Elected Democrats on Thursday, January 12, called on President Joe Biden to revoke the visa of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who is in Florida (south), refusing to allow the United States as a safe haven for the former guides serve.
“We must not allow Mr. Bolsonaro or any other former Brazilian official to seek refuge in the United States to evade justice for a possible crime committed during his tenure,” these 41 elected officials, all members of the Democratic Party, write in an open letter to President Biden, published Thursday, January 12. They are also calling on the US government to “fully cooperate with any investigation by the Brazilian government if we are asked to do so” and to review the legal status in the United States of the former president who has entered the United States as head of state.
The elected officials also demand that the Justice Department investigate possible “support or funding” by the United States for the Jan. 8 violent crimes, citing the invasion and looting of three emblematic places of power in Brasília by supporters of the former president that day Bolsonaro. These events commemorated the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
An embarrassing light
The far-right former president left Brazil for Florida two days before Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s Jan. 1 inauguration. He lives in the house of a former Brazilian MMA fighter. He was hospitalized last Sunday for an intestinal “glue” and discharged Tuesday night.
His stint in Florida puts the United States in a relatively embarrassing light, particularly in relation to past hosts of controversial Latin American leaders. When asked on Wednesday, the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken said the United States had not received a request from Brazil about Jair Bolsonaro, but that he would process such a request “quickly”. Joe Biden invited his Brazilian counterpart Lula to Washington in early February.