Lula thanks Trump for lifting sanctions and says there is ‘more to work out’
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated that he had already sent a message of thanks to the American president, Donald Trump, for the decision to remove minister Alexandre de Moraes, from the Federal Supreme Court, the minister’s wife, Viviane Barci de Moraes, and the magistrate’s family institute from the list of those sanctioned under the Magnitsky Law, last Friday.
Lula made the statement in an interview with the SBT News television channel, recorded on Friday, but only shown this Monday.
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“I already sent a message thanking you (…), saying “look, thank you very much (for removing Alexandre de Moraes and his wife from the list of those sanctioned by the Magnitsky Law), there are still more things to work out between us”. I am sure that our commercial relationship and our political relationship will work out”, stated Lula.
The president reiterated that he has no interest in fighting with the United States, but that in the week before the revocation of sanctions against Moraes he had asked for the revocation of punishments against Brazilian authorities. The STF minister and his wife were the only Brazilians on the list of those sanctioned by Magnitsky, a rule created to punish major human rights violators and those involved in major cases of corruption with diplomatic and financial blocks. The application of the law to Moraes was widely criticized by experts as irregular because it was a mere retaliation against the minister due to his role in the criminal prosecution of the coup plot that sentenced former president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years and three months in prison.
“Last week (last week), I decided to send a message to him (Trump): he needs to release all my ministers that he put in this law that punishes people from other countries. And I told him that it was important to remember that my ministers are being punished because they complied with the Constitution”, said Lula.
The president said he was happy to receive the news of the revocation of the punishments against the Moraes and that the prospects that other diplomatic sanctions against other authorities, such as the revocation of visas of other STF ministers and their government, should end. Among those whose visas were revoked are ministers Alexandre Padilha (Health) and Ricardo Lewandowski (Justice), as well as members of the Supreme Court Edson Fachin, Cármen Lúcia, Cristiano Zanin, Dias Toffoli, Flavio Dino and Gilmar Mendes.
“(Trump) will remove (sanctions) on others and I will continue to insist on him. We will return to normality, because I believe in the power of words”, said Lula.
