Trump administration revokes visa of Brazilian ambassador to the United States

Trump's aides highlighted that Viotti's visa will only be reestablished if the Lula government gives the green light to Perez - a procedure known as agrément.

The head of the State Department, Marco Rubio, is a strong critic of the Latin American left and has already confronted the Lula government on different occasions. Shortly after the USTR (US Office of Commerce) announced a new tariff against Brazil, he published on social media that "President Lula and his government did not negotiate with the US in good faith".

"His economic policies are bad for Americans and bad for Brazilians. Over the last year, Lula has put his own ego ahead of making a deal for the well-being of the Brazilian people, and these tariffs are the price for that," says Rubio.

Months earlier, he had classified Brazil on a list of countries that are not friendly to the United States.

The United States requested authorization from Brazil to nominate Perez - in diplomatic jargon called agrément - a month after the White House made his nomination public. By acting in this way, they broke with the traditional practice, according to which the country that sends the ambassador consults the host nation in advance and waits for its response before making the appointment official.

The gesture caused discomfort in the Palácio do Planalto. Members of the Lula government claim that there is no rush to grant the agreement, since, in their opinion, Washington chose to disclose the name before completing the procedures normally followed in these cases.

Behind the justification from Lula's allies is the fear that Perez will have a political role during the presidential elections in October.

Perez had his nomination approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and should be submitted to the plenary later this week.

At the end of July, the State Department attempted to send two members of its team to Brazil to discuss topics such as freedom of expression and the electoral process. The case was revealed by the newspaper The Washington Post.

The visit was interpreted by Planalto as an attempt to interfere in the elections, especially as it occurred a few days after Senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), a pre-candidate for the Presidency, once again criticized the electronic voting system during a meeting with ambassadors - more recently, Flávio said he believed that the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) would act impartially in the election.

The Brazilian government's interpretation was criticized by the State Department. In a statement, the Trump administration stated that it was a scheduled visit to Brasília between the 27th and 30th of July for meetings with government authorities, religious leaders and representatives of civil society "in order to discuss electoral integrity, religious freedom and freedom of expression".

"Any suggestion that this trip was a 'ploy' to undermine the election of a democratic nation is a baseless lie."

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