USA say they will adopt sanctions against Brazil for Bolsonaro trial

“Therefore, there will be a US response to this, and we will make some ads next week about the additional measures we want to take,” he said.

“But the trial is just another chapter of a growing judicial oppression campaign that has been trying to reach American companies and even people who operate outside the United States,” the American said.

Among the options Rubio has to act against Brazil, it is considered to increase import rates, suspension of visas to other STF ministers, measures against the family of Alexandre de Moraes, rupture of diplomatic relations and even actions against national financial institutions.

Rubio’s statement was challenged by law experts. “The rule of law in Brazil is perfectly functional. All legal guarantees were observed and due process of law was fulfilled. There was no exception court, there was no defense curtailment, there was no breach of laws,” says Pierpaolo Bottini, professor of criminal law at USP and partner at Bottini & Tamasauskas.

This is the first statement to Rubio’s press since Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for paying against democracy. On social networks, he had already warned that he was “closely following” events in Brazil and his government called the process of a “witch hunt”.

Rubio’s warning occurs a day after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva published in The New York Times an article in which he sends an alert to Donald Trump’s government: he will neither negotiate sovereignty nor Brazilian democracy.