On Brazil’s streets, protesters are voicing their disapproval of US President Donald Trump’s severe tariffs on his exports.
Residents of cities like Sao Paulo and Brasilia erupted on Friday as part of Trump’s most recent tariff campaign’s first day to express their anger.
Some of the world’s highest US tariffs are anticipated for Brazil.
In response to a number of political complaints, most notably the prosecution of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, Trump made the announcement last month that he would increase the import tax on Brazilian goods to 50%.
Bolsonaro, a far-right leader and former army captain, is charged with trying to smuggle his alleged coup d’etat against Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the current president. Bolsonaro was president from 2019 to 2023.
A 2024 report from a federal police investigation led to Bolsonaro’s and his allies’ claims that they were trying to sabotage the results of the 2022 election, which he narrowly lost to Lula.
A “state of siege” to suspend civil liberties and compel the military to intervene was reportedly one option they had in mind. That would also open the door for fresh elections.
Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who had accused Bolsonaro of spreading false information about the 2022 election process, was allegedly to poison Lula and execute him.
In the end, De Moraes was in charge of Bolsonaro’s alleged coup attempt, making him a well-known target for Bolsonaro’s supporters.
Trump is one of them. He claimed that the prosecution was politically motivated in his July 9 letter announcing the tariffs, drawing a line from his tariff increase to how Brazil treated Bolsonaro.
“The way that Brazil treated former president Bolsonaro, a highly respected leader throughout the world, including by the United States, is a disgrace,” Trump wrote in a statement.
“This trial shouldn’t be occurring,” he said. A witch hunt needs to end right away.
Trump also accused the Brazilian Supreme Court of launching “insidious attacks on Free Elections” and censoring right-wing voices. Trump has been accused of trying to stifle Joe Biden’s defeat in the US’s 2020 election.
Trump has even threatened de Moraes, frozen his US-based assets, and revoked his visa in an effort to defend Bolsonaro.
Trump has been accused of trying to stifle Brazil’s judiciary by critics, though. Some people have compared the de Moraes’ sanctions and the tariff increase to a push by Brazilian prosecutors to drop Bolsonaro’s case.
On Friday, protesters burned two Bolsonaro-style effigies positioned in an embrace, one representing Trump, the other representing Bolsonaro, on the streets of Sao Paulo. Placards were waved, some with Trump’s forehead protruding from devil horns, and others with cartoons of Moraes flicking Trump’s middle finger.
Meanwhile, a banner read, “Sovereignty is not negotiable,” along with the phrase. On T-shirts and signs were Brazilian flags everywhere.
