Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement on Thursday, immediately following the news that former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro had been sentenced to 27 years in prison, vowing that America would “respond accordingly” to what he deemed a human rights abuse.
Bolsonaro, a conservative who governed from 2018 to 2022 after suffering a debilitating assassination attempt that continues to cause severe health problems today, stood accused before the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) of Brazil of attempting and failing to stage a coup following his defeat in the 2022 election. Bolsonaro lost that election narrowly to incumbent socialist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whose participation in that election many Brazilians challenge as illegitimate given his conviction on corruption charges in 2017. The STF overturned Lula’s conviction on dubious procedural grounds and its election oversight analog, the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), heavily censored the Bolsonaro campaign while allowing Lula to spuriously disparage Bolsonaro as a “cannibal” and a “pedophile.”
The STF and TSE’s interference in the election, both under the auspices of Justice Alexandre de Moraes, prompted many Bolsonaro supporters in Brazil and around the world to question the integrity of Lula’s victory. The STF turned these questions into a prosecution of Bolsonaro and several others in his inner circle, who it claimed had attempted to violently overthrow the Lula administration following the president’s inauguration.
The STF ruled on Thursday to sentence Bolsonaro, 70, to 27 years in prison for “crimes against democracy.” The former president and six others were convicted of “attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, coup d’état, participation in an armed criminal organization, aggravated damage, and deterioration of listed heritage sites.” The charges linked Bolsonaro to the spontaneous riot in Brasilia on January 8, 2023, which resulted in some property damage to the STF headquarters, the presidential palace, and the Brazilian Congress, but no serious injuries. Bolsonaro was in the United States at the time of the riot. Should Bolsonaro survive the 27 years in prison, the court also imposed an eight-year ban on him running for public office that begins at the end of his prison term, meaning he would be eligible to run for office again at age 105.
A poll by the firm Paraná Pesquisas found in August that Jair Bolsonaro remains the strongest candidate against Lula in the 2026 election and one of the country’s most popular politicians.
Secretary Rubio responded to the conviction shortly after its confirmation on Thursday, condemning top judge de Moraes as a “human rights abuser” and warning Washington would respond.
“The political persecutions by sanctioned human rights abuser Alexandre de Moraes continue, as he and others on Brazil’s supreme court have unjustly ruled to imprison former President Jair Bolsonaro,” Rubio said in a statement on social media. “The United States will respond accordingly to this witch hunt.”
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, who has taken on a protagonist role in stripping abusive foreign officials of U.S. visas, similarly condemned the conviction on Thursday.
“The United States condemns the use of the law as a political weapon. As a lawyer, a diplomat, and a friend of Brazil, it pains me to see Justice Moraes laying waste to the rule of law there and driving relations between our two great nations to their darkest point in two centuries,” Landau said. “As long as Brazil leaves the fate of our relationship in Justice Moraes’ hands, I see no resolution to this crisis.”
President Trump responded briefly to the conviction late Thursday, expressing support for Bolsonaro and comparing his persecution to Trump’s own legal woes during the 2024 presidential election.
“I watched that trial, I know him pretty well,” Trump said. “Foreign leader, I thought he was a good president of Brazil, and its very surprising that that could happen.”
“That’s very much like they tried to do with me, but they didn’t get away with it at all. But I can only say this: I knew him as president of Brazil, he was a good man, and I don’t see that happening,” Trump added.
The Trump administration heavily sanctioned Brazil in July in response to de Moraes piling on criminal charges on Bolsonaro and increasingly limiting his civil freedoms. De Moraes ultimately banned Bolsonaro from using social media or offering any public statements, then placed him under house arrest prior to the conviction, claiming the former president presented a flight risk. Bolsonaro traveled to the United States in early 2023 but willingly returned to Brazil despite de Moraes threatening to level severe criminal charges against him for allegedly threatening democracy.
President Trump signed an executive order in July declaring the Brazilian government a threat to America’s “national security,” citing its persecution of conservatives that included de Moraes forcing social media sites based in America to divulge information used to persecute conservatives. The U.S. government used the Global Magnitsky Act, meant to punish international human rights abusers, to sanction de Moraes personally, banning him from the country. Trump also imposed a 50-percent tariff on Brazilian goods, devastating its export economy.
“Recent policies, practices, and actions of the Government of Brazil threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” Trump wrote in the order, calling the persecution in the country a “national emergency” for America.
“These judicial actions, taken under the pretext of combatting ‘disinformation,’ ‘fake news,’ or ‘anti-democratic’ or ‘hateful’ content, endanger the economy of the United States,” Trump declared, “by tyrannically and arbitrarily coercing United States companies to censor political speech, turn over sensitive United States user data, or change their content moderation policies.”
” These actions also chill and limit expression in the United States, violate human rights, and undermine the interest that the United States has in protecting its citizens and companies at home and abroad,” he added.
The sanctions in July prompted waves of peaceful protests throughout Brazil, attracting tens of thousands of people to convene in 26 cities to thank the Trump administration and support Bolsonaro. The Lula government has entirely ignored the protests and repeatedly insisted that imprisoning Bolsonaro and his supporters is necessary to preserve “democracy.”
The Trump administration has not at press time specified what action it will take against the Brazilian government in response to the Bolsonaro conviction.
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.
Read the full article here