Moraes is right, because banks (and networks) cannot ignore our law

Of course, all this can give a federal rebosse, so as not to spare the vernacular. The banking system is internationally interconnected and banks can be punished by Trump.

But the issue is not just a sanction against Moraes. One of the characteristics of President Donald Trump is that when he smells of blood, he attacks again. Demonstrations of weakness are invitations to deepen sanctions. If Brazil gives way with Moraes, the American will understand that there is an open door and may sanction other STF ministers, presidents of the Senate Chamber, the Republic, Ministers of State, governors, mayors.

And why stop there? Nothing prevents them from sanctioning prosecutors, lawyers, journalists, members of civil society. As the sermon of the German theologian Martin Niemoller preached, persecuted by the Nazis, if we are silent when we are with whom we do not identify, when it is with us, there will be no one to help.

Any company that wants to operate on national soil, whether it is technology or financial services, does so under a tacit and explicit social contract. This contract states that, in exchange for access to our market, our labor and our trust, it submits to the Brazilian legal system.

This includes the Federal Constitution, the Civil Code, the Central Bank rules and, above all, the decisions of the judiciary. To ignore this principle is to erode the very basis of the Democratic Rule of Law, transforming the national territory into a western where economic power and the geopolitical influence of external matrix dictate the rules.

Some may argue, in bad faith or naively, that all this is a radical posture or unnecessary conflict. Others, cynically, say that releasing Jair Bolsonaro of being tried by coup d’état, as Trump wants, would be a cheap price to pay.