JANEIRO RIOSanctions on a Brazilian Supreme Court justice over alleged repression of free speech and the current trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro were issued by the U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday.
Despite Bolsonaro’s 2022 election loss to current President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva, De Moraes is in charge of the prosecution case against him.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated in a statement that De Moraes is to blame for a campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights, and politicized trials, including those against former President Jair Bolsonaro.
The department’s power to impose the sanctions was based on the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which targets corrupt officials and those who violate human rights.
Any assets or property de Moraes may own in the United States must be frozen, according to the ruling.
A request for comment was not immediately answered by the Presidential Palace or Brazil’s Supreme Court.
The sanctions on Wednesday come after the U.S. State Department said on July 18 that Brazilian judicial officials, including de Moraes, would not be able to get visas.
Additionally, they follow the announcement made by US President Donald Trump on July 9. Trump specifically connected the import tax to what he described as the ongoing witch hunt prosecution of Bolsonaro in Brazil in a letter announcing the tariff.
Bolsonaro is accused of attempting to reverse the outcome of his 2022 defeat to Lula, and Trump seems to sympathize with him. In a similar vein, Trump was charged in 2023 with attempting to rescind the outcome of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Since then, Bolsonaro has been considered a flight risk.
Eduardo, Bolsonaro’s son, praised the U.S. Treasury Department’s decision on X, describing it as a historic turning point and a reminder that abuses of power now have worldwide repercussions.
is being investigated for allegedly assisting U.S. authorities in imposing penalties against Brazilian officials after moving to the U.S. in March.
Trump will also enact the 50% tariff that was announced earlier this month on Wednesday. According to a statement from the White House, the decision was in response to recent Brazilian policies, practices, and actions that pose an uncommon and extraordinary threat to American foreign policy, national security, and the economy.
That was a change in the tariff’s justification. An prior executive order based on the idea that trade imbalances pose a threat to the U.S. economy served as the legal foundation for the July 9 threat. However, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that the U.S. had a $6.8 billion trade surplus with Brazil last year.
According to a 1977 statute, Trump’s proclamation on Wednesday claimed that Brazil’s policies and criminal prosecutions constituted an economic emergency.
Lula claimed that Trump was not elected to be the world’s emperor following the announcement of the tariff earlier this month. He has spoken up for the independence of Brazil’s court and its sovereignty.
After Wednesday’s events, Lula convened an emergency conference with a few ministers, according to the local newspaper O Globo.
Calling Wednesday a sacred day of sovereignty, the left-wing president had previously approved a bill that forbade the use of live animals in laboratory testing for cosmetics, fragrances, and personal hygiene goods.
Lula claimed in a social media video that he hurried out of the ceremony in the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, to protect the Brazilian people’s sovereignty in light of the actions the US president had announced.
The tariffs were originally scheduled to take effect on August 1st, but Wednesday’s directive stated that they would take effect seven days after it was signed.
According to Flavia Loss, a professor of international relations at Sao Paulo’s Foundation School of Sociology and Politics, the tariffs order and the sanctions against Moraes signaled a rise in hostilities between the United States and Brazil.
According to Loss, “We are talking about using commercial tools to coerce what happens in Brazil, not a typical commercial dispute between countries.”
A fundamental of democracy, judicial independence, is blatantly violated by the sanctions, according to Human Rights Watch in Brazil on X.
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