By El Latino Newsroom
redaccion@latinocc.com
U.S. President Donald Trump’s attempt to pressure Brazil with higher tariffs to support former President Jair Bolsonaro appears to have backfired, strengthening Bolsonaro’s opponents and worsening his legal troubles.
Last week, Trump sent a letter to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva threatening a 50% import tax, explicitly tying the move to Bolsonaro’s trial, which he called a “witch hunt.”
“This trial should end immediately!” Trump wrote in a second letter to Bolsonaro, saying he had “strongly voiced” his disapproval through his tariff policy.
Instead of intimidating Brazilian authorities, Trump’s intervention seemed to galvanize Lula and embolden Brazil’s Supreme Court, which escalated the case.
On Friday, federal police raided Bolsonaro’s home and office, ordered him to wear an ankle monitor, banned him from social media, and imposed further restrictions.
Trump’s threats unexpectedly boosted Lula, who had been struggling with low approval, congressional resistance, and doubts about re-election.
Now, at 79 and in his third term, Lula has seen a surge in support, with allies urging him to run again to “defend Brazil’s sovereignty” against what they call U.S. interference.
Since Trump’s announcement, Lula has appeared energized, at a student assembly Thursday, he wore a blue “Sovereign Brazil Unites Us” cap, a pointed contrast to Trump’s red “Make America Great Again” hat.
“A gringo will not give orders to this president,” Lula declared, calling the proposed tariffs “unacceptable blackmail.”
Trump’s foreign policy has unintentionally strengthened rivals before, with trade conflicts also boosting his allies’ opponents in Canada and Australia.
Polling suggests the dispute improved Lula’s standing.
According to Atlas, his approval rose from 47.3% in June to 49.7% after the tariff standoff.
It also found 62.2% of Brazilians see the U.S. tariffs as unjustified, while 36.8% support them.
Even some conservatives criticized Trump.
Bolsonaro’s former vice president, Sen. Hamilton Mourão, called the trial biased but Trump’s intervention “undue interference.”
“Trump has put Lula back in the game,” said Thomas Traumann, a political consultant and former presidential spokesman, that weeks ago, argued Lula was losing momentum.
Now, thanks to Trump’s unpopular intervention, Lula appears revived as Bolsonaro faces mounting legal and political troubles.
VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s attorney general’s office said on Monday that it has opened an investigation into El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele for alleged mistreatment and human rights violations against Venezuelan migrants.
The migrants in question spent months detained in a maximum-security prison in the Central American country after being deported by the United Sates.
Attorney General Tarek William Saab said his office decided to open the probe after some of the migrants informed Venezuelan authorities of the alleged mistreatment.
The investigation includes El Salvador’s Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro and the head of the prison system, Osiris Luna.
More than 250 migrants were held since March in a mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, which was built to hold alleged gang members in Bukele’s war on the country’s gangs.
They were released on Friday by El Salvador in exchange for 10 U.S. nationals jailed in Venezuela, and as part of a three-country arrangement.
Bukele’s office didn’t reply immediately to a request for comment.
ECUADOR
The head of a violent Ecuadorian gang accused of smuggling cocaine and firearms between South America and the U.S. pleaded not guilty to drug and gun charges Monday in New York.
José Adolfo Macías Villamar, whose nickname is “Fito,” appeared in federal court in Brooklyn a day after Ecuador extradited him to the U.S. A judge ordered him detained until trial and set his next court date for Sept. 19.
U.S. prosecutors accuse Macías of leading the vicious Los Choneros gang that used hitmen, bribes and military weapons, including machine guns and grenades. The hitmen, or sicarios, murdered, tortured and kidnapped people in Ecuador as the gang committed violence against law enforcement, politicians, attorneys, prosecutors and civilians, authorities said.
Los Choneros also worked with Mexican drug cartels to ship cocaine from Colombian suppliers through Ecuador and Central America to the U.S., and shipped firearms from the U.S. to South America, prosecutors said.
“Macías Villamar poses an extraordinary danger to the community,” U.S. prosecutors wrote in a request that Macías be detained without bail until trial. “The Court should enter a permanent order of detention, as no condition or combination of conditions can assure the safety of the community or assure Macías Villamar’s appearance at trial.”
Macías’ lawyer, Alexei Schacht, who entered the not guilty pleas on Macías’ behalf, said he was eager to see the government’s evidence of alleged drug and firearms trafficking.
“As far as I am aware, he did neither,” Schacht said in an email.
Macías told the judge he was not guilty and understood his legal rights. Magistrate Judge Vera Scanlon also ordered that Macías’ health problems, including high blood pressure, gastritis and bullet fragments in his body from a years-old shooting, be treated appropriately while he is detained.
Macías escaped from a prison in Ecuador in January 2024 and wasn’t caught until last month, when he was found in an underground bunker at a relative’s mansion in the port city of Manta.
He was serving a 34-year sentence for drug trafficking, organized crime and murder when he escaped. He also fled from a maximum-security prison in February 2013 but was recaptured a few weeks later.
