The former president of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro He has applied for a tourist visa to be able to stay in the United States for six more months, according to what one of his lawyers told the British newspaper Financial Times.
Bolsonaro flew to Florida at the end of December two days before the end of his term and did not attend the inauguration of his successor, the Brazilian president. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He is believed to have entered the United States on a heads of government visa, which expires on Tuesday, since he is no longer president.
“Florida will be your temporary home away from home (Brazil),” explained the lawyer Philip Alexanderof the signature AG Immigration. The former president “needs some stability, to take some time off and clear his head” according to Alexandre, who has left open the possibility that Bolsonaro may request a permanent visa. His statements are known after Flavio Bolsonaroson of the former president, suggested over the weekend that his father could return to Brazil “tomorrow, in six months or never.”
The details of the trip
Bolsonaro left Brazil on December 30 and settled in a house belonging to the former Brazilian martial arts fighter. Jose Aldo in Kissimmee, south of Orlando. Nine days later, thousands of followers of the far-right ex-president, dissatisfied with his defeat by Lula in the October presidential elections, invaded and vandalized the Planalto Palace, Congress and the Federal Supreme Court.
A judge of this court decided to include the former president in the investigation to determine who instigated the attack against those institutions. In his decision, the magistrate Alexander de Moraes He cited a video shared by Bolsonaro on social networks in which he questions the transparency of the elections in which he was defeated by Lula by a narrow difference of 1.8 percentage points.
Bolsonaro had indicated days ago to CNN Brazil his intention to return to the Latin American country at the end of January for health reasons. During his stay in Florida, the former president was hospitalized south of Orlando for two days due to intestinal discomfort. The admission was due, according to him, to a problem derived from the stabbing that almost cost him his life in September 2018, just before his election as president.
Democratic criticism
Bolsonaro’s situation has generated controversy within the ruling Democratic Party in the United States. On January 12, 46 Democratic congressmen asked in writing to the White House to re-evaluate Bolsonaro’s case and revoke “any diplomatic visa he has.” A few days earlier, more than 70 US and Brazilian congressmen condemned in a joint statement the attack by the “undemocratic extreme right” in Brasilia and compared it with storming the capitol on January 6, 2021.
The decision to grant visas or not is a prerogative of the United States Government, which can cancel them if the rules are violated. Some parliamentarians in turn defend the deportation of the former presidentsomething unfeasible at this time since the former president has not yet criminally answered for the attempted coup at the beginning of the month.
In this context, the governments of Brazil and the United States have confirmed that Lula will visit the US president, Joe Biden, at the White House on February 10. The leftist leader began his first international tour with a trip to Argentina Y Uruguayso the United States will be the third country that he visits at the beginning of his third term, in which he aspires to restore world leadership to Brazil.
