More than 40 Democratic congressmen sent a letter to United States President Donald Trump on Thursday to condemn his “multiple and unprecedented attempts to undermine democracy in Brazil,” as well as “his unsuccessful efforts to shield former Brazilian President Bolsonaro from responsibility for the January 2023 coup attempt.”
The text, to which EL PAÍS had access, focuses on Trump’s use of the threat of imposing 50% customs duties on his trading partner, which the members of the House of Representatives who signed the letter judge as “an inappropriate and illicit use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)”, because to justify it, the President of the United States argued that with these customs duties Washington was facing an “unsustainable trade deficit”. Members of Congress recall that the United States “has had a trade surplus with Brazil every year since 2008.”
The appeal before the IEEPA is at the center of the case studied by the nine judges of the Supreme Court of Washington, who must rule on the constitutionality of the tariffs. His conviction, which could ruin Trump’s entire trade policy, is imminent.
The American president, who included the Ibero-American country and its president, Lula da Silva, in the list of 25 that he threatened with new customs duties by letter at the beginning of last summer, never hid what his true intentions were: to put pressure on the judges of the trial then started against former president Jair Bolsonaro for his involvement in the failed coup d’état of January 2023. Due to these events, the Supreme Court of Brasilia condemned Bolsonaro for the last time. September to 27 years in prison. This Wednesday, the Senate of the Ibero-American country approved the bill aimed at reducing the prison sentences of the former president and the rest of those convicted of coup d’état.
The letter sent to Trump is an initiative of Representatives Adriano Espaillat (New York) and Linda Sánchez (California). And among the undersigned are the names of some of the most prominent members of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Nydia Velázquez (both representatives of New York), Sarah McBride (Delaware), Ilhan Omar (Minnesota) or Greg Casar (Texas).
The text compares the course that Trump tried to throw at Bolsonaro to get rid of his problems with justice with the Republican’s attempts “to escape responsibility for the January 6 insurrection in the United States”, the day of the assault on the Capitol. “Furthermore, you falsely stated that the tariffs were necessary to supposedly defend ‘freedom of expression’ in Brazil,” the letter adds, referring to legislation with which the country has recently cracked down on hate speech and disinformation on social media. “A Supreme Court ruling,” recall the members of Congress, “declared that these measures were compatible with the Brazilian Constitution. Launching a trade war to resolve non-trade issues is unjustified and counterproductive.”
The highest tax
As a result of this pressure, Trump ultimately imposed the highest tariffs on Brazil among dozens of U.S. trading partners after months of bitter struggle. The deputies accuse the president of having “excluded certain Brazilian products” from this high tax to “benefit companies with close ties to his administration, including the Brazilian meat giant JBS, which made the largest individual donation (five million dollars)”.
The letter also shames the Republican who used the Magnitsky Act to revoke visas and sanction judges of Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court and their families. “We condemn this explicit attempt to exert undue pressure on the independent judicial system of another democratic and sovereign nation,” warns the text, which considers that Trump’s decisions “have damaged American leadership in the region.” Like other countries, the signatories say, “they have intensified their efforts to distance themselves from Washington,” by promoting trade agreements with Mexico or Vietnam.
“China quickly seized the opportunity to strengthen ties with Brazil, presenting itself as a ‘defender’ of the South against the United States, expanding BRICS cooperation, and turning to Brazil for key products,” the letter continued, warning that Chinese soybean imports from Brazil increased by nearly 30%, displacing American farmers.
Lula and Trump met for the first time in person in October after trying for months to open a line of dialogue with the Republican to ease tariffs. Then, they communicated again in early December, in the context of an unprecedented US military deployment to pressure Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro and days after Lula publicly offered to intercede with Trump to reduce tensions in the Caribbean.
Last Friday, the United States removed Judge Alexandre de Moraes from the list of people sanctioned by the Magnitsky Act. It is Washington’s second major unilateral concession in less than a month after easing tariffs on meat, coffee and much of Brazilian imports. This was interpreted as a blow to Bolsonaro and as a triumph of Lula’s strategy, a mixture of firmness, diplomacy and personal charm, an ingredient which, as has been demonstrated since his return to the White House, continues to work with Trump.
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