Lula bans entry to Brazil for a Trump advisor who intended to visit Bolsonaro

Rio de Janeiro.- The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, stated this Friday during an event in Rio de Janeiro that he prohibited the entry into the country of Darren Beattie, advisor to the head of the United States, Donald Trump, and who had requested authorization to visit former president Jair Bolsonaro in the prison where he is serving a sentence for coupism. The decision was made taking into account the “omission and falsification” of relevant information about the reason for the visit at the time of applying for the visa in Washington, explained to EFE Brazilian diplomatic sources. The chancellery had granted a visa to the advisor to participate in an event in São Paulo and learned from the press that the senior US official planned to visit Bolsonaro in prison. “That American who said he would come to visit Jair Bolsonaro was forbidden to enter. I forbade him as long as they don’t release the visas of my Minister of Health,” declared Lula during the reopening of an area of the Federal Hospital of Andaraí, in Rio de Janeiro. Lula recalled that the Trump administration canceled the visa of his Health Minister, Alexandre Padilha, his wife, and a 10-year-old daughter in retaliation for the Brazilian program that hires Cuban doctors to serve isolated areas of the country.

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The Brazilian Government Opposes Visit to Bolsonaro

The Brazilian chancellery confirmed the revocation of Beattie’s visa, alleging that the advisor had lied about the reasons for his trip. According to the portfolio, this fact constitutes a sufficient legal principle for the denial of the visa, in accordance with Brazilian law and with international norms applied in similar cases. Magistrate Alexandre de Moraes, the instructor of the process that put Bolsonaro in prison, authorized this week that Beattie make a visit to the former president in prison on March 18. But, after consulting the judge about the case, since Beattie requested a change in the date, the Brazilian chancellor, Mauro Vieira, stated that the visit of an advisor to President Trump to the former president in prison could constitute “undue interference” in an election year. Even before requesting meetings with officials from the Brazilian chancellery, Beattie, senior advisor for Brazil Policy at the U.S. State Department, requested authorization to meet with the far-right leader, who is serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 elections. You can also read: However, the Chancellery reported that this meeting with the former president was never reported by Trump’s advisor, who had only communicated his intention to travel to the country “for a conference on critical minerals and for official meetings with representatives of the Brazilian Government.”