Brazil’s far-right ex-president left for Florida two days before his term ends on January 1
The United States has received no formal request from the Brazilian government regarding the status of former President Jair Bolsonaro, after his supporters stormed Congress, the White House said today.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who is in Mexico with President Joe Biden for the US-Mexico-Canada trilateral summit, told reporters that it appears democratic institutions in Brazil are “holding up.” He added that US officials were not in direct contact with Bolsonaro, who was admitted to a hospital in Orlando, Florida, as was reported earlier.
Sullivan said Biden will speak with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva about the events in Brasilia, but he did not know when that would happen. “We expressed our belief, because we believe it, that Brazil’s democratic institutions will endure, that the will of the people will be respected, that democratically elected leaders will govern Brazil and will not be hindered by the actions of those people who attacked the Brazilian governing bodies,” he added.
It is unclear so far how the United States will handle the problem that goes by the name of Jair Bolsonaro.
Brazil’s far-right ex-president left for Florida two days before his term ends on January 1 after questioning the results of the October 30 presidential election and the victory of leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
After watching Donald Trump’s supporters storm the US Capitol two years ago, US President Joe Biden is now under pressure to remove Bolsonaro from his “self-exile” in Orlando.
“Bolsonaro shouldn’t be in Florida,” Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro told CNN. “The United States should not be a haven for this authoritarian leader who inspired domestic terrorism in Brazil. He should be sent back to Brazil,” he added. Castro said Bolsonaro, the “Trump of the tropics,” as he liked to be called, “used the Trump playbook to inspire domestic terrorists.”
Similar views were expressed by the Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes. “The US must stop granting sanctuary to Bolsonaro in Florida. Almost two years after the US Capitol was attacked by fascists, we are watching fascist movements abroad attempt to do the same in Brazil,” she wrote on Twitter.
Big decisions
Their comments suggest that Washington may have to make a major decision about Bolsonaro’s future.
The former Brazilian president has had a rocky relationship with Biden and his position has weakened in his home country since he no longer enjoys presidential immunity. The investigations against him could lead to his arrest or bar him from running for elected office again, Reuters reported last week.
John Friley, who was US ambassador to Panama between 2016-18 when that country asked Washington to extradite former president Ricardo Martinelli, said the immediate threat to Bolsonaro would be to revoke his visa. “The US – and any other sovereign country – can remove an alien, even if he entered legally with a visa, for any reason. It is a decision for which no legal justification is required,” he explained.
A consular official, who asked not to be named, said it was almost certain that Bolsonaro entered the US on an A-1 visa, which is granted only to heads of state. Another source, a former US diplomat, also believes that, almost certainly, Bolsonaro used an A-1 visa.
Under normal circumstances, the A-1 visa is canceled after the recipient loses his office. But because Bolsonaro left Brazil and entered the US before his term ended, the official suspects the A-1 visa is still active. He, who has experience in revoking the visas of former leaders, said there is no time limit on how long one can stay in the US on an A-1 visa.
“We are in uncharted waters. Who knows how long he will stay?’ he wondered.
A State Department spokesman declined to discuss the matter, explaining that visa records are classified.
Unsubstantiated claims
Bolsonaro may be in no rush to return to Brazil, where he is accused of inciting a violent movement to deny the election result by making baseless allegations of fraud.
Lula, who has already warned he will go after Bolsonaro if necessary, blamed him yesterday for the invasion. “This genocidal (…) is encouraging (ie the riots) through social networking sites from Miami. Everyone knows that there are many speeches of the former president in which he encourages all this,” he emphasized.
Bolsonaro was already under investigation, in four Supreme Court cases, before he lost the presidency. Legal experts said he could be the target of another Supreme Court inquiry into the anti-democracy protests, for which several arrests have already been made. If Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes issues an arrest warrant while Bolsonaro is in the US, the former president would theoretically have to return to Brazil and surrender to police. If he refuses, Brazil can issue a “Red Alert” through Interpol to request his arrest by the US Federal Police. Brazil will then have to formally request his extradition. Bolsonaro can appeal in US courts or even seek asylum – but there is no guarantee that this will prevent his eventual return to Brazil.
Former Panamanian President Martinelli was extradited by the US to Panama in 2018, three years after the country’s Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant against him.
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