Bolsonaro’s son lobbied for US tariffs against his own country

Bolsonaro’s son lobbied for US tariffs against his own country — and Trump delivered

By Bharat Dogra

In 2022, when Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil’s intensely contested presidential election, there were widespread allegations that outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro was attempting to stage a coup to overturn the result and remain in power. Even more shocking, the alleged coup attempt reportedly included plans to poison the newly elected President Lula and to assassinate a senior judge.

The coup attempt failed, despite Bolsonaro’s supporters storming state institutions.

Now, as this coup plot is being investigated in Brazil, the Trump administration has imposed a 50% increase in tariffs on all imports from Brazil to the USA. Alarmingly, this move has been linked to the ongoing investigations into the serious charges against Bolsonaro — investigations his supporters claim amount to victimization and an attack on democratic norms.

Why should a country be discouraged from investigating such grave allegations — including an attempted coup and murder plots? Why would Trump express admiration and concern for the main accused in such a serious case? And why would he punish Brazil with much higher tariffs in apparent retaliation? Is this really how trade and tariff decisions are to be made under Trump?

The USA had also failed to help President Lula during his earlier tenure, when he faced false corruption charges — charges later thrown out by the courts. This history reveals a persistent bias in US policy: opposing a leftist president like Lula, while bending over backwards to shield someone accused of extremely serious crimes — even weaponizing tariffs against an entire nation as part of these efforts.

Worse still, one of Bolsonaro’s sons, Eduardo Bolsonaro, has actively lobbied in the USA for such punitive actions against his own country. When President Trump announced the high tariffs in a letter to Lula, Eduardo Bolsonaro publicly celebrated, saying that the message he and his allies had been conveying about Brazil had received a positive response in Washington.

These lobbyists also pushed for US sanctions against the judge presiding over the coup attempt case. They succeeded, and sanctions were imposed on Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

All of this is profoundly disturbing — a grim example of how international affairs are being conducted today, particularly by the Trump administration. The extent to which some members of Bolsonaro’s circle have acted against their own country has reportedly angered even some of his former allies.

As I have long argued, nations facing arbitrary tariffs and other harmful measures from the Trump administration need to unite in resistance. Yet here we have the opposite — political actors undermining their own nation from within. Such conduct should be widely condemned, and the call for unity against arbitrary impositions must be reasserted forcefully.

---

The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Protecting Earth for Children, Man Over Machine, and A Day in 2071

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

False claim? What Venezuela is witnessing is not surrender but a tactical retreat

By Manolo De Los Santos The early morning hours of January 3, 2026, marked an inflection point in Venezuela and Latin America’s centuries-long struggle for self-determination and independence. Operation Absolute Resolve, ordered by the Trump administration, constituted the most brutal and direct military assault on a sovereign state in the region in recent memory. In a shocking operation that left hundreds dead, President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores were illegally kidnapped from Venezuelan soil and transported to the United States, where they now face fabricated charges in a New York federal detention facility. In the two months since this act of war, a torrent of speculation has emerged from so-called experts and pundits across the political spectrum. This has followed three main lines: One . The operation’s success indicated treason at the highest levels of the Bolivarian Revolution. Two . Acting President Delcy Rodríguez and the remaining leadership have abandone...

Gujarat government urged to introduce heat-stress safety rules for construction workers

By A Representative A representation submitted to Gujarat Labour, Skill Development and Employment Minister Kunvarji Bavaliya has urged the state government to introduce legally enforceable safety standards to protect construction workers from extreme heat and heatwaves, and to launch a financial assistance scheme for labourers affected by climate-related health risks.

Search This Blog