Sao Paulo (AP) – US President Donald Trump has made it clear what his new Latin American priority is: former Brazilian President Jir Bolsonar, personal and political ally.
In doing so, he ruined one of the most important and long -term relationships of the Western hemisphere by taking 50% of rates that begin to acquire the largest Latin American economy on Wednesday, sanctioning its main justice and attracting relations between two countries to the lowest point in decades.
It seemed that the White House had accepted the narrative that the US was pushed by the Bolsonar’s allies, that the former prosecution of the Brazilian president for the abolition of its 2022. The loss of elections is part of the “intentional violation of the law” when the government announces Trump’s statement.
The message was clear earlier when Donald Trump described the Bolsonar’s prosecution in the Brazilian Supreme Court as “witch hunting” – using the same phrase he named many studies he encountered from his first term. Bolsonar is confronted with accusations of trying to remain in power by losing 2022. Election to President Louis Inácio Lula da Silva. The conviction can occur in the next few months.
The US interferes with Latin American governments for a long time, but the latest steps of Trump are unprecedented, said Steven Levitsky, a political scientist at Harvard University.
“This is a personal government that accepts politics according to Trump’s whims,” Levitsky said.
He noted that Bolsonar’s sons have close relationships with the Trump’s inner circle. This argument strengthened parallels between Bolsonar’s prosecution and an attempt to prosecute an attempt to cancel his 2020. The loss of elections that ended when he won his second term in November last year.
“He was convinced that Bolsonar was a relative spirit suffering from similar witch hunting,” Levitsky said.
Brazilian institutions are strongly contrary to political pressure
After the Bolsonar’s defeat in 2022. Short and his supporters repeated their unreasonable election fraud requirements, treating him as a conservative icon and accepting it to a conference of conservative political actions. Steve Bannon, a former Trump advisor, recently told Brazilian news website to COOK that the US would eliminate tariffs if the Bolsonar’s prosecution is abolished.
However, it is impossible to satisfy that demand for several reasons.
Brazilian officials have consistently emphasized that the judicial system is independent. The executive, which runs a foreign relationship, is not controlled by the Supreme Court judges, who in turn stated that they would not be political pressure.
On Monday, the court stated that the Bolsonar would have been seized for a violation of court orders by disseminating reports in social media through his son’s accounts.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who oversees the case against Bolsonaro, was sanctioned under the US Magnitsky Law, which should be directed at serious human rights criminals. De Moraes stated that the defendants had been given the entire proper process and said he would ignore sanctions and continue his work.
“Lula’s request has been abolished,” said Bruna Santos from America’s dialogue in Washington, DC, about the Bolsonar’s abandonment. “In the long run, you leave a scar about a relationship between the two of the largest hemispheres.”
Magnitsky’s sanctions “Suspa Law”
Three main factors explain in recent months by planning the US -Brazilian relations, said Oliver Stukedens, Senior Co -Chief of the Carnegie Foundation International Peace Foundation: Between Extreme Right -Right Both Countries; Brazil’s abandonment cave for tariff threats; and the lack of lobbying of the country in Washington.
The third son of Jir Bolsonar, Jir Bolsonar, legislator Eduard Bolsonar was a central figure that links the extreme right of Brazil to a short Maga movement.
He left the Brazilian Congress and moved to the United States in March, but he had a long relationship in a short orbit. Eduardo openly urged Magnitsky’s sanctions on de Moraes and publicly thanked the Trump after being announced at 50% of rates in early July.
Democratic Massachusetts spokesman Jim McGovern, Act of Magnitsky, which allows the US to sanction individual foreign officials violating human rights, the administration’s actions called “horrible”.
“They make things to protect someone who says beautiful things about Donald Trump,” McGovern told The Associated Press.
Son Bolsonaro helps join the right US and Brazil
The international campaign of Eduard Bolsonar began immediately after his father in 2022. Defeat. A few days after the election, he met with his brief Ma-A-Lago manor in Florida.
When the Bolsonar and his Allied studies deepened, the Brazilian extreme right -wing adopted the story of judicial persecution and censorship, and his allies, who said the US justice system was armed.
The Brazilian Supreme Court and the Electoral Court are one of the world’s strictest regulatory authorities in the world: they can order the abolitions of social media and arrests for disseminating or other content that it controls “anti -democratic”.
But so far, only a few entrusted Eduard’s efforts to punish Brazilian judges.
It began to change last year, when the billionaire Elon Musk encountered de Moraes for censorship X and threatened to deny the court orders by pulling out his legal representative from Brazil. In response, De Moraes stopped a month of social media platform operating in the country and threatened other Musk’s Starlink operations. Eventually the musk blinked.
F Fábio de So E Silva, a professor of international and Brazilian studies at Oklahoma University, said the influence of Eduardo was revealed in 2024. In May, when he and other right -wing allies secured a meeting in the US Foreign Committee.
“This revealed the clear coordination of the Bolsonar supporters and the US Republican Party sector,” he said. “This is a strategy to press Brazilian democracy from the outside.”
Last minute tariffs give some victories
Brazil has a diplomatic tradition of maintaining a low presence in Washington, Stukes said. This vacuum created the opportunity to encourage Eduard Bolsonar to promote a distorted narrative of Brazil between the Republicans and the closest Trump.
“Brazil now pays the price,” he said.
After April Trump announced wide rates, Brazil began negotiations. President Lula and Vice President Gerald Alckmin, the main trade negotiator in Brazil, said they have since organized many meetings with US trade officials.
Lula and Trump never spoke, and the Brazilian president has repeatedly said Washington ignored Brazil’s efforts to negotiate before the tariffs.
Diplomats privately say they felt that decisions were made inside the White House, in a short inner circle – a group they did not have the opportunity.
In the last week of July, the Brazilian Senators’ delegation went to Washington with the efforts of the last ditch to eliminate tension. A group led by Senator Nelsinho Trad, met with business leaders with ties with Brazil and nine US senators – just one of the Republican, Thomas Tillis from North Carolina.
“We found that opinions about Brazil were ideologically taxed,” AP said. “But we tried to make economic arguments.”
While the delegation was in Washington, the Trump signed an order by entering the 50% rate. However, there was relief: not all Brazilian imports will be affected. Exceptions included civilian aircraft and parts, aluminum, tin, wood pulp, energy products and fertilizers.
Trade believes that Brazilian information may have helped to relieve the final conditions.
“I think the road must remain dialogue and mind, so we can make progress on other fronts,” he said.
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This report was added to the associated press writer Mauricio Savares Sao Paulo.