Brazil’s attorney general says interference ‘cannot be tolerated’ after Trump funding plans revealed | Brazil

Brazil’s attorney general said foreign interference in his country’s institutions and democracy “cannot be tolerated” after a Guardian report revealed how the Trump administration was pushing to earmark funds for a campaign against Brazil’s Supreme Court.

Writing on X, Jorge Messias called the report “an important wake-up call for Brazilian sovereignty.” “This information is particularly serious in light of the Brazilian electoral process and recent episodes of external pressure on our institutions,” Messias added.

Brazil is three days away from its presidential election – the outcome of which Washington has been accused of trying to influence – where left-wing incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will face his far-right rival, Trump ally Flávio Bolsonaro. The two men are neck and neck in the polls.

According to Brazilian television station GloboNews, the attorney general’s office filed a criminal complaint on Thursday to investigate possible wrongdoing, in response to the Guardian article.

Last year, the Trump administration used a campaign of sanctions and tariffs in an unsuccessful attempt to pressure Lula’s government and the Supreme Court over the coup trial of Bolsonaro’s father, ex-President Jair Bolsonaro. Trump called the prosecution of Bolsonaro a “witch hunt,” but he was convicted and sentenced to 27 years in prison for trying to seize power after losing the 2022 election to Lula.

In recent months, the Trump administration has again been accused of interfering in Brazilian affairs by using tariffs and designating two Brazilian organized crime groups as foreign terrorist organizations to bolster Flávio Bolsonaro’s campaign and weaken Lula.

Writing on Thursday, Messias said: “Disagreements between governments are inherent to international relations. What cannot be tolerated is that foreign political interests seek to interfere in the functioning of Brazilian institutions or to influence, directly or indirectly, choices that belong exclusively to the Brazilian people.”

Messias added: “Every generation of Brazilians has the right to freely decide its destiny, to protect its institutions and to pass on to its children a country that does not accept that decisions about Brazil are made outside Brazil. Our democracy belongs to Brazilians. And it must remain so.”

The attorney general’s comments follow a report that the Trump administration was pushing for more than $175 million from the State Department’s flagship human rights fund to go toward a series of rewards that included a $40 million grant for an anti-communist fund, support for a group defending the rights of white Afrikaners in South Africa and a campaign against Brazil’s Supreme Court.

A $1 million prize titled “Countering the Law and Censorship in Brazil” would fund civil society groups opposing what it calls judicial overreach and censorship by Brazil’s Supreme Court.

Bolsonaro’s far-right movement views the Supreme Court – and particularly Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw Jair Bolsonaro’s trial – as its greatest enemy.

Moraes is widely seen as having played a key role in foiling Jair Bolsonaro’s authoritarian plot, which culminated in the January 8, 2023 riots in Brasilia, despite concerns that the judge was overstepping his powers. constitutional authority in its crusade to protect democracy.

During the right-wing riots, die-hard Bolsonaro supporters ransacked the presidential palace, congress and the Supreme Court. The court suffered the most serious damage.

Bolsonaro’s supporters continue to claim that their leader’s imprisonment is unjust and that he is the victim of a politically motivated imposture driven by a corrupt “judicial dictatorship.”

Their criticism of Moraes and the Supreme Court has been reinforced by a recent scandal linking several judges, including him, to Daniel Vorcaro, the playboy banker at the center of Brazil’s biggest banking scandal. Vorcaro is also linked to the Bolsonaro family.

The banker allegedly gave the family more than £9 million, supposedly to produce a Jair Bolsonaro biopic starring Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ. On the eve of Vorcaro’s arrest last November, Flávio Bolsonaro sent him a message saying: “Brother, I will always be with you.”

Vorcaro is being held by federal police in Brasilia. His legal team has consistently denied any wrongdoing. On Wednesday, his lawyers said he was not involved in “any kind of illicit activity or criminal practice.”