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Elected Democrats called on Thursday for President Joe Biden to revoke the visa of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is in Florida (south), refusing that the United States does not shelter the former leader of far right.
American soil should not serve as a refuge for the former Brazilian president: this is the message of elected Democrats who asked Joe Biden, Thursday, January 12, to revoke Jair Bolsonaro’s visa. He has been living in Florida since the end of December.
“We must not allow Jair Bolsonaro or any other former Brazilian official to find refuge in the United States in order to escape justice for any possible crime committed during his mandate”, write these 41 elected officials, all of the Democratic Party, in an open letter to President Biden, released Thursday.
They also call on the US government to “cooperate fully with any investigation by the Brazilian government, if we are asked to do so” and to verify the legal status in the United States of the former president, who arrived in the United States as head of ‘State.
The elected officials are further demanding that the Department of Justice investigate possible “support or funding” from the United States for the violent crimes of January 8, referring to the invasion and ransacking that day of three emblematic places of power in Brasilia by supporters of former President Bolsonaro.
A rather embarrassing stay for Washington
These events were reminiscent of the assault on the Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021. The far-right former president had left Brazil for Florida two days before the inauguration of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on January 1st. He is staying at the home of a former Brazilian MMA fighter. He was admitted to hospital on Sunday January 8 for an intestinal “adhesion”, and was released last Tuesday.
His stay in Florida puts the United States in a relatively embarrassing light, particularly with reference to previous hosts of controversial Latin American leaders. Asked on Wednesday, the head of the American diplomacy Antony Blinken declared that Washington had not received any request from Brazil about Jair Bolsonaro, but that he would process such a request “quickly”. Joe Biden has invited his Brazilian counterpart Lula to visit him in Washington by early February.
With AFP
