BRASILIA (Reuters) -Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva told Reuters on Wednesday that former President Jair Bolsonaro should face new charges for allegedly instigating U.S. President Donald Trump’s higher tariffs against Brazil.
“He (Bolsonaro) is being tried for his actions,” Lula said. “Now I think he should face more legal proceedings because of what he is doing, inciting the United States against Brazil, causing harm to the Brazilian economy, causing harm to Brazilian workers.”
Sao Paulo congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro moved to the U.S. earlier this year to seek support from Trump to stop criminal proceedings against his father, who is on trial for allegedly plotting to overturn the results of the 2022 presidential election he lost to Lula.
Eduardo Bolsonaro claimed credit for pushing the White House to announce 50% tariffs on most Brazilian goods, the highest levied on any nation, which became effective this Wednesday.
“There is no precedent in history for a president of the republic and a son, who is a congressman, to go to the United States to incite the president against Brazil,” Lula said, adding that the Bolsonaros are “traitors to the homeland”.
Lula stressed that the Brazilian Supreme Court is independent and is now prosecuting the former leader based solely on legal evidence, free from any U.S. interference.
A lawyer for Jair Bolsonaro, currently under house arrest for violating a Supreme Court order over the weekend, declined to comment. A representative for Congressman Bolsonaro said that they “fight for the people’s freedom to speak what they want and choose the president they want.”
(Reporting by Brad Haynes and Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia; writing Luciana Magalhaes’ Editing by Gabriel Araujo and Alistair Bell)
