buy the Embraer planes, to please Brazil. Neither is likely to happen.

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The US Air Force has abruptly cancelled an order for 20 attack aircraft from Brazilian company Embraer, saying it was not satisfied with the documentation on the contract.

What remains to be seen is if this is just a setback for Embraer, or for military relations more broadly between the two countries. Dilma will visit Washington next month.

The US has given no real explanation for the turnaround, but a piece in today’s Folha offers two theories: In an election year and with the economy in the doldrums, the government faced political pressure to give the contract to an American company, or, the US is less agressively pursuing a hotly contested multi-billion dollar contract to sell jets to replenish Brazil’s air forces.

If Embraer had succeeded in selling the “Super Tucano” (Super Toucan) light attack vessels to the US, it would have greatly boosted Embraer’s military sales, given one of Brazil’s more important advanced companies – a leading supplier worldwide of regional aircraft – a big credibility boost and established a commercial military relationship between the hemisphere’s biggest countries.

This may have given US-based Boeing a better chance at the contract to sell to Brazil.

“While we pursue perfection, we sometimes fall short, and when we do we will take corrective action,” Michael Donley, air force secretary, said in a statement.

This was not good news for Embraer. “It was like a cold shower”, said one person familiar with the negotiations.

Relations between Dilma’s government and the US have been positive, in many ways probably even an improvement on the Lula-Obama days. But these days the US government is focusing much more on its own problems than reaching out to Latin America.

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