USA x Alexandre de Moraes: Sanctions can reach the minister’s salary confiscation

United States sanctions against the Brazilian Federal Supreme Court (STF) and Minister Alexandre de Moraes could even result in a confiscation of the salary of the magistrate in bank accounts. Analysts heard by Infomoney The chances of Donald Trump’s government to fulfill the threats it has been making to the Brazilian judiciary and Moraes.

UNESP professor and researcher at the National Institute of Science and Technology for United States (Inct-Ineu), Marcos Cordeiro Pires, says the US may apply measures to prevent financial movements from Moraes and family members of the minister in the United States.

It turns out that Brazilian banks with traded actions on the American stock exchange would also have to join the restrictions because they undergo US legislation.

“In theory, the bank could confiscate until the salary paid to Moraes in any of these banks,” explains the professor. For Pires, “it is“ very likely to impose sanctions, not only against Minister Alexandre de Moraes, but also against other authorities, who from the perspective of the far right of the United States would be threatening freedom of expression. ”

What motivates US threats against Moraes?

Recent threats from US government members directly aim at the minister of Alexandre de Moraes and the STF. One reasons would be the ongoing judgment that blames social networks by what is published in them.

The Brazilian far right tries to surf the wave, and federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP) says it articulates sanctions against Moraes in the United States, especially after the opening of a lawsuit against the parliamentarian in the Supreme Court.

This Wednesday (4), Moraes also determined the pre-trial detention and seizure of the passport of Mrs Carla Zambelli (PL-SP). Allied of pockets, she fled Brazil after conviction by the Supreme Court.

Why does Moraes bother the US government?

Professor Marcos Cordeiro Pires, from Unesp, says that the American right seeks to silence voices that try to regulate large social media companies, Big Techs. “Most of the narratives used, mostly conspiracy and fallacious, depend on the freedom of expression of these platforms,” says Pires.

The Professor of International Relations at the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), Eduardo Mello, believes that there is a real possibility of sanction to Minister Alexandre de Moraes. “It is not very costly for Washington to buy a fight with the Brazilian STF. Brazil has little external bargaining power and would be difficult for the Brazilian government to retaliate Washington significantly,” he adds.

US threats not only have Brazil as a target

The professor at the Institute of Institutional Relations of the University of Brasilia, Antonio Jorge Ramalho, believes that the main target of US threats is not Brazil. “These are bravado that embodies Trump & Cia’s ideological positions, imitated by Bolsonaros. They can gain consequence, but they are not intended for Brazil. The narrative on freedom of opinion aims to influence European elections than any other political process.”

Ramalho bets that the Brazilian government may protest whether Minister Alexandre de Moares is unique in threats, but he believes this is far from happening.

Professor Eduardo Mello agrees that Brazil is not the focus of the threats. “Brazil is being caught in a larger thing, the role of this class of social networks that are struggling against initiatives they call censorship, but others would call different parts of the world, which affect trump holders and businesses on the platform, but also allies of trump like the world,” he explains.

Mello adds that, in addition to the Bolsonaro, there are other allies of Trump in view, such as Victor Orbán, Hungary, and Nigel Farage, in the United Kingdom, that is, a greater global movement than only pockets in Brazil.