The future of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who flew to Florida in his final days in office, is emerging as a potential diplomatic issue between Brazil and the United States amid calls for his expulsion for inciting insurrection. Some Democrats are calling for the revocation of his visa because the former president has taken up residence in Florida.
Bolsonaro has denied accusations made by his successor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, that he had encouraged the rioters from the United States. He has distanced himself from the crowd that stormed government buildings in the capital, Brazil, on Sunday.
Sunday, January 8, 2023, in Brasilia, Brazil, protesters who are supporters of Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro stand on the roof of the National Congress building after they stormed it. "They were in ecstasy" (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres): how the violence of the Bolsonaro mob rocked Brazil Read more Leading Democrats have called for the revocation of Bolsonaro's visa so that he cannot use Florida as a base to destabilize Lula's government.
"Bolsonaro ought not be in Florida," Joaquin Castro, a Popularity based senator, told CNN. " This authoritarian, who has fostered domestic terrorism in Brazil, should not seek refuge in the United States. He ought to be returned to Brazil.
Together with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Joe Biden issued a joint statement on Monday condemning "the January 8 attacks on Brazil's democracy and on the peaceful transfer of power."
“As Brazil defends its democratic institutions, we support it. The statement added that the three leaders were looking forward to working with President Lula and that "our governments support the free will of the people of Brazil."
Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, told journalists on Monday that there had been no communication between the administration and Bolsonaro, and that the Brazilian government had not yet made any requests to the US regarding the former president.
Naturally, we would respond to such requests in the same manner that we always do. Sullivan stated, "We treat them seriously."
Democrats are worried that Ron DeSantis, the hard-line Republican governor of Florida and a candidate for president, is making the state more and more of a haven for far-right assassins. The state has become the permanent residence of Donald Trump, a close ally of Bolsonaro who continues to refuse to acknowledge his own election defeat in 2020 at his Mar-a-Lago resort, and recent attempted coups in Haiti and Venezuela have been planned from there.
