The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has hit back at Donald Trump’s campaign against the South American country’s judiciary, claiming the US president would be put on trial in Brazil had the January 6 US Capitol attacks taken place there.
Trump has triggered what some experts call the greatest ever diplomatic rupture between the US and Brazil by slapping 50% tariffs on Brazilian imports and sanctioning a supreme court judge in an attempt to help his far-right ally, ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, avoid prison for allegedly trying to stage a coup after he lost the 2022 election to Lula.
Bolsonaro faces a four-decade jail sentence when the supreme court announces its verdict in the coming weeks – proceedings Trump has called a “witch-hunt” and has urged Brazilian authorities to halt.
On Wednesday, as Lula announced a rescue package for companies affected by Trump’s tariffs, Brazil’s leftwing president went on the counterattack against US attempts to pressure the five supreme court judges who will decide the fate of Bolsonaro and seven other alleged co-conspirators.
“What we are doing is something that only happens in democratic countries – judging someone based on evidence collected from witnesses and with complete presumption of innocence. This is democracy raised to the nth power … They are being judged based on the plea bargains and statements given by from people who took part in the coup attempt,” Lula said at an event in the capital Brasília.
“And I’ve said to President Trump: If what happened in the Capitol had happened in Brazil, he would be put on trial here in Brazil too,” Lula added, rejecting the idea that there was anything “arbitrary” about Bolsonaro’s trial.
Lula also rejected US criticism of the human rights situation in Brazil after the state department used its annual human rights report on Tuesday to accuse his government of undermining democratic debate and “suppressing the speech of supporters of former president Jair Bolsonaro as well as journalists and elected politicians”.
Lula said: “There was really no reason to hit Brazil with tariffs and nor will we accept being told that we don’t respect human rights here in Brazil.
“Every time that our American friends decide to pick a fight with someone, they try to make the people they want to fight with look like demons,” Lula added, lamenting how the 201-year-old diplomatic relationship between the two countries was “being thrown away”.
Lula urged Brazilians not to fear the pressure campaign being waged by Trump, who avoided charges over his attempt to overturn the 2020 election after his election last year. One of Trump’s first acts as president was to issue “full, complete and unconditional” presidential pardons for about 1,500 people involved in the January 6 storming of Congress. In Brazil, 141 people are serving prison sentences for taking part in the 8 January 2023 rightwing riots in Brasília, which were allegedly part of Bolsonaro’s coup plot.
“We shouldn’t be scared and anxious or get all excited whenever a crisis comes along. Crises exist for us to create new things. Humanity has created great things … in times of crisis,” Lula said.
