On the ground in Brazil, EIR’s Tim Rush reports that there is an uproar in the country over Donald Trump’s letter to President Lula da Silva, threatening to impose 50% tariffs if he doesn’t stop the “witch-hunt” against former President Jair Bolsonaro. Brazilians are rallying to Lula’s defense “in a dramatic fashion.” The arrogance with which Bolsonaro and his sons are baldly and publicly defending Trump’s arguments, and blaming Lula for “provoking” the U.S. President, have outraged the population. Even some of Bolsonaro’s allies, including some governors whose states export to the U.S. and will be affected by the tariffs, are angry.
Lula has said he has no intention of giving in to Trump’s threats. Preparations are being made to ensure that regulatory matters pertaining to the Economic Reciprocity Law are in order, in the event that it has to be applied on August 1, while Finance Minister Fernando Haddad and Vice President Geraldo Ackman are meeting with business and other sectors to discuss appropriate responses. Lula has said he’ll pursue all options, possibilities, consider alternative markets for Brazilian goods, and “consult with my BRICS partners” to do what’s best for Brazil’s national interests and sovereignty.
Jair Bolsonaro, meanwhile, thinks that blackmail is the best way to go. As reported on July 13 by O Globo,
Bolsonaro said of course he’s not happy with Trump’s tariff threat, but if Congress would just pass a “broad, general and unrestricted amnesty,” not only for him, but also for all the people being prosecuted with him at the Supreme Court for the Jan. 8, 2023 coup attempt against President Lula, then there “could be peace in the economy.” His son, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, argued that if Brazil’s Congress passed an amnesty, he was sure that Trump would reverse the tariffs. Another son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, a federal deputy in self-imposed exile in the U.S., has reportedly been meeting with senior White House officials to lobby for the administration to declare an amnesty for the Bolsonaro family (see separate slug).
Governor Tarcisio Freitas of the State of São Paulo, a staunch Bolsonaro ally, has angered the population and pretty much trashed his hopes of becoming a leading candidate in next year’s presidential election. He had the nerve to visit the Attorney General’s office to ask for Bolsonaro’s passport to be released, so that Bolsonaro could travel to the U.S. to “directly negotiate” with Donald Trump! The passport had been confiscated on Feb. 8, 2024, as part of the investigation into Bolsonaro’s role in the Jan. 8, 2023 coup plot. Freitas then flew to Brasilia to meet with Bolsonaro and on to the U.S. embassy, where he met with Chargé d’Affaires Gabriel Escobar.
As reported by [Poder360,](https://www.poder360.com.br/poder-governo/bahia-abrira-mercados-alternativos-aos-dos-eua-diz-rui-costa/ Lula’s chief of staff Rui Costa described the antics of the Bolsonaro clan as “like watching a kidnappers’ video. The guy starts stipulating conditions—you do what I want, or you’ll suffer the consequences. This will go down in the country’s history as a sad memory, just as [Bolsonaro’s] government did.” He said that Trump’s letter was “unbelievable.” It had “no precedent in the history of international diplomacy.” For a head of state to post such a letter on his social media—never sending the physical letter, nor by e-mail or a fax—was “beyond belief.” He said that officials first thought that Trump’s accounts must have been hacked, because they couldn’t believe that any head-of-state would act in this way. Finally, they had to check with the U.S. Embassy to confirm that the letter was from Trump!
