Bolsonaro's son blames Lula for US tariffs on Brazil

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, a leading opposition candidate in Brazil's upcoming presidential elections, asserted that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's "aggressive foreign policy" directly led to the United States imposing additional tariffs on Brazil.

“

Lula achieved with his aggressions and insults that the United States sanctioned Brazil with additional tariffs.

In an interview with the Globo television network, Bolsonaro, representing the far-right Liberal Party (PL), stated, "Lula achieved with his aggressions and insults that the United States sanctioned Brazil with additional tariffs." He claimed to have shared this perspective with U.S. authorities he spoke with, aiming to have the sanctions reversed.

Bolsonaro specifically referenced Lula's past remarks, where the Brazilian president called U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio a "frustrated Latin American" who "hates" Latin America and Brazil. Bolsonaro suggested Lula was seeking electoral gain through these provocations.

“

I told him that it seems to me that Lula is provoking them (the sanctions). He attacks the United States and attacks (U.S. Secretary of State) Rubio, and that he was surely seeking an electoral benefit with that.

He refuted the Lula administration's claims that his brother, former congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, lobbied Washington for sanctions against Brazilian companies or Supreme Court justices who convicted their father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, of anti-democratic acts. "Eduardo never asked for Brazilian companies to be sanctioned with tariffs," Flávio Bolsonaro stated.

“

Eduardo never asked for Brazilian companies to be sanctioned with tariffs.

Flávio Bolsonaro further argued that he was the only Brazilian authority to defend the country at a U.S. Congressional hearing on the day the tariffs were announced. He maintained his actions were to defend Brazilian companies and advocate for the tariffs' removal, not to pressure for sanctions against specific individuals.

“

The same day the tariffs were announced, I said that I was against it and that my position was to defend companies and that I would take steps to have them withdrawn. I attended Congress (in the U.S.) to ask that they not sanction some businessmen who are already among the most punished in the world by Lula's taxes.