By Manuela Andreoni
SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva vowed on Tuesday to defend his country’s Supreme Court against attacks from the United States, in a sharp rebuke of potential sanctions from Washington against one of the top court’s justices.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told U.S. lawmakers last month that President Donald Trump could slap economic sanctions on the judge overseeing the trial of Brazil’s ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally accused of plotting a coup.
“It is unacceptable for the president of any country in the world to comment on the decision of the Supreme Court of another country,” Lula told reporters, adding that the United States needs to understand the importance of “respecting the integrity of institutions in other countries.”
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has drawn fierce criticism from the Brazilian right while leading the court’s aggressive curbing of what he has called threats to Brazil’s democracy, both online and in an alleged coup plot.
He started by ordering social media companies to take down posts from Bolsonaro supporters that he considered threats to democratic institutions, even suspending Elon Musk’s social media platform X in Brazil until it caved to his orders. Musk and other right-wing platforms have accused Moraes of censorship.
The judge also ordered the arrest of a conservative lawmaker who posted a video attacking the Supreme Court and oversaw a case against Bolsonaro supporters who vandalized government buildings after the former president lost the election.
Moraes is now overseeing a case in which Bolsonaro is accused of leading an attempt to overthrow Brazil’s democracy to reverse his loss in the 2022 presidential elections. He presided over the electoral court decision barring Bolsonaro from running for public office until 2030 due to behavior in that campaign.
Several of those cases have involved criticism, threats and even an alleged assassination attempt targeting Moraes himself, but the Supreme Court has backed the judge’s refusal to recuse himself, drawing further complaints from his critics.
The setbacks for Bolsonaro’s far-right movement led his son, lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro, to take a leave from Brazil’s Congress this year and move to the United States, where he vowed to lead a campaign against Moraes.
Rubio’s comments in Congress about Moraes were prompted by questions by Florida House Representative Cory Mills, with whom Eduardo Bolsonaro said he had met days earlier.
Mills asked Rubio if he was considering sanctions against Moraes under the Global Magnitsky Act, which allows the U.S. president to impose economic sanctions against foreigners with a record of corruption or human rights abuses.
“There is a great possibility that will happen,” Rubio said.
Eduardo Bolsonaro’s role in advocating retribution against Moraes prompted the judge to open an investigation against the lawmaker, after prosecutors alleged judicial interference.
Lula, in remarks to reporters on Tuesday, compared Eduardo Bolsonaro’s efforts to “terrorist practices,” adding that the lawmaker had left Congress to “try to lick Trump’s boots.”
(Reporting by Manuela Andreoni; Additional reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu and Ricardo Brito; Editing by Brad Haynes and Nia Williams)
