Congress ramps up pressure to kick out Brazil’s Bolsonaro

Bloomberg

Congressional Democrats added to pressure on President Joe Biden to kick Jair Bolsonaro out of the country, even as US officials stick to a wait-and-see approach in hopes that the former Brazilian president will make good on a promise to return home on his own.
In a letter dated Thursday, 46 congressional Democrats urged Biden to remove Bolsonaro in light of the Jan. 8 attacks by his supporters on government buildings in Brasilia, the capital. They said the violence was “built upon months of pre- and post-election fabrications by Mr. Bolsonaro and his allies” about the October election that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva narrowly won.
“The United States must not provide shelter for him, or any authoritarian who has inspired such violence against democratic institutions,” the lawmakers wrote, calling on the US to “cooperate fully with any investigation by the Brazilian government into their actions, if requested.”
The letter added to pressure on Biden to do something about Bolsonaro, who traveled to Florida days before Lula’s inauguration on what he said was a vacation. Bolsonaro was seen eating at a KFC and strolling through a Publix supermarket in Florida after he arrived on December30. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin joined the chorus Thursday evening, urging Biden to rescind authorization for Bolsonaro to remain in the country.
“The United States must not be a safe haven for those who seek to undermine free and fair democratic elections or the peaceful democratic transfer of power, particularly by inciting violence, regardless of the position of power they previously held,” Durbin wrote in his letter to the president.