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Rubio predicts Trump will announce more actions against Brazil next week in response to the Supreme Court.

Estadão

Brazil

Monday, September 15


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Bolsonaro sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison with a closed start

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BRASÍLIA – Chief Diplomat and National Security Advisor of the United States, Marco Rubio said this Monday, the 15th, that the Donald Trump government should announce new measures against Brazil next week, in response to the conviction of former president Jair Bolsonaro.

"There will be a U.S. response to this. We'll make some announcements in the next week or so about what additional steps we intend to take," the U.S. Secretary of State said in an interview with Fox News during a visit to Jerusalem.

Rubio also renewed his considerations regarding Bolsonaro's trial for the coup plot and the reporting judge, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court.

"The trial is just another chapter in a growing campaign of judicial oppression that attempts to target American companies and even individuals operating outside the United States," the Trump aide said."The rule of law is disintegrating. We have these activist judges—one in particular—who not only persecuted Bolsonaro, but actually attempted to take extraterritorial action against American citizens or anyone posting online from within the United States, and even threatened to go even further."

In addition to Rubio, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt once again publicly criticized the conviction of Bolsonaro and seven other defendants, the"crucial core" of the attempted coup d'état - all civilians and military personnel linked to him and who held prominent positions in the former government.

"The Brazilian way of legal warfare hits Bolsonaro (free translation)," wrote Trump's press secretary, sharing on X an opinion piece critical of the trial published in the Wall Street Journal. The article, written by Mary Anastasia O'Grady, has the same title and claims that the Supreme Court is a biased and politicized court.

There are a series of American reactions on the radar of the Brazilian government, which lacks direct channels of high-level dialogue with the White House.

The Planalto Palace believes, based on the reactions of Trump-supporting officials to Bolsonaro's trial, that the American president will authorize individualized measures, such as sanctions against more Supreme Court justices and family members, or even those from the Lula administration.

These could come in the form of visa restrictions—whether for general travel to the US or working missions to the United Nations—or even financial sanctions under the Magnitsky Act, which has already been imposed on Moraes.

But the discussions in Washington go beyond that. They involve what Lula administration officials consider"collective" punishments, such as trade tariffs or fines and restrictions on Brazilian banks due to the application of Magnitsky.

One of the most considered are the secondary sanctions - already applied to US-India trade - due to the increased purchase of diesel oil from Russia, in the context of the war in Ukraine.

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