MIAMI (AP) – The Biden administration is under growing pressure from Latin American leftists and U.S. lawmakers to oust Jair Bolsonaro from a presidential retreat in Florida following an attack by his supporters in the Brazilian city over the weekend.
But the far-right former president could pre-empt any plans for such a harsh rebuke. On Tuesday, he told a Brazilian journalist that he would push to return home, where he was scheduled to end January, after being hospitalized with stomach pains caused by a stabbing in 2018.
“I came to spend some time away from my family but it was not a calm day,” Bolsonaro told CNN’s Portuguese affiliate in Brazil. “First, there was a tragic event in Brazil and then at the hospital.”
Bolsonaro arrived in Florida in late December, bypassing the January 1 oath of office of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who became the first Brazilian president-elect not to receive the presidential sash from his predecessor since the restoration of democracy in the 1980s. Bolsonaro reportedly lives in the Orlando-area home of Brazilian mixed martial arts fighter Jose Aldo, a professional supporter.
His visit to the Sunshine State went largely unnoticed in the US until Sunday’s attack by thousands of hardline supporters who had camped for weeks outside a military base in Brasilia, refusing to accept Bolsonaro’s defeat in the October race. Their entry into the Brazilian Congress and the presidential palace left behind broken glass, smashed computers and smashed pictures.
Almost from the moment the images of destruction were broadcast around the world, the Democrats expressed concern about the continuation of Bolsonaro on US soil, comparing between the riots in Brazil and the January 6, 2021, uprising by Donald Trump’s allies who stormed the Capitol. trying to overturn the results of the US presidential election.
Among those who called for President Joe Biden to give Bolsonaro the boot was Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“Almost two years to the day that the US Capitol was attacked by fascists, we see fascist movements abroad trying to do the same in Brazil,” said the New York City representative. “The US should stop giving asylum to Bolsonaro in Florida.”
That shouldn’t be unwise for the White House, experts say.
Biden has never had a close relationship with Bolsonaro, who has made common ground with Trump’s top aides on the right. And any move to oust him could play well in Latin America, where Biden is attracting new leftist leaders who have risen to power in places like Chile and Colombia expressing similar concerns about threats to democracy.
“It’s one thing to talk about supporting democracy,” said John Feeley, a longtime US ambassador to Latin America who resigned as ambassador to Panama in 2018 because of differences with the Trump administration.
“It’s one thing to take action in your own home, where you have control over it, with someone who’s really aligned with the same people who brought you Jan. 6,” Feeley said.
But so far the Biden administration has proceeded with tact.
On Monday, the spokesman for the Department of State, Ned Price, leaving questions about the presence of Bolsonaro, said that anyone who enters the US on the so-called A-1 visa reserved for world leaders will have 30 days to leave the country or adjust their status. of the Department of Homeland Security at the end of their term of service.
Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, was also on the lookout, saying that any request from the Brazilian government related to Bolsonaro would be reviewed, considering the law. Generally, the U.S. they are reluctant to discuss visa issues except for privacy concerns.
Feeley said that if the incoming Biden administration lacks the strength to support democracy, it will be seen in the district.
Another place Bolsonaro is apparently not going is Italy. The former president is the grandson of immigrants from the north of Italy and the Brazilian media had for months speculated that he and his children would seek Italian citizenship for fear that he could be tried in Brazil for corruption or his mishandling of the Corona virus epidemic.
But Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, told state media on Tuesday that Bolsonaro had never applied for citizenship – although he was granted honorary citizenship in 2021 by the small town where his grandfather was born.
“There are laws that say who gets citizenship,” Tajani said, stressing his right-wing government’s strong opposition to the looting of Brazilian government institutions by Bolsonaro’s supporters. “It’s not a political decision, it’s a personal decision.”
AP writers Matt Lee in Washington and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed this report.
