Police officer dressed as cartoon hero seizes marijuana and cocaine in drugs raid
Wearing the red costume of the beloved slapstick antihero popular across the Spanish -speaking world, the officer used a sledgehammer to break down a door during the Thursday (17 July) operation, while fellow agents moved in undetected.
Colonel Pedro Rojas of the Green Squadron said the disguise allowed the unit to approach unnoticed, using the character's familiarity to blend in — catching suspects off guard with the unusual police tactic.
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Trump accused of ‘attack on Brazilian democracy' after sanctioning Bolsonaro trial judge
Allies of Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, have accused Donald Trump of launching 'a direct attack on Brazilian democracy' after the US treasury slapped sanctions on Alexandre de Moraes, the supreme court judge widely credited with helping save Brazilian democracy from a 2022 rightwing coup. The highly controversial US move was announced on Wednesday by the secretary of the treasury, Scott Bessent, shortly before Trump followed through on a threat to hit Brazilian imports with 50% tariffs by signing an executive order 'to deal with the recent policies, practices, and actions by the government of Brazil'. Trump has partly attributed those tariffs to his outrage at the supposed political 'witch-hunt' against his far-right ally the former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who is on trial for allegedly seeking to seize power after losing the 2022 presidential election to Lula. De Moraes is presiding over the trial, which is widely expected to result in Bolsonaro being convicted and sentenced to up to 43 years in jail, as well as several other criminal investigations into Bolsonaro and his family. Announcing the Magnitsky sanctions, Bessent accused De Moraes of being 'responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights and politicized prosecutions – including against former president Jair Bolsonaro'. 'Alexandre de Moraes has taken it upon himself to be judge and jury in an unlawful witch-hunt against US and Brazilian citizens and companies,' Bessent claimed. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, tweeted: 'Let this be a warning to those who would trample on the fundamental rights of their countrymen – judicial robes cannot protect you.' A White House statement confirming the 50% tariffs on Brazil – albeit with numerous major exemptions, including oil, orange juice, timber and aircraft – said they were a result of 'the government of Brazil's politically motivated persecution, intimidation, harassment, censorship, and prosecution of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and thousands of his supporters'. Hundreds of hardcore Bolsonaro supporters have been put on trial and jailed for taking part in the 8 January 2023 rightwing riots in the capital, Brasília, during which the supreme court, congress and presidential palace were stormed and ransacked. The sanctions were celebrated by Bolsonaro's relatives and supporters, who see US pressure as the only way of helping the former president escape a hefty jail term and, perhaps, save his political future. 'We Brazilians will never forget this action of yours [Rubio and Trump],' tweeted Bolsonaro's congressman son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, who has spent recent weeks in the US lobbying the Trump administration to fight for his father's cause by imposing sanctions. 'Today I have a feeling of mission accomplished but our journey won't end here,' Eduardo Bolsonaro vowed in a social media video. But members of Lula's government denounced the move as a dramatic escalation of what they see as Trump's crusade to undermine Brazilian democracy. José Guimarães, a congressperson from Lula's leftwing Worker's party (PT), called the sanctions 'not just an affront to a supreme court minister … [but also] a direct attack on Brazilian democracy and sovereignty'. 'We will not accept foreign interference in … our justice system,' Guimarães wrote on X, calling the sanctions 'the fruit of a Bolsonaro family conspiracy against Brazil'. Gleisi Hoffmann, a top minister and one of Lula's closest allies, called Trump's move a 'violent and arrogant act' and expressed the government's 'utter repudiation' of the 'absurd' measure. The Magnitsky sanctions were named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian tax lawyer who died in a Moscow prison in 2009 after being imprisoned for exposing high-level corruption. They have been used since 2017 to sanction individuals accused of involvement in serious human rights abuses. Past targets have included Saudi Arabian officials involved in the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Nicaraguan officials linked to a deadly crackdown designed to keep its dictator Daniel Ortega in power, Communist party leaders involved in the repression of members of the Uyghur ethnic group in west China and military chiefs in Myanmar involved in alleged acts of ethnic cleansing. Legal experts and human rights activists voiced astonishment and consternation that such sanctions had been used to target a judge in Latin America's largest democracy. Thiago Amparo, an international law and human rights professor from Brazil's Getulio Vargas Foundation, said the sanctions exposed 'Trump's distorted view of what a human rights violation is'. Amparo said Trump appeared to think that one of his ideological allies being given a fair trial for allegedly trying to stage a coup was equivalent to 'torture, genocide or other grave violations … to which laws such as Magnitsky are meant to apply'.
BBC News
3 hours ago
- BBC News
US sanctions Brazilian judge overseeing Bolsonaro case
US officials said on Wednesday that they will sanction Brazilian Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes, accusing him of authorising "arbitrary pre-trial detentions" and suppressing "freedom of expression".Judge Moraes has been leading the investigation into allegations that Brazil's former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro and his allies plotted a coup after he lost the 2022 has denied those allegations and has called Judge Moraes a "dictator".Shortly after the sanctions were announced, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that raised tariffs on Brazil to 50%. Trump had threatened to impose the steep tariffs earlier this month in a letter he shared on social media to Brazil's current president Luiz Inácio Lula da it, Trump accused Brazil of "attacks" on US tech companies and of conducting a "witch hunt" against threatens Brazil with 50% tariff and demands Bolsonaro's trial endBolsonaro denies involvement in alleged coup plotWhen announcing the sanctions against Judge Moraes on Wednesday, US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent also accused Moraes of carrying out "an unlawful witch hunt against US and Brazilian citizens and companies."Bessent added that the judge is "responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights, and politicized prosecutions – including against former President Jair Bolsonaro". "Today's action makes clear that Treasury will continue to hold accountable those who threaten US interests and the freedoms of our citizens," he BBC has reached out to Judge Moraes for addition to leading the investigation into Bolsonaro, Judge Moraes had previously ordered some social media accounts, including American ones, to be shut down for publishing US president's company Trump Media, which operates his Truth Social platform, is among the US tech companies fighting Brazilian court rulings over orders suspending social media country had also briefly banned Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter, after the platform refused to shut down accounts that were deemed by Brazil to be spreading misinformation about the 2022 Brazilian presidential month, Brazil's Supreme Court ruled that social media companies can be held responsible for content posted on their latest sanctions mark a new escalation in an increasingly tense relationship between Brazil and the US under Trump's second Trump's first term, the US president and former Brazilian president Bolsonaro enjoyed a friendly relationship when their presidencies overlapped, and the two had met at the White House in men subsequently lost presidential elections and both refused to publicly acknowledge who governed Brazil between 2019 and 2022, is standing trial for allegedly attempting a coup with thousands of his supporters storming government buildings in the capital in January 2023 after Lula was victorious in the Moraes has imposed a raft of pre-trial restrictions on Bolsonaro, including a night-time and weekend curfew and 24-hour surveillance to prevent him from fleeing the has also been ordered to refrain from contacting foreign governments and their embassies in Brazil, and to wear an ankle in July, Trump compared Bolsonaro's prosecution to the legal cases he has similarly faced."This is nothing more, or less, than an attack on a Political Opponent - Something I know much about!" Trump had said. In response, Bolsonaro thanked the US president for his support.
The Independent
3 hours ago
- The Independent
US sanctions Brazil's Supreme Court justice overseeing case against Bolsonaro
The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday announced sanctions on Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes over alleged suppression of freedom of expression and the ongoing trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro. De Moraes oversees the criminal case against Bolsonaro, who is accused of masterminding a plot to stay in power despite his 2022 election defeat to current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. 'De Moraes is responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights, and politicized prosecutions — including against former President Jair Bolsonaro,' U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement. The Treasury cited the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which targets perpetrators of human rights abuse and corrupt officials, as its authority to issue the sanctions. The decision orders the freezing of any assets or property de Moraes may have in the U.S. Brazil's Supreme Court and the Presidential Palace did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Wednesday's announcement follows the U.S. State Department's announcement of visa restrictions on Brazilian judicial officials, including de Moraes, on July 18. It also comes after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a 50% tariff on Brazilian imported goods that is set to come into effect on Friday. In a letter announcing the tariff, Trump explicitly linked the import tax to what he called the 'witch hunt' trial of Bolsonaro currently underway in Brazil. Days later, Bolsonaro was ordered to wear an ankle monitor after being deemed a flight risk. Bolsonaro's son Eduardo celebrated the Treasury's announcement on X, calling it a 'historic milestone' and a warning that 'abuses of authority now have global consequences.' Eduardo Bolsonaro relocated to the U.S. in March and is under investigation for allegedly working with U.S. authorities to impose sanctions against Brazilian officials. ____
