Jair Bolsonaro’s presence in the US has become a diplomatic issue for President Joe Biden after supporters of the former Brazilian leader stormed government buildings over the weekend.
What initially appeared to be the target of humor – Bolsonaro was photographed eating at KFC and walking in a Publix supermarket in Florida after he arrived in the US on December 30 – became more serious after thousands of supporters stormed the Brazilian congress, the Supreme. The court and the presidential palace are there. Bolsonaro’s successor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, accused him of encouraging the unrest.
The violence led to the January 6 uprising in the US, and the Biden government, which has aligned itself with Lula’s government, is considering what to do next with Bolsonaro, who is an ally of former President Donald Trump and shows hard-right populism.
Biden appears to have the power to revoke Bolsonaro’s visa and kick him out of the country, and has come under pressure from progressives to do so.
The former president is currently being treated at a hospital near Orlando, Florida, for stomach pains, according to his wife. He has had several surgeries since being stabbed in the stomach during a campaign in 2018.
He could wage a long legal battle over his status. Then there is the question of whether Lula and his supporters really want him to return to his country.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday that the US had not received an extradition request from Brazil. Behind the silence from Brasilia, administration officials are considering whether they can do anything to spur Bolsonaro to leave the US, according to people familiar with the conversation.
The White House said on Monday evening that Biden and Lula had spoken by phone, and the American president “expressed the support of the United States for Brazilian democracy.” Biden also invited Lula to visit Washington early next month. The invitation was accepted, according to the statement, which did not mention Bolsonaro by name.
One challenge for U.S. officials eager to speed up Bolsonaro’s departure is figuring out how he got into the U.S. There is uncertainty in the administration about what visas to get, people familiar with the matter said. They may use a diplomatic passport, or they may use a personal passport and visit Florida on a tourist visa.
Discussions about those options are at an early stage, and include asking him to leave or exploring grounds for revoking his visa, the people said. He asked not to be identified because no decision has been made yet.
Trump connection
Bolsonaro’s fate is not only about Brazil. There are also heavy political overtones for the US. Bolsonaro and Trump are political allies who are pursuing a nationalist agenda and agreeing to re-election bids. Both are also suspicious of their country’s electoral system and refuse to concede after losing. Bolsonaro arrived in the US on December 30 while he was still president, bypassing Lula’s inauguration.
Steve Bannon, the former Trump strategist who won the 2020 US presidential election with false claims, used the War Room podcast and posts on the social media site Gettr to push the idea that Brazil’s election was rigged and supported the rioters.
After Lula defeated Bolsonaro, Bannon posted on Gettr on October 30 that “This election was stolen in the clouds.” Bannon called the rioters “Brazilian Freedom Fighters” on Gettr and said, “Lula stole the Election, Brazilians know it.”
The comments are in line with Bannon’s support for Bolsonaro and his family. After Trump lost his re-election bid, Bannon advised Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, and suggested that Bolsonaro’s Brazil was the embodiment of the style of right-wing nationalism that Trump had sought in the US.
“In many ways, the movement in Brazil is actually more advanced than in the United States,” Bannon told Bloomberg News at the time.
Some Democratic lawmakers have called on Biden to extradite Bolsonaro, increasing pressure on the administration. Representatives Joaquin Castro of Texas and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York condemned the actions of Bolsonaro’s supporters as domestic terrorism.
“The US must stop giving Bolsonaro protection in Florida,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a tweet. “Almost two years until the US Capitol was attacked by fascists, we see fascist movements abroad trying to do the same thing in Brazil.”
Bolsonaro curse
Bolsonaro condemned the destruction of public property by some of his supporters, taking to Twitter over the weekend to say “the depredations and invasions of public buildings as we see today, like the actions carried out by the left in 2013 and 2017, are not in the rules. .”
But that didn’t stop some officials from calling for his return.
Brazilian senators asked top court judge Alexandre de Moraes on Monday to order Bolsonaro to return to the country. Senator Renan Calheiros said Bolsonaro should explain that he supports the rioters who attacked Brasilia. He asked the court to issue an arrest warrant if the former president refused to cooperate with the investigation.
Moraes, who is leading an investigation into alleged acts against Brazilian democracy, has issued several arrest warrants for Bolsonaro’s supporters.
The US government has been quick to respond to extradition requests as they come. In 2018, the US extradited former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli, who was later acquitted of espionage and embezzlement charges.
“We have not received an official request from the Brazilian government related to this issue,” Sullivan said. “If and when we do, we’ll deal with it, and if there’s any information we need to provide, we’ll do it.”
Bolsonaro has yet to face criminal charges in Brazil, meaning Lula’s government has no basis for an extradition request. That could change as the investigation into the riots unfolds.
While declining to discuss Bolsonaro individually, State Department spokesman Ned Price said people traveling to the US on A visas, which are issued to government officials and diplomats, have 30 days to change their immigration status if they leave their jobs. while in the US.
“It will be incumbent on the visa holder to take that action,” Price said. “If an individual has no basis for living in the United States, that individual must be removed by the Department of Homeland Security.”
Asked if the US was waiting for Lula’s government, Sullivan said, “I don’t want you to take that as an implication.”
“The United States takes action on visas all the time, for all kinds of reasons,” Sullivan said. “In this particular case, this particular individual, again, I have to proceed very carefully in the way I talk about this because of the legal issues and the previous issues.”