Brazils

Oct. 30 (UPI) — President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has signed a new law that increases penalties and expands enforcement tools to combat organized crime in Brazil amid growing concern over violence in states such as Rio de Janeiro.

The measure, published Thursday in the Diário Oficial, imposes harsher penalties on those who obstruct investigations or collaborate with criminal organizations and provides greater protection for judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officers involved in such operations.

The legislation, which amends the Penal Code and the 2013 Law on Criminal Organizations, sets prison terms of up to 12 years for anyone who interferes with judicial proceedings or intimidates authorities. It also requires those convicted of these crimes to serve their sentences in federal maximum-security prisons.

The Brazilian government says the law strengthens the state’s ability to confront factions such as Comando Vermelho and Primeiro Comando da Capital, which are responsible for much of the country’s urban violence.

“We will not allow organized crime to continue oppressing communities and defying the Brazilian state,” Lula said during the signing ceremony at the Planalto Palace, according to Correio Braziliense.

The law’s enactment comes two days after a large-scale operation in the state of Rio de Janeiro targeting the Comando Vermelho faction, which reignited debate over urban violence and the use of force in the favelas.

Early Tuesday morning, security forces entered the Penha and Alemão favela complexes with armored vehicles, helicopters and drones. Criminal gangs responded by blocking streets, setting vehicles on fire to use as barricades and dropping explosives from drones.

The confrontation left 113 people arrested, 71 rifles seized and 121 dead, according to updated figures from Rio de Janeiro’s Public Defender’s Office. Among the dead were four police officers and dozens of suspected criminals.

The incident sparked concern within Brazil’s federal government and several states, where officials warned about the growing power of criminal organizations and the need for a coordinated response to contain their expansion.

Rio de Janeiro Gov. Cláudio Castro ordered increased patrols across the state amid fears of reprisals.

In a post on X, Castro said the Combat Operations Regiment — an elite unit that specializes in operations against organized crime, particularly in favelas and high-risk areas — had intensified police patrols along the Linha Amarela, one of Rio’s main urban highways connecting northern and western districts with the airport and other strategic areas.

The situation in Brazil also raised alarms in Argentina.

Argentina’s Security Minister Patricia Bullrich announced a “maximum alert” along the tri-border area shared with Brazil and Paraguay. She said migration controls would be tightened and surveillance increased to prevent members of the Comando Vermelho from crossing into the country.

“I will impose a maximum alert at the borders to ensure there is no crossing or passage by those who are evidently moving because of the conflict centered in Rio,” Bullrich told reporters at the presidential palace, according to Perfil.

The sentence handed to the far-right politician last month has become a major issue in Brazil-US relations.

Lawyers for Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro have filed an appeal against his 27-year prison sentence handed down last month for a botched military coup after his 2022 election loss.

The 85-page motion filed with the Supreme Court on Monday sought a review of parts of Bolsonaro’s conviction, including his sentence.

United States President Donald Trump has branded the prosecution of his far-right ally a “witch-hunt” and made it a major issue in his country’s relations with Brazil.

Bolsonaro was convicted in September over his bid to prevent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking power following the 2022 vote.

The effort saw crowds storm government buildings a week after Lula’s inauguration, drawing comparisons with the January 6 riot at the US Capitol after Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

The motion filed by Bolsonaro’s lawyers asserted there were “deep injustices” in his conviction and sentence. It did not stipulate how much of a reduction in the sentence was being sought.

Failed coup

Last month, four of five judges on a Supreme Court panel found Bolsonaro guilty of five crimes, including taking part in an armed criminal organisation, trying to violently abolish democracy and organising a coup.

Prosecutors said the plot entailed the assassination of Lula, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes and failed only due to a lack of support from military leaders.

Trump cited his displeasure with the prosecution in July as he announced punitive tariffs against Brazil and imposed sanctions against Brazilian officials.

Bolsonaro, who has been under house arrest since August, has denied wrongdoing. Under Brazilian law, he will not be sent to prison until all legal avenues are exhausted.

Judicial revisions possible

Thiago Bottino, a law professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, told the AFP news agency that while it is unusual for the Supreme Court to reverse its rulings, it had made revisions in the past, including to the length of sentences.

Defendants sentenced by the Supreme Court usually need two judges to diverge on a ruling to request an appeal that could significantly change the decision, Reuters reported.

After only one justice dissented, Bolsonaro’s lawyers filed a lesser motion seeking clarification or review of specific parts of the conviction.

If his appeal fails, Bolsonaro, 70, could request to serve his sentence under house arrest, claiming poor health.

He was recently diagnosed with skin cancer and was briefly admitted to hospital last month with other health issues.

Both countries’ negotiating teams will start ‘immediately’ to address US tariffs and sanctions, says Brazil’s President Lula.

United States President Donald Trump and Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have held what Brazil described as a constructive meeting on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Kuala Lumpur, raising hope for improved relations after stinging US tariffs.

Lula said the Sunday meeting with Trump – who is an ally of his political rival, embattled former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro – was “great” and added that their countries’ negotiating teams would get to work “immediately” to tackle tariffs and other issues.

“We agreed that our teams will meet immediately to advance the search for solutions to the tariffs and sanctions against Brazilian authorities,” Lula said in a message on X following the meeting.

Trump had linked the July tariff move – which brought duties on most Brazilian goods entering the US to 50 percent from 10 percent – to what he called a “witch hunt” against Bolsonaro, far-right leader who has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting a coup after losing the 2022 presidential election.

Bolsonaro’s supporters rioted in the political centre of the country’s capital, evoking a riot by Trump’s supporters in Washington, DC on January 6, two years earlier.

The US government has also sanctioned numerous Brazilian officials, including Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the trial that led to Bolsonaro’s conviction.

Ahead of the meeting on Sunday, though, Trump said he could reach some agreements with Lula and expected the two countries to enjoy strong ties despite his concerns about Bolsonaro’s fate.

“I think we should be able to make some pretty good deals for both countries,” Trump said.

Lula previously described the US tariff hike as a “mistake”, citing a $410bn US trade surplus with Brazil over 15 years.

‘Conclude negotiations in weeks’

Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said that negotiations would start immediately and that Brazil had requested a pause in tariffs while talks proceed, though it was unclear whether the US had agreed.

“We hope to conclude bilateral negotiations that address each of the sectors of the current American [tariffs on] Brazil in the near future, in a few weeks,” Vieira said.

He added that Lula also offered to help mediate between the US and Venezuela, where Washington has deployed its largest warship and threatened ground strikes targeting alleged drug cartels, operations Caracas has denounced as “fabricated” pretexts for war.

Bolsonaro was not mentioned during the Trump-Lula meeting, said Marcio Rosa, the executive secretary for Brazil’s Foreign Ministry.

Higher US tariffs on Brazilian goods have begun reshaping the global beef trade, pushing up prices in the US and encouraging triangulation via third countries such as Mexico, while Brazilian exports to China continue to boom.

Brazil’s prosecutor general has charged federal lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro with coercion in a case linked to the one in which his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, was convicted for plotting a coup.

The younger Bolsonaro has “repeatedly sought to subordinate the interests of Brazil and the entire society to his own personal and family agenda”, the prosecutor general’s office said in a statement on Monday.

Eduardo Bolsonaro moved to the United States this year to seek support from President Donald Trump to stop criminal proceedings against his father and has claimed credit for pushing the White House to announce 50 percent tariffs on most Brazilian goods.

The lawmaker linked Monday’s charge to new sanctions imposed by the US on the wife of Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who presided over Jair Bolsonaro’s trial. His son called the staff of the prosecutor general’s office “Moraes’s lackeys”.

Eduardo Bolsonaro added that he received news of the “bogus accusation” from the media and would wait for the legal case to be communicated through official channels before making a formal statement.

Convicted ex-leader rushed to a hospital in Brasilia after falling ill at his residence, his son says.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who was sentenced to prison last week for plotting a coup, has been rushed to hospital after falling ill while under house arrest, his son said.

The emergency visit on Tuesday is the 70-year-old former army captain’s second hospital visit since his conviction.

Bolsonaro has had recurring intestinal issues since he was stabbed while campaigning in 2018, including at least six related surgeries, including a 12-hour-long procedure in April. He won the election that year, and governed from 2019 to 2023.

“Bolsonaro felt unwell a short while ago, with a severe bout of hiccups, vomiting, and low blood pressure,” his son, Flavio, wrote on X.

“He was taken to DF Star [Hospital] accompanied by correctional police officers who guard his home in Brasília, as it was an emergency,” he wrote.

Bolsonaro visited the same hospital on Sunday, and had eight skin lesions removed and sent for biopsies.

A panel of Supreme Court justices on Thursday found the former leader guilty of plotting a coup after he lost the 2022 election to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

They sentenced him to 27 years and three months in prison.

The sentence, however, does not immediately send him to jail. The court panel has up to 60 days to publish the ruling after the decision, and once it does, Bolsonaro’s lawyers have five days to file motions for clarification.

Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing and said he is the victim of political persecution. United States President Donald Trump has also called the trial a “witch-hunt”, and imposed tariffs of 50 percent on Brazilian goods, citing the case against Bolsonaro, among other issues.

The former Brazilian leader has been under house arrest since August for allegedly courting pressure on the courts from Trump. He had already been wearing an ankle monitor.

Separately on Tuesday, a federal court ordered Bolsonaro to pay 1 million reais ($188,865) in damages for collective moral harm stemming from racist comments he made while in office.

The inquiry originated from Bolsonaro’s statements to a Black supporter who approached him in May 2021 and asked to take a picture.

The former president joked, saying he was seeing a cockroach in the man’s hair. He also compared the man’s hairstyle with a “cockroach breeding ground”, implying the hair was unclean.

There was no immediate comment from his legal team after the latest court order.

His defence had previously told media outlets that the former leader’s remarks were intended as jokes rather than racist statements, denying any intent to cause offence.

Public opinion in Brazil, meanwhile, is split on Bolsonaro’s prison sentence on coup charges, and the far-right politician’s allies have laid out several plans to overturn or reduce the jail term.

In the Congress, they have rallied behind an amnesty bill, building on the campaign to free hundreds of his supporters who stormed and vandalised government buildings in January 2023.

Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas, a leading Bolsonaro ally, has also promised repeatedly to pardon the former leader if he were to become president in next year’s election. A court has barred Bolsonaro from running for office until 2030, though the former president insisted earlier this year that he would compete in the 2026 presidential election.

For his part, Lula, the incumbent president, has hailed the sentencing of Bolsonaro as a “historic decision” that followed months of investigations that uncovered plans to assassinate him, the vice president and a Supreme Court justice.

Bolsonaro’s conviction, he also said, “safeguards” Brazil’s institutions and the democratic rule of law.

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has dismissed criticism from the United States over the conviction of the country’s former leader, Jair Bolsonaro, on coup charges, and slammed Washington’s sweeping tariffs as “misguided” and “illogical”.

The comments, published in an op-ed in The New York Times on Sunday, came as Bolsonaro made his first public appearance since last week’s conviction for a hospital visit.

In his essay, Lula said he wanted to establish “an open and frank dialogue” with US President Donald Trump over his administration’s decision to impose a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian products in the wake of Bolsonaro’s trial.

He noted that the US has a trade surplus with Brazil, accumulating a surplus of $410bn in trade over the past 15 years, making it “clear that the motivation of the White House is political”.

The tariffs, Lula wrote, are aimed at seeking “impunity” for Bolsanaro, whom he accused of orchestrating the riots in Brasilia on January 8, 2023, when the former leader’s supporters stormed the presidential palace, the Supreme Court and the Congress in protest over his election defeat the previous year.

The events in the Brazilian capital echoed the storming of the US Capitol by Trump’s supporters on January 6, 2021, after he insisted for months, without evidence, that there had been widespread fraud during the election he lost to his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.

Lula described Bolsonaro’s actions as “an effort to subvert the popular will at the ballot box” and said he was proud of the Brazilian Supreme Court’s “historic decision” on Thursday to sentence the former president to 27 years and three months in prison.

“This was not a ‘witch hunt’,” he wrote.

Instead, it “safeguards” Brazil’s institutions and the democratic rule of law, he added.

Brazil’s democracy ‘not on table’

Lula’s op-ed comes after Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, threatened more action against Brazil over Bolsonaro’s conviction. In addition to the tariffs, the US has so far sanctioned Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has overseen Bolsonaro’s trial, and revoked visas for most of the high court’s justices.

For his part, Trump, who has repeatedly labelled the judicial proceedings a “witch-hunt”, has said he was “surprised” by the ruling. The US president, who also had faced criminal charges over the Capitol attack before they were withdrawn following his re-election, likened the trial against Bolsonaro to the legal actions against him.

“It’s very much like they tried to do with me, but they didn’t get away with it,” Trump told reporters on Thursday, describing the former leader as a “good president” and a “good man”.

In his op-ed, Lula said the US’s decision to turn its back on a relationship of more than 200 years means that “everyone loses” and said the two countries should continue to work together in areas where they have common goals.

But he said Brazil’s democracy was non-negotiable.

“President Trump, we remain open to negotiating anything that can bring mutual benefits. But Brazil’s democracy and sovereignty are not on the table,” he wrote.

Economists in Brazil estimate that Trump’s tariffs would hurt the country’s economy, including through the loss of tens of thousands of jobs, but not derail it, given its strong trade ties with other countries such as China. The blow has further been softened when the US granted hundreds of exceptions, including on aircraft parts and orange juice.

US consumers, too, are paying more for products imported from Brazil, including coffee, which has already seen recent price rises due to droughts.

In Brasilia, meanwhile, Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest, left his home to undergo a medical procedure to remove several skin lesions.

His doctor, Claudio Birolini, told reporters that the former president had eight skin lesions removed and sent for biopsies.

He added that Bolsonaro, who has had multiple operations in recent years due to complications from a 2018 stabbing in his stomach, was “quite weak” and had developed slight anaemia, “probably due to poor nutrition over the last month”.

Dozens of supporters gathered outside the hospital to cheer on the former leader, waving Brazilian flags and shouting, “Amnesty now!”.

The chant is in reference to the push of Bolsonaro’s allies in Congress to grant the former president some kind of amnesty.

“We’re here to provide spiritual and psychological support,” Deuselis Filho, 46, told the Associated Press news agency.

Thursday’s sentence does not mean that Bolsonaro will immediately go to prison.

The court panel now has up to 60 days to publish the ruling. Once it does, Bolsonaro’s lawyers have five days to file motions for clarification.

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 is unlikely to be accepted.

Brazil’s Supreme Court on Thursday found former President Jair Bolsonaro guilty of conspiracies related to his failed 2022 reelection bid. The court found that Bolsonaro tried to instigate a military coup and to poison his opponent, current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro, the former president of Latin America’s largest democracy and its wealthiest country, was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison and is barred from ever seeking public office again.

Bolsonaro is one among two dozen elected presidents and prime ministers in recent history around the world who used their time in office to undermine their countries’ democratic institutions. In addition to undermining confidence in elections, the Brazilian leader weakened public and scientific institutions by defunding them. Bolsonaro’s family and political associates faced repeated scandals. As a consequence, the president governed in constant fear of impeachment — a fate that had ended the careers of two prior Brazilian presidents since the country’s return to democracy in 1998. To avoid this outcome, Bolsonaro forged alliances with an array of legislative parties and strange bedfellows. Brazilian political scientists describe the implicit agreement: “The deal is simple: you protect me and I let you run the Country and extract rents from it as you wish.”

Curiously, the decision is also a setback for President Trump here in the United States. Trump views Bolsonaro as an ally who, like him, has been persecuted by leftists and subjected to retribution by courts. The American president tried hard to stop the Brazilian court from ruling against Bolsonaro. In August, Trump sent a letter to Lula, Bolsonaro’s nemesis. Trump threatened to hike most tariffs on Brazilian exports to the U.S. to 50% should his friend remain in legal peril.

Trump’s empathy reflects the two presidents’ parallel paths. Bolsonaro, like Trump, used his time in office to test democratic norms, weaken independent public institutions and vilify his opponents. Both men express a taste for political violence. Where Trump has often mused about beating up hecklers and shooting protesters in the knees, Bolsonaro was nostalgic for military rule in his country. On the campaign trail in 2018, he asserted that Brazil would only change for the better “on the day that we break out in civil war here and do the job that the military regime didn’t do: killing 30,000.”

Both Trump and Bolsonaro tried to cling to power after losing their reelection bids. Heeding their presidents’ claims of electoral fraud, Trump’s supporters rioted in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, as did Bolsonaro’s in Brasilia, the Brazilian capital, on Jan. 8, 2023. Bolsonaro’s involvement in these post-election acts was the basis of the legal peril that has consumed him.

Trump depicts the Brazilian judge most responsible for Bolsonaro’s prosecution, Chief Justice Alexandre de Moraes, with disdain. Trump describes the case against Bolsonaro as a “witch hunt” in support of a Lula government, describing the current president as a “radical leftist.”

In fact there is little love lost between Lula and De Moraes. Lula is the leader of the social-democratic Workers’ Party; De Moraes is closely associated with the center-right PSDB and is known for his tough-on-crime stances. De Moraes’ activism dates back to the Bolsonaro presidency, when Brazil’s attorney general, appointed by Bolsonaro, was less than energetic in upholding the rule of law. To transpose the Brazilian situation and De Moraes’ activism to the U.S. context, imagine that, viewing the Justice Department’s lack of vigor in prosecuting Trump, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. had roused himself to encourage legal action against the president.

Many Americans will view Brazil and the Bolsonaro story with a certain envy. Here is a president who dealt with electoral loss by claiming fraud and by instigating his military and civilian supporters to violence, and who has been held decisively to account.

Accountability of public servants is at the heart of democracy. Voters can hold incumbents accountable in elections — political scientists call this “vertical accountability” — as can coequal branches of government, which we call “horizontal accountability.” Would-be autocratic leaders such as Bolsonaro try to escape both kinds of accountability, staying in office even when they lose (the end of vertical accountability) and undermining independent courts, agencies, central banks and whistle-blowers (there goes the horizontal version). In the end, Bolsonaro was held to account both by voters and by the courts.

Trump’s self-insertion into the Bolsonaro prosecution calls attention to another form of accountability, or at least presidential constraint, which has gone missing from our own governing administration. That is the constraint that presidents experience when advisors keep them from acting on instincts that are unwise.

If such advisors were to be found in today’s White House, they might have counseled the president not to threaten Brazil with high tariffs. Doing so risks exacerbating inflation of the prices of key consumer goods (coffee, orange juice), something that is politically dangerous because controlling inflation was an issue at the heart of Trump’s 2024 reelection campaign. The use of tariff threats as a cudgel to try to save an ally from legal peril also gives lie to the purported rationale behind tariffs: protecting U.S. manufacturers or correcting trade imbalances.

Gone, then, are the days when Americans might have served as a model of democratic governance. For all of its own problems, of which there are many, the second-largest country in our hemisphere is schooling us in what democratic accountability looks like.

Susan Stokes is a professor of political science at the University of Chicago and faculty director of the Chicago Center on Democracy. She is the author, most recently, of “The Backsliders: Why Leaders Undermine Their Own Democracies.”

US naval forces have unsettled some in South America who see them as a precursor to possible intervention in Venezuela.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has criticised the deployment of United States naval forces to the Caribbean, calling them a source of strain that could undermine peace in the region.

The South American leader expressed concern on Monday over the concentration of US forces, seen by some as a possible prelude to an attack on Venezuela.

“The presence of the armed forces of the largest power in the Caribbean Sea is a factor of tension,” Lula said during the opening of a virtual BRICS summit.

The US has said its military forces are in the region to counter drug trafficking. But the deployment has been paired with US threats against the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom US President Donald Trump’s administration has accused of being closely linked with drug trafficking groups.

The Trump administration has provided no evidence for those claims and has often used vague allegations of connections to drug trafficking or criminal groups to justify extraordinary measures both at home and abroad.

Last week, the US carried out an unprecedented lethal attack on what the Trump administration said was a boat transporting drugs from Venezuela. Analysts have said the extrajudicial strike, which killed 11 people, was likely illegal, but US officials have promised to carry out more attacks in the region.

Maduro has said the deployment is part of an effort to depose his government and called on the military and civilians to make preparations for a possible attack.

BRICS meeting

As the Trump administration takes aggressive steps to advance its priorities on issues such as trade, immigration and drug trafficking, some countries are seeking to bolster ties with powers like China.

Addressing the virtual BRICS conference via video call on Monday, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for more cooperation in areas such as technology, finance and trade, according to the official Chinese news agency Xinhua.

“The closer the BRICS countries cooperate, the more confidence, options and effective results they will have in addressing external risks and challenges,” he was quoted as saying.

Officials from India – a country, like Brazil and China, that has become a recent target of the Trump administration’s severe tariff policies – also called for greater collaboration.

“The world requires constructive and cooperative approaches to promote trade that is sustainable,” External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in comments published by India’s Ministry of External Affairs. “Increasing barriers and complicating transactions will not help. Neither would the linking of trade measures to nontrade matters.”

The virtual conference came a week after leaders from China, Russia, India and other Eurasian nations gathered in Tianjin, China, where they presented a vision of a new international order at a moment of widening rifts between partner nations and the US.

Police claim Brazil’s ex-President Jair Bolsonaro wrote letter seeking asylum in Argentina as coup investigation ramped up in 2024.

Brazil’s federal police said that messages found on the mobile phone of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro showed he once wanted to flee to Argentina and request political asylum from Argentinian President Javier Milei.

The police said in a report released on Wednesday that the letter seeking asylum was saved on Bolsonaro’s mobile phone in February 2024, just days after the former president’s passport was seized amid an investigation of his involvement in an alleged coup plot.

It was unclear whether the asylum request was sent, and the Argentinian president’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The asylum request document revealed on Wednesday was part of the final police report that formally accused Bolsonaro and his United States-based son, Eduardo, of working to interfere in the ongoing legal process related to the ex-president’s forthcoming trial for allegedly plotting a coup.

Bolsonaro’s trial is expected to start on September 2, in which he faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted of plotting to overthrow his democratically elected successor as president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in 2022.

Police have now recommended that the ex-president and his son be charged with “coercion in the judicial process” and “abolition of the democratic law” related to interference in the coup case. The combined sentence for the two offences could reach up to 12 years in prison.

Brazilian news outlet O Dia said on Wednesday that recordings were also found on a device seized during the police investigation of Bolsonaro, which indicated “attempts to intimidate authorities and impede the progress of the investigations related to the inquiry into the attack on democracy, including attempts to use external influence”.

Bolsonaro – who has been under house arrest since early August – has maintained his innocence in the coup trial, which US President Donald Trump, an ally, has called a “witch-hunt”.

Bolsonaro’s son, Eduardo, stepped down from his position as a Brazilian congressman in March and moved to the US, where he is campaigning for the Trump administration to intercede on his father’s behalf.

Those lobbying efforts have been successful, with the Trump administration taking punitive action against Brazil over the case, including sanctions against court officials.

Trump has also imposed a massive 50 percent tariff on many Brazilian exports to the US, citing Bolsonaro’s trial.

Supreme Court will rule on ex-president’s fate in case dividing nation that could result in lengthy prison term.

Brazil’s Supreme Court says it will hand down a verdict and sentence in former President Jair Bolsonaro’s coup trial early next month, in a case that has polarised the country and drawn in the ex-leader’s ally, United States President Donald Trump.

The court announced on Friday that the five-justice panel overseeing the proceedings will deliver decisions on the five charges between September 2 and 12. A coup conviction carries a sentence of up to 12 years.

Bolsonaro, under house arrest since August 4, is accused of orchestrating a plot to cling to power after losing the 2022 presidential election to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He denies the allegations.

Prosecutors allege Bolsonaro led a criminal organisation that sought to overturn the election results.

The case includes accusations that the plot involved plans to kill Lula and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is presiding over the trial. They have presented messages, handwritten notes and other material they say document the conspiracy.

Defence lawyers counter that no coup attempt was carried out and that Bolsonaro allowed the presidential handover to take place, undermining claims he tried to block it.

The five charges against Bolsonaro include attempting a coup, participation in an armed criminal organisation, attempted violent abolition of the democratic order, and two counts linked to destruction of state property.

Two separate five-justice panels operate within Brazil’s top court. Justice de Moraes, a frequent target of Bolsonaro’s supporters, sits on the panel hearing the case. Although Bolsonaro appointed two justices during his 2019–2022 presidency, both serve on the other panel.

Separately, right-wing Brazilian lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro said on Friday that he met with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent this week as part of his campaign to secure sanctions against officials linked to the trial of his father, Bolsonaro.

In a post on X, Bolsonaro said the meeting took place on Wednesday, the same day Bessent had been expected to hold talks with Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad.

Haddad told journalists earlier in the week that the US Treasury cancelled his meeting without offering a new date.

The younger Bolsonaro has been vocal in defending his father and calling for sanctions on his own country following his father’s alleged coup attempt.

The Supreme Court headquarters in Brasilia was one of the targets of a rioting mob of supporters known as “Bolsonaristas”, who raided government buildings in January 2023 as they urged the military to depose Lula, an insurrection attempt that evoked Trump supporters on January 6, 2021.

The rioting also prompted comparisons to Brazil’s 1964 military coup, a dark era that Bolsonaro has openly praised.

The trial has captivated Brazil’s divided public. Tensions deepened when Trump linked a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian imports to his ally’s legal battle, calling the proceedings a “witch hunt” and describing Bolsonaro as an “honest man” facing “political execution”.

The Trump administration has also sanctioned Justice de Moraes and imposed further trade restrictions on Brazil, a move widely criticised in the country as an assault on national sovereignty.

A recent Datafolha poll found more than half of Brazilians support the decision to place Bolsonaro under house arrest, while 53 percent reject the idea that he is being politically persecuted.

Lula approved the controversial bill easing environmental licensing rules, but struck down or altered 63 articles.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has signed into law a bill easing environmental licensing rules, but bowed to pressure from activist groups as he vetoed key provisions that would have made it easier for companies to secure environmental permits.

Lula approved on Friday what detractors have dubbed the “devastation bill”, but struck down or altered 63 of its nearly 400 articles, his office’s executive secretary, Miriam Belchior, told reporters.

The president had faced mounting pressure from environmental groups to intervene in the bill, which was backed by Brazil’s powerful agribusiness sector and focused on rolling back strict licensing rules that had kept the destruction of the Amazon rainforest in check.

A previous version of the bill adopted by lawmakers last month would have meant that for some permits, all that would have been required is a simple declaration of the company’s environmental commitment.

Lula’s revisions, however, reinstated the current strict licensing rules for strategic projects.

Belchior said the new proposal sought to preserve the integrity of the licensing process, ensure legal certainty, and protect the rights of Indigenous and Quilombola communities.

She added that Lula will introduce a “Special Environmental Licence” designed to fast-track strategic projects while filling the legal gaps created by the vetoes.

“We maintained what we consider to be significant advances in streamlining the environmental licensing process,” she said.

Nongovernmental organisation SOS Atlantic Forest, which garnered more than a million signatures calling for a veto of the law, hailed Lula’s move as “a victory” for environmental protection.

Lula’s environmental vetoes

Of the provisions struck down by Lula, 26 were vetoed outright, while another 37 will either be replaced with alternative text or modified in a new bill that will be sent to Congress for ratification under a constitutional urgency procedure.

Securing support for the amendments is far from guaranteed for the leftist leader. Brazil’s conservative-dominated Congress has repeatedly defeated key government proposals, including overturning previous presidential vetoes.

Lawmakers aligned with embattled ex-president Jair Bolsonaro are also blocking legislative activity amid an escalating political standoff, as they call for the former president’s charges around an alleged failed coup attempt in 2022 to be dropped.

Speaking at a Friday news conference in the capital, Brasilia, Environment Minister Marina Silva maintained a positive tone, telling reporters that Lula’s vetoes would ensure that “the economy does not compete with ecology, but rather they are part of the same equation”.

“We hope to be able to streamline licensing processes without compromising their quality, which is essential for environmental protection at a time of climate crisis, biodiversity loss and desertification,” said Silva.

Silva said a previous version of the bill, approved by Congress last month, threatened the country’s pledge to eliminate deforestation by 2030 and described it as a “death blow” to Brazil’s licensing framework.

But, she said, Lula’s revised version meant Brazil’s “targets to reach zero deforestation” and its goal to “cut CO2 emissions by between 59 percent and 67 percent remain fully on track”.

Lula’s environmental credentials are under close scrutiny in advance of the annual UN climate summit in November in the Amazon city of Belem.

India is signaling it may seek to rebalance its global partnerships after Trump’s salvo of tariffs on Indian goods.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva have spoken by phone, their offices said, discussing a broad range of topics that included tariffs imposed by the United States on goods from both countries.

Lula confirmed a state visit to India in early 2026 during the call on Thursday, which occurred a day after the Brazilian leader told the news agency Reuters that he would initiate a conversation among the BRICS group of countries on tackling US President Donald Trump’s levies, which are the highest on Brazil and India.

The group of major emerging economies also includes China, Russia and South Africa.

“The leaders discussed the international economic scenario and the imposition of unilateral tariffs. Brazil and India are, to date, the two countries most affected,” Lula’s office said in a statement.

Trump announced an additional 25 percent tariff on Indian goods on Wednesday, raising the total duty to 50 percent. The additional tariff, effective August 28, is meant to penalise India for continuing to buy Russian oil, Trump has said.

Trump has also slapped a 50 percent tariff on goods from Brazil, with lower levels for sectors such as aircraft, energy and orange juice, tying the move to what he called a “witch hunt” against former President Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing ally on trial for an alleged coup plot to overturn his 2022 election loss.

On their call, Lula and Modi reiterated their goal of boosting bilateral trade to more than $20bn annually by 2030, according to the Brazilian president’s office, up from roughly $12bn last year.

Brasilia said they also agreed to expand the reach of the preferential trade agreement between India and the South American trade bloc Mercosur, and discussed the virtual payment platforms of their countries.

Modi’s office, in its statement, did not explicitly mention Trump or US tariffs, but said “the two leaders exchanged views on various regional and global issues of mutual interest.”

India is already signalling it may seek to rebalance its global partnerships after Trump’s salvo of tariffs on Indian goods.

Modi is preparing for his first visit to China in more than seven years, suggesting a potential diplomatic realignment amid growing tensions with Washington. The Indian leader visited Lula in Brasilia last month.

Aug. 5 (UPI) — Brazil’s Supreme Court has ordered the house arrest of former President Jair Bolsonaro, prompting swift condemnation from the Trump administration, which has imposed penalties against those prosecuting President Donald Trump‘s ally.

Bolsonaro is being prosecuted on charges of conspiring to overturn his 2022 election loss.

In his order Monday, Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the house arrest of Bolsonaro on allegations he violated court-imposed precautionary measures by using the social media accounts of allies, including his three sons, one of whom is a congressman, to post statements online.

Moraes described the social media posts as a “continued attempt to coerce the STF and obstruct justice.” STF stands for Supremo Tribunal Federal, or Supreme Federal Court, in Portuguese.

“The arrest is to be served at Bolsonaro’s residence in Brasilia. He will not be allowed to receive visitors, except for his lawyers and other individuals previously authorized by the STF,” the order states. “The former president is also prohibited from using a cell phone, either directly or through third parties.”

A search and seizure of any cell phones in Bolsonaro’s possession was also ordered by Moraes, who is overseeing the criminal case.

“There is no doubt that Jair Messias Bolsonaro violated the precautionary measures imposed on him, as the defendant produced material for publication on the social media accounts of his three sons and all his followers and political supporters, with clear content encouraging and inciting attacks on the Supreme Federal Court and openly supporting foreign intervention in the Brazilian judiciary,” Moraes said.

Trump, who has similarly been accused of trying to overturn his own election loss, in 2020, is an ally of Bolsonaro, and has repeatedly used his executive powers to punish those involved in the 70-year-old politician’s prosecution, which has prompted accusations of meddling in Brazil’s judicial system.

Among the measures imposed by the American president are slapping a 40% tariff on Brazilian goods and sanctioning Moraes, as well as revoking his visas and those of his family.

The U.S. State Department on Monday night condemned the house arrest order as Moraes’ alleged continued use of “Brazil’s institutions to silence opposition and threaten democracy.”

“Putting even more restrictions on Jair Bolsonaro’s ability to defend himself in public it not a public service. Let Bolsonaro speak!” the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs said in both English- and Portuguese-language statements.

“The United States condemns Moraes’ order imposing house arrest on Bolsonaro and will hold accountable all those aiding and abetting sanctioned conduct.”

Brazil charged Bolsonaro in February with attempting a coup following his 2022 election loss to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. According to court documents, his supporters claiming voter fraud stormed Brazil’s Congress and other federal facilities on Jan. 8, 2023.

The indictment accuses Bolsonaro of spreading debunked claims of fraud in election machines as far back as July 2022 in order to prepare conditions for the coup. As part of the scheme, prosecutors said they even planned the possibility of assassinating Lula.

Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing, while Trump has described the trial as a “witch hunt.”

In Porciuncula, Brazil, small-scale coffee farmer Jose Natal da Silva is losing sleep – not just to protect his arabica crops from pests, but over fears raised by a new 50% United States tariff on Brazilian goods announced by President Donald Trump.

The tariff, widely seen as a political move in defence of far-right Trump ally ex-President Jair Bolsonaro, who faces trial for an alleged coup plot, could slash demand and prices for Brazilian coffee in its top export market.

Brazil is the world’s largest coffee exporter, sending 85 percent of its output abroad. The US buys 16 percent of that, making it Brazil’s biggest coffee customer. Experts warn the tariff will hurt competitiveness, especially for family farmers who produce two-thirds of Brazil’s coffee and have fewer resources to weather downturns or shift to new markets.

Last year’s climate change-driven drought already devastated crops. Now, falling arabica prices, down 33 percent since February, are compounding losses. “We struggle for years, and suddenly we might lose everything,” said da Silva, who grows 40,000 trees and other crops to survive.

Nearby in Varre-Sai, Paulo Menezes Freitas, another smallholder with 35,000 trees, fears he may be forced to abandon coffee farming. He says the tariff also affects essential imports like machinery and aluminium. “It feels like the ground is crumbling under us,” he said.

Despite the blow, Brazil’s coffee exporters remain cautiously optimistic. The Council of Coffee Exporters of Brazil (Cecafe)’s Marcio Ferreira believes US buyers can’t afford to stop importing Brazilian beans. But on the ground, small farmers fervently hope for a rollback before livelihoods vanish.

We compare and contrast how Donald Trump stayed silent when Brazil’s leftist leader Lula da Silva was jailed in 2018, but has been loudly condemning the current prosecution of his far-right ally, former president Jair Bolsonaro, as a “witch hunt”.

July 18 (UPI) — Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was ordered by his country’s supreme court to wear an ankle monitor, stay home most hours and to stay away from foreign embassies.

He is considered a flight risk after he and his son lobbied President Donald Trump to help him with his legal troubles.

Bolsonaro faces prison time for charges that he attempted a coup after he lost the 2022 election.

Brazilian police now accuse Bolsonaro of working with his son, Brazilian lawmaker Eduardo, to lobby the Trump administration in Washington, D.C., and ask the president to impose sanctions on Brazil. The court told Bolsonaro to cease all communication with Eduardo and stay off social media.

Trump has threatened a 50% tariff on Brazilian exports starting Aug. 1, if they don’t end what he calls a “which hunt” against Bolsonaro.

Brazil president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Brazil will not cede to an American president, whom he says wants to be an “emperor.”

Thursday night, Trump posted online that police should drop the charges against Bolsonaro. This morning, police raided Bolsonaro’s home and office.

In a statement, Bolsonaro’s legal team said it was “surprised and outraged” by the new precautionary measures “despite the fact that he has always complied with all the orders of the judiciary.”

Bolsonaro’s lawyers expressed “surprise and indignation” at what they called “severe precautionary measures imposed against him.”

The court didn’t agree.

“An attempt to subject the functioning of the federal Supreme Court to the scrutiny of another state constitutes an attack on national sovereignty,” Justice Alexandre de Moraes said in his order.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Bolsonaro called the ankle monitor the “ultimate humiliation.” He said he “never thought of fleeing” Brazil. He repeated that the case against him is a politically motivated effort to remove him from the 2026 election. The New York Times reports that some polls suggest he could narrowly win if eligible.

Last week on Truth Social, Trump said that Brazilian authorities have “done nothing but come after [Bolsonaro], day after day, night after night, month after month, year after year!”

“He is not guilty of anything, except having fought for THE PEOPLE,” he wrote.

Brazilian Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet released a 517-page document on Monday that called for Bolsonaro to be convicted for his alleged crimes. Bolsonaro could spend decades in prison.

“The evidence is clear: the defendant acted systematically, throughout his mandate and after his defeat at the polls, to incite insurrection and the destabilisation of the democratic rule of law,” Gonet said in the document.

While Trump has maintained a close friendship with Bolsonaro, Brazil and the Lula administration don’t speak highly of Trump.

On Thursday Lula said Trump’s tariff threat lacked logic.

“We cannot have President Trump forgetting that he was elected to govern the U.S., not to be the emperor of the world,” he said.

Brazilian president says that Donald Trump was elected to lead the US, not to be ‘the emperor of the world’.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said that his country will not take instructions from the United States after US President Donald Trump threatened Brazil with 50 percent tariffs and called for an end to the trial of right-wing ally Jair Bolsonaro.

In an interview with CNN on Thursday, President Lula said that the tariffs have no “logic” but that he does not believe there is a “crisis” in relations between the US and his country as of yet.

“For me, it was a surprise, not only the value of that tariff, but also how it was announced, the way it was announced,” Lula said. “We cannot have President Trump forgetting that he was elected to govern the US, not to be the emperor of the world.”

The US president’s heavy-handed approach to economic relations with other countries has chafed foreign leaders such as Lula, who has expressed frustration at what he sees as Trump’s efforts to dictate terms to Brazil on matters of trade and domestic judicial proceedings.

Bolsonaro, the former president of Brazil who has close ties with Trump and his family, is currently on trial for alleged efforts to mount a coup and reverse Lula’s victory over him in the 2022 election.

Trump, who also faced legal trouble stemming from his efforts to remain in office after losing an election, has called the trial a “witch hunt” and demanded that it come to an end. He has recently done the same for another right-wing ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The judiciary branch of power in Brazil is independent. The president of the republic has no influence whatsoever,” Lula said, stating that Bolsonaro “is not being judged personally”, but “being judged by the acts he tried to organise a coup d’etat”.

The US has also warned Brazil that it will be penalised with higher tariffs if it continues its work as a leading member of BRICS, a coalition of developing economies that have sought to promote alternatives to the US-backed global financial system.

Trump has attacked the group for “anti-Western priorities” and threatened higher tariffs for any countries involved with the bloc.

In Latin America, where the US has a long history of heavy-handed involvement in the domestic affairs of various nations, Trump’s threats and blunt use of US economic leverage have sparked anger.

“Brazil is to take care of Brazil and take care of the Brazilian people, and to take not to take care of the interests of the others,” Lula said.

“Brazil will not accept anything imposed on it. We accept negotiation and not imposition.”

July 14 (UPI) — The 50% tariffs proposed by Donald Trump could cut Brazil’s gross domestic product by between 0.3 and 0.8 percentage points in 2025, according to Brazilian economists and consulting firms.

The final impact will depend on how Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva‘s administration responds and whether Brazil can redirect its exports.

Brazil’s annual export loss could range from $12 billion to $17 billion, representing 3.6% to 5% of the country’s total exports, according to Rogério Marin, CEO of Tek Trade and president of the Foreign Trade Companies Union of Santa Catarina, in comments to the Brazilian digital outlet Agricultura y Negocios.

Marin estimates an annual negative impact on GDP of between 0.6% and 0.8%.

According to XP, one of Brazil’s major investment and financial services firms, the tariffs could reduce GDP growth by 0.3 percentage points in 2025 and 0.5 percentage points in 2026, with Brazilian exports to the United States projected to fall by $6.5 billion in 2025 and $16.5 billion the following year.

Agribusiness firm FGVAgro said in a statement that the proposed 50% tariff would particularly impact the agricultural sector, which accounts for 30% of exports to the U.S. market.

“Food exports are estimated to fall by as much as 75%, which could cause a contraction of up to 0.41% in Brazil’s GDP. Domestic consumption is also projected to decline by as much as $13 billion,” the firm said.

Brazil’s National Confederation of Industry, or CNI), and other business groups have urged a diplomatic resolution. “A rupture in the relationship with the United States would cause serious harm to our economy,” said Ricardo Alban, president of the CNI, who called for “intensifying negotiations to reverse this decision.”

The American Chamber of Commerce for Brazil, Amcham Brasil, has urged avoiding a trade war, saying it “has no winners.” The group argues that the arbitrary imposition of tariffs serves neither side’s interests and instead creates uncertainty that discourages investment and economic growth.

Brazil maintains a strong trade relationship with the United States, exporting about $41 billion annually, primarily in industrial and agricultural goods. That volume represents roughly 1.7% of Brazil’s GDP.

“Brazilian industry — especially manufacturing — has broken export records to the United States in recent years, underscoring the importance of maintaining a stable trade environment,” said Marcos Santos Carena, director of the Business Observer, a consulting firm that operates in Brazil, Colombia and the United States.

The announced tariffs could significantly impact several sectors of Brazil’s economy. Experts warn that about 40% of the affected exports are manufactured goods with limited potential to be redirected to other markets.

The agricultural and agribusiness sectors could be among the hardest hit, as the United States is a key market for products such as coffee and orange juice. One-third of the coffee and half of the orange juice consumed in the United States comes from Brazil, Santos Carena said. Other agricultural exports could also be affected.

In the aerospace sector, Embraer — the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer — has been identified as one of the companies that could be hit hardest, with sharp declines in its market value. The tariffs could hurt the competitiveness of its exports to the United States.

Brazil’s steel and aluminum industries are already subject to additional tariffs, and a new 50% levy would make these exports unviable, according to industry representatives.

Although the United States accounts for a small share of Brazil’s mining exports — about 4% — the tariffs could affect sales of gold, natural stones, ornamental rocks, iron ore, kaolin and niobium.

Other exports that could be affected include engines and generators, parts for industrial machinery, data processing equipment, measuring instruments, wood and forest products — such as pulp and fiberboard — and meat.

In a meeting lasting more than four hours at the Palácio da Alvorada on Sunday, Lula convened his cabinet ministers — including those from finance, industry, agriculture, and foreign affairs — along with the Central Bank president and Senate leaders to coordinate a response to the tariffs announced by President Donald Trump.

Among the agreed measures was the creation of a committee led by Vice President Geraldo Alckmin. The group, which includes business leaders, will bring together affected sectors to develop joint proposals and advise the president before any official announcement.

The government pledged to issue a decree by Tuesday outlining legal and technical criteria for triggering countermeasures if the U.S. tariffs take effect Aug. 1, as Trump promised.

While officials have not ruled out reciprocal action, Lula’s administration said its priority is negotiation, multilateral diplomacy — through channels such as the World Trade Organization — and non-tariff solutions.