BRASILIA, Brazil: Brazil\u2019s President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva on Sunday pushed back against a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian imported goods to the United States, arguing that it was \u201cpolitical\u201d and \u201cillogical.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lula said in a New York Times op-ed that his government is open to negotiating anything that can bring mutual benefits. \u201cBut Brazil\u2019s democracy and sovereignty are not on the table,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump imposed the tariff on Brazil in July, citing what he called a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d against former President Jair Bolsonaro, who at the time stood accused of trying to illegally hang onto power.<\/p>\n
The trial came to an end on Thursday after a panel of Supreme Court justices ruled that Bolsonaro had attempted a coup after his 2022 electoral defeat to Lula, sparking fears of further US measures against Brazil.<\/p>\n
Lula said he was proud of the Supreme Court for its \u201chistoric decision\u201d which safeguards Brazil\u2019s institutions, the democratic rule of law and is not a \u201cwitch hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c(The ruling) followed months of investigations that uncovered plans to assassinate me, the vice president and a Supreme Court justice,\u201d Lula said.<\/p>\n
Lula added that the tariff increase was \u201cnot only misguided but illogical,\u201d citing the surplus of $410 billion in bilateral trade in goods and services the US has accumulated over the past 15 years.<\/p>\n
The op-ed is a sign that Brazil is bracing for more possible sanctions after the Supreme Court\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
After Thursday\u2019s ruling, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on X that Trump\u2019s government \u201cwill respond accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brazil\u2019s Foreign Ministry called Rubio\u2019s comments an inappropriate threat that wouldn\u2019t intimidate the government, saying the country\u2019s judiciary is independent and that Bolsonaro was granted due process.<\/p>\n
Bolsonaro on Sunday briefly left his home in Brasilia where he is under house arrest to undergo a medical procedure at a nearby hospital, his first public appearance since Thursday\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n
Escorted by police, Bolsonaro went to the DF Star hospital in Brazil\u2019s capital in the morning for procedures related to skin lesions \u2014 a temporary release granted by Justice Alexandre de Moraes on Sept. 8.<\/p>\n
He was later discharged, doctors from the hospital said in a statement. Medical staff removed eight skin lesions that will be sent for analysis to establish a definitive diagnosis and assess the need for further treatment.<\/p>\n
The 70-year-old far-right politician was placed under house arrest in early August, after de Moraes said that Bolsonaro had violated precautionary measures imposed on him in the context of the coup trial. He had already been wearing an ankle monitor.<\/p>\n
In late August, de Moraes increased security measures further and ordered that police conduct inspections of all vehicles leaving Bolsonaro\u2019s residence and monitor the exterior of the house.<\/p>\n
After the medical visit, Bolsonaro must file a certificate of attendance, indicating the date and times of the appointments, to the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Bolsonaro\u2019s son Carlos took to social media to complain about what he deemed to be excessive policing around his father\u2019s trip to the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m with my father and witnessing the continuation of the biggest circus in Brazilian history,\u201d he wrote on X. \u201cA convoy with more than 20 men ostensibly armed with rifles (\u2026) just to promote the humiliation of an honest man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Die-hard supporters of Bolsonaro awaited the ex-president when he arrived at the hospital on Sunday and greeted him with shouts of \u201cAmnesty now!\u201d The chant is in reference to the push of Bolsonaro\u2019s allies in Congress to grant the former president some kind of amnesty.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re here to provide spiritual and psychological support,\u201d said Deus\u00e9lis Filho, 46, the president of a group of Bolsonaro supporters called Influencers of Brazil.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s sentence doesn\u2019t mean that Bolsonaro will immediately go to prison. The court panel has now up to 60 days to publish the ruling. Once it does, Bolsonaro\u2019s lawyers have five days to file motions for clarification.<\/p>\n
His lawyers have said that they will try to appeal both the conviction and sentence before the full Supreme Court of 11 justices, although some experts think it\u2019s unlikely to be accepted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRASILIA, Brazil: Brazil\u2019s President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva on Sunday pushed back against a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian imported goods to the United States, arguing that it was \u201cpolitical\u201d and \u201cillogical.\u201d Lula said in a New York Times op-ed that his government is open to negotiating anything that can bring mutual benefits. \u201cBut …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":86804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86805,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86789\/revisions\/86805"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}