(AFP) – Brazil said Wednesday it had summoned the US charge d’affaires in a diplomatic row following President Donald Trump’s criticism of the coup trial of his right-wing ally, ex-leader Jair Bolsonaro. The foreign ministry in Brasilia told AFP that envoy Gabriel Escobar will be called to explain an embassy statement describing Bolsonaro as a victim of “political persecution” — echoing Trump’s claims of a “witch hunt” against the 70-year-old Brazilian firebrand.
Trump on Monday urged Brazilian authorities to “LEAVE BOLSONARO ALONE,” in a post on social media. “They have done nothing but come after him, day after day, night after night, month after month, year after year!” the US president wrote. Leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who narrowly beat Bolsonaro in a divisive election in 2022, has hit back at Trump’s “interference,” insisting that “no one is above the law.”
Bolsonaro denies he was involved in an attempt to wrest power back from Lula in an alleged coup plot prosecutors say failed only for a lack of military backing. After the plot fizzled, rioting supporters known as “Bolsonaristas” raided government buildings in 2023 as they urged the military to oust Lula. Bolsonaro was abroad at the time.
The case against Bolsonaro carries echoes of Trump’s prosecution over the January 6, 2021 attacks by his supporters, who overran the US Congress to try and reverse his election loss. Trump pleaded not guilty, and the case was abandoned when he was reelected president. The cases have drawn the Trump and Bolsonaro families together, with the Brazilian ex-leader’s sons lobbying for US sanctions against a Supreme Court judge sitting on the ex-president’s trial.
In his post Monday, Trump suggested Bolsonaro was the favorite in presidential elections next year, despite being banned from running for spreading disinformation about Brazil’s voting system. Bolsonaro senior thanked Trump for his defense of “peace, justice and liberty” in a social media post.
On Wednesday, the US embassy in Brasilia issued a statement to “reinforce” Trump’s support for Bolsonaro. “Jair Bolsonaro and his family have been strong partners of the United States,” read the note. “The political persecution against him, his family, and his followers is shameful and disrespects Brazil’s democratic traditions.”
The showdown between the two countries extended to the economic sphere this week, when members of the BRICS grouping, meeting in Brazil under host Lula, criticized Trump’s imposition of import tariffs and his bombing of Iran. This drew the US president’s ire and a threat of 10 percent additional tariffs on each BRICS-aligned country. Lula insisted BRICS members were sovereign and did not want an “emperor.”
© 2024 AFP
