Brazil’s Foreign Ministry on Monday summoned the head of the U.S. embassy in Brasilia Gabriel Escobar to demand explanations on the “degrading treatment” that a group of 88 Brazilian deportees were allegedly subjected to, local outlets reported.
Escobar, who presently leads the U.S. embassy as Charge d’Affaires until President Donald Trump appoints a new ambassador to Brasilia, reportedly conversed with Márcia Loureiro, the Brazilian Foreign Ministry’s Secretary of Consular Affairs, who asked the U.S. diplomat for “clarification” on reports of alleged mistreatment of the 88 Brazilian deportees that arrived on Friday.
Loureiro reiterated Brazil’s position to Escobar that the nation considers the treatment of the Brazilian deportees “unacceptable.” Both officials reportedly discussed the use of handcuffs, a practice that Brazil has called to replace with a more “dignified procedure.” Escobar reportedly promised to check the conditions of the flight.
On Friday, a plane with 88 Brazilian deportees was scheduled to land in the southeastern city of Belo Horizonte but was forced to make a stopover in the northern city of Manaus after it encountered a technical issue. Brazilian outlets reported that the deportees descended from the airplane handcuffed and with their ankles shackled, leading to a disagreement with local authorities, who demanded the removal of the restraints.
Some of the deportees denounced to the Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Sunday that they were allegedly denied water and bathroom access during the fight. They claimed some of the deportees fainted from heat. Brazilian Human Rights Minister Macae Evaristo told journalists that “children with autism … who went through very serious experiences” were also on the flight.
The Brazilian government protested the “indiscriminate” use of handcuffs and said it would demand explanations from the United States for the “degrading” treatment of the deportees. According to local outlets, U.S. officials demanded that the Brazilians remain handcuffed on the stretch between Manaus and Belo Horizonte — leading to the Brazilian government not authorizing the plane to continue its scheduled arrival to Belo Horizonte.
Radical leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had the deportees taken on a Brazilian Air Force plane to Belo Horizonte instead.
The Brazilian government’s demands for clarification from the U.S. diplomat come right after far-left Colombian President Gustavo Petro caused a brief diplomatic crisis between Colombia and the United States after he blocked the arrival of a flight of Colombian deportees on Sunday.
President Donald Trump responded to Petro’s actions with 25-percent tariffs on Colombian goods and other retaliatory measures. Petro, after issuing a long and incoherent rant on Twitter, ultimately caved and “agreed to all” of President Trump’s terms.
Brazil’s Federal Police explained to local outlets on Monday that, while the use of handcuffs on deportees is “standard practice” in the United States, Brazil does not apply the same protocol to deportees and, as such, the deportees could not disembark on Brazilian soil handcuffed because “they are not prisoners.”
The Federal Police argued that the use of handcuffs upon disembarking was in violation of constitutional norms and treaties signed between both nations.
“There is no justification for people who are not prisoners, who pose no risk because they are in their own country, to be chained up and subjugated and mistreated there,” head of Brazil’s Federal Police Andrei Rodrigues said on Monday. “Our stance was to welcome them, it was the decision of the federal government and of [Justice] Minister Ricardo Lewandowski.”
Brazilian Justice Minister Ricardo Lewandowski told the state-owned Radio Agencia on Monday that the deportees were subjected to “unacceptable constraints.” Lewandowski asserted that the Brazilian reaction was “sober” and that the intention was not to provoke the American government, but to demand “respect for people’s fundamental rights, especially those who are not criminals.”
“We don’t want provocation, we don’t want to create an affront anyone, but we want the innocent Brazilians who went there to look for work that they may not have had here – and today we have this worldwide phenomenon of forced migrations all over the world – we want them to be treated with the dignity they deserve,” Lewandowski said, adding that the deportations must be carried out with “respect and dignity.”
According to local outlets, President Lula da Silva met with his Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira on Monday to discuss the treatment given to deportees. Lula is expected to participate via videoconference in a Thursday meeting of Presidents of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) that far-left President of Honduras Xiomara Castro urgently called for to discuss President Trump’s crackdown on migrants and deportation policies.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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