{"id":75856,"date":"2025-07-19T16:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T16:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/75856\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T16:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T16:56:11","slug":"rubio-moves-to-strip-us-visas-from-eight-brazilian-judges-in-bolsonaro-battle-marco-rubio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/75856\/","title":{"rendered":"Rubio moves to strip US visas from eight Brazilian judges in Bolsonaro battle | Marco Rubio"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has reportedly stripped eight of Brazil\u2019s 11 supreme court judges of their US visas as the White House escalates its campaign to help the country\u2019s former president Jair Bolsonaro<\/a> avoid justice over his alleged attempt to seize power with a military coup.<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro, a far-right populist with ties to Donald Trump\u2019s Maga movement, is on trial for allegedly masterminding a murderous plot to cling to power after losing the 2022 election to his leftwing rival, Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro is expected to be convicted by the supreme court in the coming weeks and faces a jail sentence of up to 43 years.<\/p>\n

As the day of judgment nears, Trump has been increasing pressure on the court and President Lula\u2019s administration. On 9 July, the US president announced he would impose 50% tariffs on all Brazilian imports<\/a> as of 1 August, partly as a result of the supposed persecution of his ally. The move triggered an outpouring of nationalist anger in the South American country, with Lula describing it as \u201cunacceptable blackmail\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Friday, after federal police raided Bolsonaro\u2019s house and fitted him with an electronic tag<\/a> to stop him absconding, Rubio announced further moves in support of the defendant, who he claimed was the victim of a \u201cpolitical witch hunt\u201d.<\/p>\n

Writing on X, Rubio said he had ordered visa revocations for the judge leading the investigation into Bolsonaro, Alexandre de Moraes, as well as \u201chis allies on the court\u201d and their family members. Rubio did not name his other targets but the Brazilian newspaper O Globo identified them<\/a> as Lu\u00eds Roberto Barroso, Jos\u00e9 Antonio Dias Toffoli, Cristiano Zanin, Fl\u00e1vio Dino, C\u00e1rmen L\u00facia Antunes Rocha, Luiz Edson Fachin and Gilmar Ferreira Mendes.<\/p>\n

Two other judges who were nominated to the court during Bolsonaro\u2019s 2019-23 presidency, Andr\u00e9 Mendon\u00e7a and Kassio Nunes Marques, reportedly avoided the sanction, as did a third judge, Luiz Fux.<\/p>\n

Lula denounced what he called \u201canother arbitrary and completely groundless measure from the US government\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterference in another country\u2019s justice system is unacceptable and offends the basic principles of national sovereignty and respect between nations,\u201d the president said on Saturday, adding: \u201cI\u2019m certain that no kind of intimidation or threat \u2013 from whoever it may be \u2013 will compromise the most important mission of our nation\u2019s powers and institutions, which is to act permanently to defend and safeguard the democratic rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump strategist Alex Bruesewitz welcomed Rubio\u2019s announcement, calling Bolsonaro\u2019s treatment \u201csick and wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bolsonaro\u2019s congressman son, Eduardo, thanked Rubio for his decision. \u201cThank you very much for this fight in favor of free speech, we do believe in the same values,\u201d tweeted Eduardo, who has been living in the US since February and has reportedly been lobbying officials there over his father\u2019s plight.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s interventions have appalled millions of Brazilians who hope to see their former leader held responsible for the alleged coup attempt, which culminated in the 8 January riots in Bras\u00edlia.<\/p>\n

Lula\u2019s institutional relations minister, Gleisi Hoffmann, called the visa cancellations \u201can aggressive and petty retaliation\u201d and \u201can affront to the Brazilian judiciary and national sovereignty\u201d.<\/p>\n

Even influential rightwing voices have criticised the US\u2019s attempt to meddle in one of the world\u2019s most populous democracies by imposing 50% tariffs.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the conservative Estado de S\u00e3o Paulo newspaper described<\/a> Trump\u2019s behaviour as \u201cunacceptable external interference in Brazil\u2019s domestic matters\u201d. \u201cTrump has not only attacked our national sovereignty \u2026 [but also] stained the history of diplomatic relations between the two largest democracies in the Americas,\u201d the newspaper\u2019s editorial board wrote.<\/p>\n

While the Bolsonaros have hailed Trump\u2019s actions, they also appear to have grasped how the announcement of tariffs has backfired<\/a>, allowing Lula to pose as a nationalist defender of Brazilian interests and paint the Bolsonaro clan as self-serving \u201ctraitors\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lula, who had been facing growing public disillusionment and an uphill battle to win re-election next year, has enjoyed a bounce in the polls since Trump launched his trade war, the brunt of which will be borne by coffee producers and cattle ranchers in Bolsonaro-voting regions, such as S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n

Celso Rocha de Barros, a political columnist, said he suspected the Bolsonaros had been blindsided by the scale of Trump\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think [Bolsonaro] wanted some kind of penalty – something he could use to say: \u2018Look, Brazil\u2019s being punished because of Bolsonaro\u2019s persecution. But [the tariffs] went far too far \u2026 [they] screwed Bolsonaro\u2019s base,\u201d said Rocha de Barros, pointing to their potential impact on agribusiness.<\/p>\n

On Friday night, Bolsonaro\u2019s senator son, Fl\u00e1vio, post on X, calling on Trump to suspend the tariffs and replace them with individual sanctions. Soon after, however, he deleted the post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has reportedly stripped eight of Brazil\u2019s 11 supreme court judges of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":75857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,50,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-75856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114880956723700150","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}