The United States has announced visa restrictions for Brazilian judicial officials and their immediate family members, citing a “political witch-hunt” against former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the announcement, accusing Brazilian Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes of creating a sweeping “persecution and censorship complex” that violates basic rights of Brazilians and targets Americans.
“I have therefore ordered visa revocations for Moraes and his allies on the court, as well as their immediate family members, effective immediately,” Rubio said, without providing further details on who would be subject to the measures. According to Brazilian newspaper O Globo, the US has revoked visas from seven more justices of Brazil’s Supreme Court, leaving only three unaffected.
The move comes after Brazil’s Supreme Court issued search warrants and restraining orders against Bolsonaro, banning him from contacting foreign officials amid allegations he courted US President Donald Trump’s interference in court cases against him. Moraes accused Bolsonaro of attacking Brazil’s sovereignty by encouraging the interference of a foreign nation’s head of state in its courts.
Bolsonaro is facing trial on charges of attempting 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. As part of the court orders, Bolsonaro is banned from contacting foreign officials, using social media, or approaching embassies. He was also prohibited from contacting key allies, including his son Eduardo Bolsonaro.
In response to the court orders, Bolsonaro called Moraes a “dictator” and described the decisions as acts of “cowardice”. “I feel supreme humiliation,” he said when asked about wearing an ankle monitor. “I am 70 years old. I was president of the republic for four years,” he added. A five-judge panel of Supreme Court judges reviewed and upheld Moraes’s decision on Friday.
Trump has maintained friendly ties with Bolsonaro, known as the “Trump of the Tropics”. On Thursday, Trump shared a letter 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 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”.
The tariffs have rallied public support behind Lula’s defiant leftist government. Moraes 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 would hurt key Brazilian sectors like coffee farming, cattle ranching, and aviation.