Senior Brazilian official says judiciary won't be intimidated by US visa bans
In an escalation of tensions between U.S. President Donald Trump and the government of Latin America's largest economy, Washington imposed visa restrictions on Friday on Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, his family and other unnamed court officials.
The visa bans were a response to the Supreme Court's decision to issue search warrants and restraining orders targeting Trump ally Bolsonaro, who is accused of plotting a coup to overturn the results of a 2022 election he lost.
Solicitor general Jorge Messias, the top judicial official for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's executive branch, said in a statement posted on X that Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet was also targeted by the ban.
"Rest assured that no improper maneuver or sordid conspiratorial act will intimidate our country's judiciary in the independent and dignified exercise of its task," he added.
Messias said the Brazilian officials were subject to "arbitrary acts of visa revocation by a foreign nation on account of their fulfillment of their legitimate institutional responsibilities in accordance with constitutional terms."
In addition to Moraes, seven other justices from Brazil's 11-member Supreme Court were also hit by the U.S. visa restrictions, Government Institutional Relations Minister Gleisi Hoffmann said on Friday.
They include justices Luis Roberto Barroso, Dias Toffoli, Cristiano Zanin, Flavio Dino, Carmen Lucia, Edson Fachin, and Gilmar Mendes.
The Prosecutor General's Office and the Supreme Court did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump has criticised the proceedings against Bolsonaro as a "witch hunt", a term he has used to describe his own treatment by political opponents, and has called for the charges to be dropped. In a letter last week, he announced a 50% tariff on Brazilian goods starting August 1, opening the message with criticism of the trial.
Bolsonaro is on trial before Brazil's Supreme Court on charges of plotting a coup to stop Lula from taking office in January 2023.
The right-wing firebrand has denied that he led an attempt to overthrow the government but has acknowledged taking part in meetings aimed at reversing the election's outcome.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Brazil economy on track despite U.S. tariffs, but inflation risk up
July 21 (Reuters) - Brazil's economic growth will stay on track despite the imposition of U.S. tariffs, according to a Reuters poll of economists, but inflation appears at greater risk of worsening if trade negotiations flounder. U.S. President Donald Trump threatened this month to set a 50% duty on Brazilian goods on August 1 in a spat with his counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who vowed to retaliate if diplomacy broke down. However, even under steep tariffs, Brazil's economy should continue expanding at a gradual rate in 2025 and next year with the help of a resilient jobs market. Brazil's gross domestic product (GDP) is forecast to increase 2.2% this year and 1.7% in 2026, according to the median estimate of 38 analysts polled on July 14-21. As in other countries, economists are mostly sticking to a baseline scenario with moderate tariffs. Both forecasts were slightly better than the consensus view of 2.0% and 1.6%, respectively, in an April survey. "The domestic labor market remains quite tight, with unemployment at new lows and the real wage mass still expanding at a brisk pace," said Roberto Secemski, a Barclays economist. "At the margin the uncertainty from tariffs reduces those upside risks, but we don't see them derailing growth at this point." In the poll, inflation is forecast to slow to 4.4% next year from 5.2% in 2025, just a sliver below the top end of the central bank's goal of 3.0% plus or minus 1.5 percentage point. On potential tariff negotiations between the U.S. and Brazil, 13 of 16 participants who shared a view expected the August 1 deadline set by Washington to be extended, giving room for talks. Two envisaged a "no deal" situation that would lead to the implementation of the planned 50% U.S. tariff right after the ultimatum date, mirrored by Brazilian retaliation measures. One saw a deal leaving in place a lower original 10% "reciprocal tariff" the U.S. put on Brazil and other countries in April, with no reprisal from Brasilia. Hopes for negotiations contrasted with elevated tensions last week after Lula called the threatened duty "unacceptable blackmail", while Washington imposed sanctions on Brazilian officials. Trump has linked the 50% tariff to the treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is on trial over charges of plotting a coup. Additionally, the U.S. launched an investigation into Brazil's trading practices. Still, the median U.S. tariff on Brazilian goods assumed in analysts' forecasts was 30%, according to answers to another question, considerably lower than Trump's threatened 50%. Responses to a separate question on Brazil's potential GDP growth in 2026 in a "no deal" scenario pointed to a 1.6%-1.7% consensus range, virtually the same expansion as in the baseline case. While the U.S. is the second biggest destination of Brazil's exports after China, analysts noted the Latin American country may avoid tariff impact by further redirecting trade to its top market in Asia. Yet the median range for next year's inflation forecast under "no deal" was 4.4%-4.9%. This reflected some chances of Brazil exceeding the upper inflation goal bound of 4.5%, which would again frustrate the central bank. Policymakers are expected to keep the country's benchmark interest rate at a two-decade high of 15% at least until the end of 2025, the poll showed. "The main impact of a no-deal scenario and retaliation by Brazil would likely be on the exchange rate," Santander analysts wrote. "Uncertainty about the effects of these events on the domestic economy would probably be reflected in currency depreciation and a reversal of the current inflation downward trend." (Other stories from the Reuters global economic poll)
Reuters
2 hours ago
- Reuters
Brazil acknowledges possibility of no US trade deal by August 1
SAO PAULO, July 21 (Reuters) - Brazil's finance minister said on Monday that his country will not give up negotiating with the United States, but acknowledged that a deal may not be reached by August 1, when President Donald Trump's 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods are due to take effect. "That could happen," Fernando Haddad told radio station CBN in an interview, saying that Latin America's largest economy is still awaiting a response from Washington to trade proposals it initially submitted in May.
Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
Kremlin acknowledges strain in Russia-Azerbaijan relations
MOSCOW, July 21 (Reuters) - Russia-Azerbaijan relations are currently going through a challenging phase, but Moscow remains hopeful for improvement as the two countries share common interests, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. Tensions between Moscow and Baku have escalated in recent months following the detention of several ethnic Azerbaijanis in Russia and the death of two of them in police custody. On Saturday Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, said he wanted Russia to publicly acknowledge that it had accidentally shot down an Azerbaijani passenger plane in December last year, killing 38 people on board, and to punish those responsible. President Vladimir Putin apologised at the time to Aliyev for what the Kremlin called a "tragic incident" over Russia in which an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed after Russian air defences opened fire against Ukrainian drones. But Putin stopped short of saying Russia had shot down the aircraft.
