Washington will restrict travel visas for Brazilian judicial officials and their immediate family members, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced, over what he called a “political witch-hunt” against former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Announcing the move on Friday, Rubio accused Brazilian Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes of creating a sweeping “persecution and censorship complex” that not only “violates basic rights of Brazilians, but also extends beyond Brazil’s shores to target Americans”.
“I have therefore ordered visa revocations for Moraes and his allies on the court, as well as their immediate family members, effective immediately,” he said, without providing further details on who would be subject to the measures.
Brazilian newspaper O Globo also reported on Friday, without citing its source, that the US has revoked visas from seven more justices of Brazil’s Supreme Court. If accurate, the only Supreme Court judges not impacted would be Bolsonaro-appointed justices Andre Mendonca and Nunes Marques, and Judge Luiz Fux.
The move by the US comes after Brazil’s Supreme Court issued search warrants and restraining orders against Bolsonaro on Friday, banning him from contacting foreign officials amid allegations he courted US President Donald Trump’s interference in court cases against him.
Explaining his decision, Moraes accused Bolsonaro – who was president from 2019 to 2023 – of attacking Brazil’s sovereignty by encouraging the interference of the “head of state of a foreign nation” in its courts.
Bolsonaro’s ongoing trial relates to charges he attempted to carry out a coup and overturn current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s election victory in January 2023. The coup charges carry a 12-year sentence, and if convicted on other counts, Bolsonaro could spend decades behind bars.
Bolsonaro is now banned from contacting foreign officials, using social media or approaching embassies. He was also prohibited from contacting key allies, including his son Eduardo Bolsonaro, a Brazilian congressman working to drum up support for his father in Washington.
Federal police also raided Bolsonaro’s home and headquarters, with authorities ordering him to wear an ankle monitor following Moraes’s ruling that there is a “concrete possibility” he will attempt to flee the country.
Bolsonaro: ‘Trump of the Tropics’
Speaking to the Reuters news agency at his party’s headquarters on Friday, Bolsonaro called Moraes a “dictator” and described the court orders as acts of “cowardice”.
“I feel supreme humiliation,” he said when asked about wearing the ankle monitor. “I am 70 years old. I was president of the republic for four years,” he added.
On Friday afternoon, a five-judge panel of Supreme Court judges reviewed and upheld Moraes’s decision.
Bolsonaro also said he believed the court orders were a reaction to Trump’s criticism of his trial, in the latest indication that Washington’s interventions may be harming rather than helping the former president.
While Bolsonaro denied he planned to leave the country, he also said he would meet with Trump if his passport, seized by police last year, was returned.
When asked about Bolsonaro’s latest comments, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said the former Brazilian leader and his supporters are “under attack from a weaponised court system”.
Trump has maintained friendly ties with ideological ally Bolsonaro – known as the “Trump of the Tropics” – since the US leader’s first term from 2017 to 2021.
On Thursday, Trump shared a letter on Truth Social he had sent to Bolsonaro lamenting the embattled former president’s “terrible treatment” at the hands of an “unjust system turned against you”.
Earlier this month, Trump also threatened to impose a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian goods starting August 1, as he called for Lula’s government to drop the charges against Bolsonaro.
Lula promised to reciprocate, saying “any measure to increase tariffs unilaterally will be responded to in light of Brazil’s Law of Economic Reciprocity”.
In Friday’s court decision, Moraes also said Trump’s threatened tariffs were an attempt to interfere in the country’s judicial system by creating a serious economic crisis in Brazil.
The tariffs – which would hurt key Brazilian sectors like coffee farming, cattle ranching and aviation – have rallied public support behind Lula’s defiant leftist government.
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