Credit, Getty Images
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- author, Marina Rossi
- To roll, From BBC News Brasil in São Paulo
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“It’s a total abandonment of the strategy announced on July 9, which was already being changed, but now it’s a 180-degree turnaround,” Winter told BBC News Brasil, referring to the date new tariffs against Brazil were announced by Trump.
For the American, Trump will always change his strategy if it does not work.
“Today is a total confirmation, as if nothing had happened.”
“He wanted to help an ally (Jair Bolsonaro), because he is a president who thinks that in Latin America he has the right to openly help his ideological partners, and he continues to do so,” he said.
Winter says this change doesn’t mean giving up on helping allies.
“But it is clear that he has decided that, for the moment, he cannot help the Bolsonaro family,” he says. “He leaves the Bolsonaro family adrift.”
“On the one hand, he abandoned or modified the tariffs because they had an impact on inflation, particularly in the very sensitive areas of coffee and meat. This explains the decision to expand the list of exceptions,” he says.
“But the decision on the Magnitsky Act is now a sign that conversations are progressing with the Brazilian government in other areas,” he says.
Brazil has a significant amount of rare earths and minerals on its territory.
“Using Magnitsky for Moraes was serious, because it generated a certain political noise in the United States at the national level. The abandonment of this decision is a sign of other possibilities for collaboration with the Lula government,” believes the American.
Credit, Reuters
The Magnitsky Act is one of the toughest laws Washington has to punish foreigners it considers responsible for serious human rights violations and corrupt practices.
In a speech delivered on August 1, Moraes commented on the decision of the US government, during the opening ceremony of the second half of the judiciary.
“This rapporteur will ignore the sanctions that have been applied and will continue to work as he did, both in plenary and in the first panel, always in a collegial manner,” he said.
Moraes’ wife, lawyer Viviane Barci, also saw her name removed this Friday from the list of people sanctioned by Magnitsky – she had been sanctioned in September.
Federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP), son of Jair Bolsonaro who worked with the US government to impose sanctions on Brazil and Moraes, regretted this decision.
“We received with regret the news of the latest decision announced by the American government. We appreciate the support shown by President Trump throughout this process and the attention he has devoted to the serious crisis of freedoms affecting Brazil,” wrote Eduardo, in a note published on X (formerly Twitter).
“We sincerely hope that President @realDonaldTrump’s decision will succeed in defending the strategic interests of the American people, as is his duty. As for us, we will continue to work with firmness and determination to find a path that allows the liberation of our country, for as long as necessary and despite the adverse circumstances,” added the MP, who has been living in the United States since February and risks having his mandate revoked for misconduct.
In November, the STF named Eduardo Bolsonaro as a defendant for coercion during the process, for formulating sanctions against Brazil and Brazilian authorities, with the aim of influencing his father’s trial.
Moraes says ‘truth prevailed’
During an event on the SBT News channel, Alexandre de Moraes declared that “the truth prevailed” and thanked President Lula for his commitment.
“The victory of democracy. Brazil arrives today, almost at the end of the year, Brazil arrives giving the example of democracy and institutional strength to all the countries of the world. And this is also largely thanks to the freedom of the press.”
At the same event, President Lula said Trump had given Moraes a “gift.”
“Trump made him (Moraes) recognize that it was not right for a president of another country to punish a minister of the Brazilian Supreme Court because he respected the Brazilian Constitution.”
Lula also said that during the conversation he had with Trump, the US president asked him if repeal would be good for him.
“I said it wasn’t good for me. It was good for Brazil and for Brazilian democracy.”
“Amnesty law”
The U.S. government attributed the lifting of sanctions against Moraes and his wife to the House’s approval of the bill reducing sentences for those convicted of coup attempts, which could benefit Jair Bolsonaro.
In a memo sent to BBC News Brasil, a Trump administration official said that “the United States considers the approval of an important amnesty bill by the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies as a step in the right direction, indicating that legal conditions are improving in the country.”
Lawfare is an English term that combines the words “law” and “warfare” and refers to the use of legal instruments to politically attack a person.
The memo also says that maintaining sanctions like those against Moraes is “incompatible with U.S. foreign policy interests.”
On Wednesday (10/12), deputies approved the bill on dosimetry, which reduces the sentences of those convicted of crimes linked to the January 8 attacks, including Bolsonaro. The project will now be examined by the Senate.
On Thursday, before the sanctions were lifted, US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau had already welcomed the approval of the law by the House.
“The United States has consistently expressed concern over attempts to use the legal process to exploit political differences in Brazil and therefore welcomes the bill passed by the House of Representatives as a first step in combating these abuses. Finally, we are witnessing the beginning of a path toward improving our relations,” Landau wrote in X.
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