Latin America

United States President Donald Trump has informed Mexico and the European Union that they face tariffs of 30 percent starting next month.

This has created shock and is raising fears of an all-out trade war, but both Mexico and the EU say they want talks to continue.

So, what is Trump’s strategy – and what are the risks?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Niall Stanage – columnist for The Hill

Greg Swenson – chairman of Republicans Overseas UK

Daniel Gros – director of the Institute for European Policymaking at Bocconi University

In this episode of Talk to Al Jazeera, Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira discusses Brazil’s role in the expanding BRICS bloc and whether the group is positioning itself as a challenge to Western dominance.

Speaking from Rio de Janeiro after the BRICS summit, Vieira explains President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s call for a global trade currency, critiques the current state of the United Nations, and explains what Brazil envisions for a more balanced multipolar world. With absent leaders, rising tensions, and growing ambitions, is BRICS reshaping global power, or just talking about it?

In the aftermath of a magnitude 5.7 earthquake, the five men were accused of robbing damaged homes in the Santa Maria de Jesus municipality.

Five men have been lynched after rural community members accused them of robbing damaged homes following an earthquake that struck Guatemala and caused widespread damage.

Police spokesperson Cesar Mateo told the AFP news agency on Friday night that the men were accused of using the dark of the night to break into homes following the tremors, which led people to sleep in shelters or with relatives.

“While it’s true that robbery is illegal, lynching is also a crime,” Mateo said.

Guatemala’s Ministry of the Interior said residents of Santa Maria de Jesus municipality searched for the men late on Thursday and then blocked authorities who tried to detain and take them away.

Residents beat the men with sticks and stones and then burned them in the community, which lies in the Sacatepequez department southwest of the capital.

Santa Maria de Jesus was the worst-affected area by the earthquake that created tremors of up to 5.7 magnitude. At least seven people were killed across Guatemala after Tuesday’s earthquake.

Vigilante violence is a recurrent response to criminals who are not prosecuted in Guatemala.

According to a local civil society organisation, between 2008 and 2020, vigilante justice left 361 people dead and 1,396 injured in the country.

The earthquake left Santa Maria de Jesus, home to an Indigenous Mayan community, without power, while access to roads was cut off by landslides.

The government flew in humanitarian aid to Santa Maria de Jesus to help residents.

The disaster coordination agency, Conred, which has been evaluating the level of damage in affected areas, said a delivery of solar lamps, buckets, mats, mosquito nets, blankets and kitchen kits has been received from the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).

In a separate statement on Friday, the agency said it was continuing to assist, including the “mobilisation and delivery of humanitarian aid” to parts of the country.

Dominican authority says 17 other refugees and migrants rescued from the boat heading for Puerto Rico, a US territory.

Four refugees and migrants have died and about 20 were missing after their boat capsized off the coast of the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean, authorities said, as Haitians and Dominicans continue to take life-threatening risks to make the crossing to what they hope is a better life.

The Dominican civil defence authority was quoted by AFP news agency as saying on Friday that 17 other people were rescued from the boat, which was carrying about 40 people and headed for Puerto Rico, a United States territory.

The Caribbean nation’s navy said it had rescued 10 Dominicans and seven Haitians. A child was among the survivors.

So-called “yola” migrant boats, such as the one that ran into trouble, are constructed from wood or fibreglass and do not comply with safety regulations, according to authorities.

Refugees and migrants pay as much as $7,000 for a one-way trip to Puerto Rico from the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with crisis-torn Haiti.

Illegal migration from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico has been a growing phenomenon in the last decade.

In 2022, at least five people drowned and another 66 were rescued in an incident involving a suspected human smuggling boat near the uninhabited island of Mona, west of Puerto Rico.

Mona Island, a nature reserve, is located between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico and has, over the years, been used by smugglers carrying people between the two. Those on that route are typically Dominican or Haitian.

Giuseppe Palermo has been wanted under an Interpol red notice, which has called for his arrest in 196 countries.

Colombian authorities have captured an alleged leader of the Italian ‘Ndrangheta mafia in Latin America who is accused of overseeing cocaine shipments and running illegal trafficking routes to Europe.

Police on Friday identified the suspect as Giuseppe Palermo, also known as “Peppe”, an Italian national who was wanted under an Interpol red notice, which called for his arrest in 196 countries.

He was nabbed on the street in Colombia’s capital Bogota during a coordinated operation between Colombian, Italian and British authorities, as well as Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, according to an official report.

Palermo is believed to be part of “one of the most tightly knit cells” of the ‘Ndrangheta mafia, said Carlos Fernando Triana, head of the Colombian police.

The ‘Ndrangheta, one of Italy’s most powerful, ruthless and clandestine criminal organisations, has increasingly wielded its influence overseas and is widely accused of importing cocaine into Europe.

The suspect “not only led the purchase of large shipments of cocaine in Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador, but also controlled the maritime and land routes used to transport the drugs to European markets”, Triana added.

Illegal cocaine production reached 3,708 tonnes in 2023, an increase of nearly 34% from the previous year, driven mainly by the expansion of coca leaf cultivation in Colombia, according to the United Nations.

The global illicit drug trade, including cocaine, is estimated to be worth more than $500bn annually.

Notorious gang leader has agreed to be extradited to the United States to face cocaine and weapons smuggling charges.

Ecuador’s most infamous drug lord has agreed to be extradited to the United States to face cocaine and weapons smuggling charges, a court in the capital Quito has said.

The announcement on Friday is the latest chapter in the dramatic underworld tale of Adolfo Macias, alias “Fito”, who was recaptured in June after escaping from a maximum security prison 18 months ago in a jailbreak that triggered a bloody wave of gang violence.

Macias, head of the “Los Choneros” gang, is wanted in the US on charges of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms-related crimes, including weapons smuggling.

After Macias vanished from his prison cell in the southwestern port of Guayaquil in January 2024, authorities had been scouring the world for him, offering a $1m reward for information leading to his capture. But it emerged that the country’s most wanted man was hiding out at a family member’s mansion in his hometown.

Ecuadorian security forces recaptured the drug kingpin last month at an underground bunker beneath a marble-walled house in the port city of Manta, some 260km (160 miles) southwest of the capital, Quito.

The former taxi-driver-turned-crime-boss had been serving a 34-year sentence since 2011 for involvement in organised crime, drug trafficking and murder.

In a country plagued by drug-related crime, Los Choneros members responded with violence as the manhunt began after their leader’s escape – using car bombs, holding prison guards hostage and storming a television station during a live broadcast.

President Daniel Noboa’s right-wing government had recently declared, “We will gladly send him and let him answer to the North American law.”

Macias, dressed in an orange prison uniform, took part in a court hearing Friday via videolink from a high-security prison in Guayaquil.

In response to a judge’s question, he replied, “Yes, I accept (extradition).”

This would make Macias the first Ecuadorian extradited by his country since the measure was written into law last year, after a referendum in which Noboa sought the approval of measures to boost his war on criminal gangs.

Ecuador, once a peaceful haven wedged between the world’s two top cocaine exporters, Colombia and Peru, has seen violence erupt in recent years as rival gangs with ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels vie for control.

These gang wars have largely played out inside the country’s prisons, where Macias wielded immense control. He was the unofficial boss of his Guayaquil prison, where authorities found images glorifying him, weapons and US dollars.

Videos of parties he held in the prison captured fireworks and a mariachi band. In one sequence, he appeared waving, laughing and petting a fighting rooster.

Macias earned a law degree behind bars. By the time he escaped, he was considered a suspect in the assassination of presidential candidate and anticorruption crusader Fernando Villavicencio in 2023.

Soon after Macias’s prison break, Noboa declared Ecuador to be in a state of “internal armed conflict” and ordered the military and tanks into the streets to “neutralize” the gangs.

Los Choneros has ties to Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, Colombia’s Gulf Clan – the world’s largest cocaine exporter – and Balkan mafias, according to the Ecuadorian Organized Crime Observatory.

More than 70 percent of all cocaine produced in the world now passes through Ecuador’s ports, according to government data. In 2024, the country seized a record 294 tonnes of drugs, mainly cocaine.

The United Nations has appealed to the international community to bolster its support for Haiti after a report revealed that gang violence has claimed 4,864 lives from October to June.

More than 20 percent of those deaths unfolded in the departments of Centre and Artibonite, indicating that intense violence is spilling into the areas surrounding the capital, Port-au-Prince.

In a report released on Friday, the UN explained that the growing presence of gangs like Gran Grif in those areas appears to be part of a broader strategy to control key routes connecting the capital to Haiti’s north and its border with the Dominican Republic.

“This expansion of gang territorial control poses a major risk of spreading violence and increasing transnational trafficking in arms and people,” the report said.

Among its recommendations was for the international community to better police the sale of firearms to Haiti and to continue to offer support for a Kenya-led security mission aimed at strengthening Haiti’s local law enforcement.

In a statement, Ulrika Richardson, the UN’s resident coordinator in Haiti, explained that propping up the country’s beleaguered police force is key to restoring security.

“Human rights abuses outside Port-au-Prince are intensifying in areas of the country where the presence of the State is extremely limited,” she said.

“The international community must strengthen its support to the authorities, who bear the primary responsibility for protecting the Haitian population.”

The report indicates that the violence in the regions surrounding Port-au-Prince took a turn for the worse in October, when a massacre was carried out in the town of Pont Sonde in the Artibonite department.

The Gran Grif gang had set up a checkpoint at a crossroads there, but local vigilante groups were encouraging residents to bypass it, according to the UN.

In an apparent act of retaliation, the gang launched an attack on Pont Sonde. The UN describes gang members as firing “indiscriminately at houses” along the road to the checkpoint, killing at least 100 people and wounding 16. They also set 45 houses and 34 vehicles on fire.

The chaos forced more than 6,270 people to flee Pont Sonde for their safety, contributing to an already dire crisis of internal displacement.

The UN notes that, as of June, more than 92,300 people were displaced from the Artibonite department, and 147,000 from Centre — a 118-percent increase over that department’s statistics from December.

Overall, nearly 1.3 million people have been displaced throughout the country.

The massacre at Pont Sondé prompted a backlash, with security forces briefly surging to the area. But that presence was not sustained, and Gran Grif has begun to reassert its control in recent months.

Meanwhile, the report documents a wave of reprisal killings, as vigilante groups answered the gang’s actions with violence of their own.

Around December 11, for instance, the UN noted that the gangs killed more than 70 people near the town of Petite-Riviere de l’Artibonite, and vigilante groups killed 67 people, many of them assumed to be relatives or romantic partners of local gang members.

Police units are also accused of committing 17 extrajudicial killings in that wave of violence, as they targeted suspected gang collaborators. The UN reports that new massacres have unfolded in the months since.

In the Centre department, a border region where gangs operate trafficking networks, similar acts of retaliation have been reported as the gangs and vigilante groups clash for control of the roads.

One instance the UN chronicles from March involved the police interception of a minibus driving from the city of Gonaives to Port-au-Prince. Officers allegedly found three firearms and 10,488 cartridges inside the bus, a fact which sparked concern and uproar among residents nearby.

“Enraged, members of the local population who witnessed the scene lynched to death, using stones, sticks, and machetes, two individuals: the driver and another man present in the vehicle,” the report said.

Haiti has been grappling with an intense period of gang violence since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021. Criminal networks have used the resulting power vacuum to expand their presence and power, seizing control of as much as 90 percent of the capital.

A transitional government council, meanwhile, has struggled to re-establish order amid controversies, tensions and leadership turnover. The council, however, has said it plans to hold its first presidential election in nearly a decade in 2026.

Meanwhile, Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, warned that civilians will continue to suffer as the cycle of violence continues.

“Caught in the middle of this unending horror story are the Haitian people, who are at the mercy of horrific violence by gangs and exposed to human rights violations from the security forces and abuses by the so-called ‘self-defence’ groups,” he said.

State Department head Rubio said he had sanctioned several senior officials and their ‘cronies’ for their ‘brutality toward the Cuban people’.

The US State Department has imposed sanctions on senior Cuban officials, including President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced as he marked the fourth anniversary of a brutal crackdown on historic antigovernment protests.

In a post on X, Rubio said the State Department would be “restricting visas for Cuban regime figureheads”, including President Diaz-Canel, Defence Minister Alvaro Lopez Miera, Interior Minister Lazaro Alberto Alvarez Casas, and their “cronies” for their “role in the Cuban regime’s brutality toward the Cuban people”.

Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, also announced that the State Department has added the Torre K hotel to its restricted list of entities in order to “prevent US dollars from funding the Cuban regime’s repression”.

The Cuban government has promoted the luxury high-rise Torre K in central Havana as a symbol of modernisation. But the government has faced criticism for its large investment in luxury hotels amid a severe economic crisis in the nominally socialist one-party state.

“While the Cuban people suffer shortages of food, water, medicine, and electricity, the regime lavishes money on its insiders,” Rubio said.

Ten other “regime-linked properties” were also added to the State Department’s List of Prohibited Accommodations, it said in a statement.

The statement said the sanctions were being enacted in “solidarity with the Cuban people and the island’s political prisoners”, citing the Cuban government’s brutal crackdown on the July 2021 demonstrations – the largest since the Cuban revolution in the 1950s.

The police crackdown resulted in one death and dozens of wounded protesters.

“Four years ago, thousands of Cubans peacefully took to the streets to demand a future free from tyranny. The Cuban regime responded with violence and repression, unjustly detaining thousands, including over 700 who are still imprisoned and subjected to torture or abuse,” the State Department said.

Rubio also accused Cuba of torturing pro-democracy activist Jose Daniel Ferrer, whose bail was revoked as he was taken into custody alongside fellow dissident Felix Navarro in April.

“The United States demands immediate proof of life and the release of all political prisoners,” Rubio said.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez slammed the latest measures as part of a “ruthless economic war” being waged by the administration of US President Donald Trump.

“The USA is capable of imposing migratory sanctions against revolutionary leaders and maintaining a prolonged and ruthless economic war against Cuba, but it lacks the ability to break the will of these people or their leaders,” he said on X.

In January, then-US President Joe Biden had removed Cuba from the blacklist of countries sponsoring terrorism.

But Trump returned the country to the blacklist immediately after returning to the White House as he resumed his “maximum pressure” campaign against Cuba that typified his foreign policy during his first term.

United States President Donald Trump’s newly announced tariffs of 50 percent on Brazilian imports could drive up beef prices for US consumers.

Unless the White House delays or reverses course, the tariffs are set to take effect on August 1.

After China, the US is the second-largest importer of Brazilian beef. Brazil is currently the fifth-largest source of foreign beef for the US, and its share has grown in the past year, accounting for 21 percent of all US beef imports.

That surge has been driven by domestic supply challenges, including widespread droughts and rising grain costs. In fact, imports doubled in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2024 including because of the threat of upcoming tariffs.

Analysts say should the tariff go into place, it will hit importers of ground beef, commonly used in hamburgers, particularly hard.

“They [US beef importers] will either have to pay the higher cost of Brazilian beef or obtain it from other higher-cost sources. That could lead to higher prices for certain beef products, particularly ground beef and hamburger meat. This comes at a time when the US cattle herd is at the lowest level in many decades, demand for beef is strong, and as a result beef prices are up,” David Ortega, a food economist and professor at Michigan State University, told Al Jazeera.

The 50 percent tariff would bring the rate on Brazilian beef to about 76 percent for the rest of the year, Reuters news agency reported, citing livestock analysts.

Some domestic trade groups, including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), have praised the White House for the looming tariffs.

“NCBA strongly supports President Trump holding Brazil accountable with a 50 percent tariff,” NCBA Executive Director of Government Affairs Kent Bacus said in a statement provided to Al Jazeera. “For many years, NCBA has called for full suspension of imported Brazilian beef due to their abysmal lack of accountability on cattle health and food safety. Brazil’s failure to report cases of atypical BSE [a neurological disease affecting cattle] and their history of [foot and mouth disease] is a major concern for America’s cattle producer.

“A 50 percent tariff is a good start, but we need to suspend beef imports from Brazil so we can conduct a thorough audit and verify Brazil’s claims [of safety and health practices].”

In the 2024 election cycle, almost 95 percent of the political action committee representing the NCBA’s donations went to Republican candidates, according to OpenSecrets.

Rising costs

The tariffs come as the US is already facing a decline in domestic beef production and increased reliance on imported beef. There are already other strains on the US beef market because livestock imports from Mexico are at a standstill following new health concerns — the spread of a flesh-eating parasite called a screwworm. At the same time, imports from Brazil were down in June on the back of the 10 percent tariffs the White House imposed in April across all countries while they each negotiated their trade deal with the US.

“Domestic beef producers may benefit in the short term from reduced competition. However, producers are facing high input costs and weather-related challenges that limit their ability to expand quickly,” Ortega added.

Farmers in the US also have the smallest cattle herds in more than 70 years, and production is expected to decrease further by two percent by the end of the year.

Because of pains in domestic supply, imports doubled in the first five months of the year compared to the same period last year. That began to decline last month as a result of the 10 percent blanket tariffs.

Robert Perosa, president of Brazilian Beef Exporters Associations (ABIEC), an industry trade group, told reporters that the new tariffs would make it  “economically unfeasible” to continue to export to the US market.

The move will raise costs for restaurants across the US.

“Dramatic tariff increases could affect menu planning and food costs for restaurants as they attempt to find new suppliers,” Sean Kennedy, executive vice president of public affairs at the National Restaurant Association, said in a statement provided to Al Jazeera. “As we have said from the outset, our industry relies on a steady supply of imported goods that cannot be produced here in the US, and we urge the Trump administration to pursue policies that will secure fair trade agreements.”

Al Jazeera reached out to the largest fast food restaurant chains in the US, including McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Sonic Drive-In and Jack in the Box, but none responded.

JBS and Marfrig, two of Brazil’s largest beef producers, also did not reply to a request for comment.

Markets respond

Stock markets have been relatively muted in their response to Trump’s tariff announcements this week. At the market close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 0.6 percent, and the S&P 500 is down 0.33 percent for the day. The Nasdaq Composite Index is down 0.2 percent.

JBS, which also has substantial beef production operations in the US, made a $200m  investment earlier this year to expand two facilities in the US. The company’s stock is up 0.4 percent for the day despite the challenges the tariffs will pose to its Brazilian beef business. Marfrig is down 3.98 percent for the day, although this comes as the company postponed a shareholder meeting for the second time for an unrelated pending acquisition of a poultry and pork processor.

In a provocative move that fuses foreign policy with ideological allegiance, United States President Donald Trump has threatened to impose a 50 percent tariff on all Brazilian exports, effective August 1, 2025. The announcement came in a letter posted on social media, in which Trump explicitly linked the proposed tariffs to two ongoing domestic issues in Brazil: the judicial proceedings against far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro – whom Trump described as the victim of a political “witch-hunt” – and recent rulings by the Brazilian Supreme Court against US-based social media companies, including former Trump ally Elon Musk’s X. By doing so, Trump has escalated a trade dispute into a direct attempt to influence Brazil’s internal affairs – using economic pressure to serve political ends and undermining the country’s sovereignty in the process.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva responded swiftly and unequivocally: “Brazil is a sovereign nation with independent institutions and will not accept any form of tutelage,” he declared, adding that Brazil’s judiciary is autonomous and not subject to interference or threat. Under Brazilian law, digital platforms are obligated to monitor and remove content that incites violence or undermines democratic institutions, and they may be held legally accountable when they fail to do so.

While a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian exports might appear economically devastating, it could in fact become a strategic turning point – and even a blessing in disguise. Brazil has both the resilience and the diplomatic tools to weather this storm and emerge stronger.

The United States is one of Brazil’s largest trading partners, typically ranking second after China – or third if the European Union is considered as a single bloc. Brazilian exports to the US include industrial goods such as Embraer aircraft, iron and steel, crude oil, coffee and semiprecious stones, alongside agricultural products like beef, orange juice, eggs and tobacco. In return, Brazil imports large quantities of US-manufactured goods, including machinery, electronics, medical equipment, chemicals and refined petroleum. Notably, the US has maintained a trade surplus with Brazil for the past five years.

Should Washington proceed with the 50 percent tariffs, Brasília has several retaliatory options under its Economic Reciprocity Law. These include raising import tariffs on US goods, suspending clauses in bilateral trade agreements, and – in exceptional cases such as this – withholding recognition of US patents or suspending royalty payments to American companies. The impact on US consumers could be immediate and tangible, with breakfast staples like coffee, eggs and orange juice spiking in price.

Brazil is not without friends or alternatives. The country has already been deepening ties with fellow BRICS members (China, India, Russia, South Africa) and newer partners in the bloc. This dispute only strengthens the case for accelerating such integration. Diversifying export markets and embracing South-South cooperation isn’t just ideological; it’s economically pragmatic.

Closer to home, the tension presents an opportunity to reinvigorate South American integration. The long-held regional dream of enhanced collaboration – from trade to infrastructure – could gain new momentum as Brazil reassesses its global alignments. This realignment could breathe life into stalled Mercosur bloc initiatives and reduce dependence on an increasingly erratic relationship with the US.

Ironically, Trump’s aggressive move may weaken his ideological allies in Brazil. While Bolsonaro supporters (including members of his family) have praised the US president’s intervention, they may be missing its broader political consequences. Trump’s past influence abroad has often backfired, with right-wing candidates in countries like Canada and Australia paying the price. A similar outcome in Brazil is not unthinkable. Lula, who has consistently positioned himself as a pragmatic, diplomatic and stabilising global figure, may gain political ground from this latest episode. His defence of sovereignty, democratic institutions and balanced international relations could resonate more deeply with Brazilian voters ahead of next year’s elections.

This moment need not be seen as a crisis. Rather, it presents a pivotal opportunity for Brazil to assert itself as a sovereign economic power – less reliant on Washington and more engaged with an emerging multipolar global order. If Lula navigates it wisely, Trump’s latest provocation may deliver not only a diplomatic win but a significant boost to his re-election prospects. In attempting to punish Brazil, Trump may well have undercut both his foreign policy ambitions and his ideological allies abroad.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Lawyers for victims of human rights abuses committed during Peru’s decades-long armed conflict have pledged to appeal to international bodies to overturn a law passed by the country’s Congress, which would grant amnesty to prosecuted military and police members, as well as other forces.

“We’re not only going to the domestic arena to seek its invalidation, but we’ve already taken some action at the international level,” lawyer Gloria Cano, director of the Pro Human Rights Association, said during a news conference on Thursday.

A congressional commission on Wednesday approved the bill granting amnesty to members of the armed forces, national police and local self-defence committees, said legislator Alejandro Cavero, third vice president of the country’s Congress.

Cano also said her association had already alerted the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and planned to go to the United Nations, as well.

After the Peruvian Congress passed the bill, Volker Turk, the UN’s national human rights coordinator, said on X that “impunity does not hide the crime, it magnifies it.”

Amnesty International earlier urged the legislature to side with victims and reject the bill. “The right to justice of thousands of victims of extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, torture, and sexual violence would be violated,” the rights group said on X.

A coalition of human rights organisations in Peru said the new law could wipe out 156 convictions and another 600 cases that are being prosecuted.

The law, which awaits President Dina Boluarte’s approval, benefits uniformed personnel who were accused, are still being investigated or are being tried for crimes stemming from their participation in the country’s armed conflict from 1980 to 2000 against left-wing rebels. Boluarte has not made any comment on the amnesty, even before its passage.

The bill was presented by Congressman Fernando Rospigliosi, from the right-wing Popular Force party of Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the late former leader Alberto Fujimori.

Fujimori’s decade as president from 1990 was marked by ruthless governance.

He was jailed for atrocities – including the massacre of civilians by the army – but released from prison in 2023 on humanitarian grounds.

The new law specifies that a humanitarian amnesty will be granted to people more than 70 years old who have been sentenced or served a prison sentence.

Critics have warned that the legislation would hinder the search for truth about the period of violent conflict, which pitted state forces against Shining Path and Tupac Amaru rebels, and killed about 70,000 people.

“Granting amnesty to military and police officers cannot be a reason for impunity,” Congressman Alex Flores of the Socialist Party said during debate on the bill.

There have been numerous attempts in recent years to shield the military and police from prosecution in Peru for crimes committed during the conflict – but opponents of amnesty have found success before at international bodies.

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has at least twice previously declared amnesty laws in Peru invalid for violating the right to justice and breaching international human rights standards.

Human rights advocates believe that Peru’s membership of the Inter-American System of Human Rights and the obligations this entails make the amnesty law unconstitutional.

Amnesty laws passed in 1995 in Peru shielded military and police personnel from prosecution for human rights abuses committed during the conflict, including massacres, torture, and forced disappearances.

Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that the majority of the conflict’s victims were Indigenous Peruvians caught between security forces and the Shining Path. It also found that there are more than 4,000 clandestine graves across the country as a result of the two decades of political violence.

In August 2024, Peru adopted a statute of limitations for crimes against humanity committed before 2002, shutting down hundreds of investigations into alleged crimes committed during the conflict.

The initiative benefitted the late Fujimori and 600 prosecuted military personnel.

Protesters in Brazil burned an effigy of Donald Trump as they gathered to condemn 50% US tariffs announced for Brazilian goods, which Trump has linked to the coup trial of his political ally former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro.

Ovidio Guzman Lopez plans to change his not guilty plea during a hearing after arrest in 2023.

A son of the infamous Mexican drug cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is expected to plead guilty in a wide-ranging United States drug trafficking case at a court hearing in Chicago.

Court records for Ovidio Guzman Lopez indicate he intends to change his not-guilty plea as part of a deal with federal prosecutors at the hearing on Friday.

If confirmed, it would be the first time one of El Chapo’s sons has struck such an agreement.

Federal prosecutors allege that Ovidio and his brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, who became known locally as Los Chapitos, led a powerful faction of the notorious Mexican Sinaloa cartel.

They are accused of masterminding a major fentanyl trafficking operation that funnelled what prosecutors described as a “staggering” amount of the synthetic opioid into the US. The US has suffered a major opioid crisis in the last few decades, which has resulted in large numbers of deaths, addiction, and lawsuits.

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is currently serving a life sentence in a US federal prison following a 2019 conviction. After his capture, Ovidio Guzman Lopez and his siblings reportedly took on key leadership roles within the cartel.

Ovidio Guzman Lopez was arrested by Mexican authorities in early 2023 and extradited to the US months later. He originally pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges.

His brother, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, and longtime cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada were arrested in Texas in 2024 after arriving on a private plane. Both men have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges.

Their high-profile capture set off a wave of violence across Sinaloa as rival factions scrambled for control, vying for control of routes used to produce and transport narcotics, including fentanyl, that are often destined for the US.

The groups are split between members loyal to the Sinaloa Cartel cofounders, “El Chapo” Guzman and Zambada.

Former leader accused of using a broker married to his personal secretary to secure government insurance policies.

Argentina’s former President, Alberto Fernandez, has been ordered to stand trial for alleged corruption related to insurance policies taken out by the government for the public sector during his 2019-2023 term.

Fernandez will be prosecuted for “negotiations incompatible with the exercise of public office”, according to Judge Sebastian Casanello’s ruling published in Argentinian media on Thursday, and confirmed by the former leader’s lawyer, Mariana Barbitta.

The 66-year-old stands accused of fraudulent administration over his government’s use of brokers – one of whom allegedly had ties to his office – to contract insurance policies that could have been negotiated directly.

The judge noted in his order that in December 2021, in the middle of his presidency, Fernandez issued a decree that forced the entire public sector to contract exclusively with Nacion Seguros SA, an insurance company then led by Alberto Pagliano, a friend of Fernandez.

It resulted in a boon and tremendous growth for the company.

The main broker of the deal was allegedly the husband of Fernandez’s personal secretary.

The court ordered a freeze on about $10m of Fernandez’s assets as the case proceeds, according to Thursday’s ruling.

Some 33 other people are also named in the case. Fernandez did not immediately comment on the case.

Fernandez did not seek re-election after serving a single term, handing the keys of the presidential palace to self-described “anarcho-capitalist” President Javier Milei in December 2023.

The corruption allegations emerged when a court ordered an examination of his secretary’s phone while investigating assault claims made against Fernandez by his ex-partner Fabiola Yanez.

Yanez filed a complaint accusing Fernandez of having beaten her during their relationship, which ended after he left office.

He faces a separate trial on charges of domestic abuse.

Fernandez’s leftist Peronist movement, which dominated Argentinian politics for most of the country’s post-war history, has been dogged by allegations of corruption.

Ex-President Cristina Kirchner, another senior Peronist, is serving a six-year sentence under house arrest after being convicted of fraud involving public works contracts awarded during her two terms.

The US has closed its ports of entry to Mexican cattle for fear of the parasitic, flesh-eating worm spreading north.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has denounced a decision by the United States to once again suspend imports of her country’s cattle over a flesh-eating parasite called the screwworm.

On Thursday, Sheinbaum used her morning news conference to call fears of the worm overblown. She pointed out that a single case in the eastern state of Veracruz had prompted the import pause.

“From our point of view, it is a totally exaggerated decision to close the border again,” Sheinbaum said.

At the centre of the cross-border debate is the New World screwworm, a species endemic to the Caribbean and parts of South America. It had previously been eradicated from the northernmost part of its range, in Central and North America.

The US, for instance, declared it eliminated from the country in 1966.

But the parasite may be making a comeback, leaving the US government alarmed about its potential impact on its cattle and beef sector, a $515bn industry.

The New World screwworms appear when a variety of parasitic flies, Cochliomyia hominivorax, lay their eggs near wounds or sores on warm-blooded animals. Most commonly, its hosts are livestock like horses or cattle, but even household pets or humans can be infested.

Each female fly is capable of laying hundreds of eggs. When the eggs hatch, they release larvae that tunnel into the flesh of their hosts, often causing incredible pain.

Unlike maggots from other species, they do not feed on dead flesh, only living tissue. If left untreated, infestations can sometimes be deadly.

The fear of New World screwworms expanding northwards has caused the US to halt shipments of Mexican cattle several times over the past year.

In late November, it put in place a ban that lasted until February. Then, on May 11, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the US would once again bar entry to Mexican cattle after the “unacceptable northward advancement” of the bug.

A port of entry in Arizona was slated to reopen to Mexican cattle starting on Monday. But that plan was suspended under a new announcement on Wednesday, which implemented the cattle ban once more, effective immediately.

“The United States has promised to be vigilant — and after detecting this new NWS [New World screwworm] case, we are pausing the planned port reopening’s to further quarantine and target this deadly pest in Mexico,” Rollins said in a statement.

The statement explained that the US hopes to eradicate the parasite, pushing its encroachment no further than the Darien Gap, the land bridge in Panama that connects South and Central America.

It also asserted that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) was “holding Mexico accountable by ensuring proactive measures are being taken”.

Part of its strategy will be to release male flies — lab-raised and sterilised through radiation — from airplanes in Mexico and the southern US. Female flies can mate only once, so if they pair with a sterile fly, they will be unable to reproduce.

The same strategy has been deployed in the past to control the New World screwworm, as an alternative to more hazardous methods like pesticides that could affect other animals.

In a social media post on June 30, Rollins touted gains in recent weeks, including “over 100 million sterile flies dispersed weekly” and “no notable increase” in screwworm cases in eight weeks.

She thanked her Mexican counterpart, Julio Berdegue, for his help.

“He and his team have worked hand in hand with our @USDA team since May 11 to get these ports reopened. We are grateful,” she wrote.

United States President Donald Trump has continued to publish letters announcing individualised tariff hikes for foreign trading partners.

But on Wednesday, one of those letters was different from the rest.

While most of the letters are virtually identical, denouncing trade relationships that are “far from reciprocal”, Trump’s letter to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took a decidedly more personal — and more confrontational — approach.

“Due in part to Brazil’s insidious attacks on Free Elections, and the fundamental Free Speech Rights of Americans”, Trump wrote that he would be charging Brazil an extra 50-percent tax on any goods it exports to the US, separate from existing “sectoral tariffs”.

“Please understand that the 50% number is far less than what is needed to have the Level Playing Field we must have with your Country,” Trump added. “And it is necessary to have this to rectify the grave injustices of the current regime.”

The letter marked the biggest attack yet in Trump’s escalating feud with Lula, as he seeks to pressure Brazil to drop criminal charges against a fellow far-right leader, Jair Bolsonaro.

Known as the “Trump of the Tropics”, Bolsonaro, a former army captain, led Brazil for a single term, from 2019 to 2023.

Like Trump, Bolsonaro refused to concede his election loss to a left-wing rival. Like Trump, Bolsonaro also raised questions about the accuracy of the results, including by voicing doubts about electronic voting machines.

And like Trump, Bolsonaro has faced legal repercussions, with court cases weighing whether he could be criminally liable for alleged actions he took to overturn his defeat.

In Bolsonaro’s case, the election in question took place in October 2022, against the current president, Lula. The results were narrow, but Lula edged Bolsonaro out in a run-off race, earning 50.9 percent of the vote.

Still, Bolsonaro did not acknowledge his defeat and instead filed a legal complaint to contest the election results.

Meanwhile, his followers attacked police headquarters, blocked highways, and even stormed government buildings in the capital, Brasilia, in an apparent attempt to spark a military backlash against Lula.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, have accused Bolsonaro of conspiring with allies behind the scenes to stage a coup d’etat, one that might have seen Supreme Court justices arrested and a new election called.

According to the indictment, Bolsonaro, as the outgoing president, considered provoking these changes by calling a “state of siege”, which would have empowered the military to take action.

One of the other possibilities reportedly discussed was poisoning Lula.

Bolsonaro and 33 others were charged in February, and the ex-president’s case is ongoing before the Brazilian Supreme Court.

The charges came as the result of a federal police investigation published in November 2024, which recommended a criminal trial. Bolsonaro, however, has denied any wrongdoing and has framed the trial as a politically motivated attack.

Trump himself has faced two criminal indictments – one on the state level, the other federal – for allegedly seeking to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. He, too, called those cases attempts to derail his political career.

In recent days, Trump has highlighted what he sees as parallels between their cases. On July 7, he wrote on social media that he empathised with what was happening to Bolsonaro: “It happened to me, times 10.”

He reprised that theme in Wednesday’s letter, announcing the dramatic increase in tariffs against Brazil.

“The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his term, including by the United states, is an international disgrace,” Trump said.

“This trial should not be taking place,” he added. “It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!”

In addition to ramping up tariffs against Brazil, Trump revealed in his letter that he had directed US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to investigate Brazil for unfair practices under the Trade Act of 1974.

This is not the first time that Trump has lashed out at Brazil, though. In February, the Trump Media and Technology Group filed a Florida lawsuit against Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, arguing that his decisions curtailed online freedom of speech in the US.

De Moraes had also overseen the investigation into Bolsonaro’s alleged coup attempt, and he is a target of criticism among many on the far right.

While Trump’s tariff letter contained the standard language alleging that the US’s trading relationship with Brazil was “very unfair”, the US actually enjoys a trade surplus with the South American country.

According to the Office of the US Trade Representative, in 2024, the US imported a total of $42.3bn from Brazil. But that was dwarfed by the amount it exported to the country: $49.7bn.

In short, Brazil’s purchases from the US amounted to about $7.4bn more than US purchases from Brazil.

Still, Trump has cited uneven trade relationships as the motivation for his tariffs, though he has also used them to influence other countries’ policies, particularly with regards to immigration, digital services and transnational drug smuggling.

On Wednesday, Bolsonaro took to social media to once again proclaim his innocence. In a separate case, he was barred from holding public office in Brazil for a period of eight years.

“Jair Bolsonaro is persecuted because he remains alive in the popular consciousness,” the ex-president wrote in the third person. “Even out of power, he remains the most remembered name – and the most feared. That’s why they try to annihilate him politically, morally, and judicially.”

He also reposted a message from Trump himself: “Leave the Great Former President of Brazil alone. WITCH HUNT!!!”

Lula, meanwhile, responded to Trump’s previous tariff threats on Monday by saying, “The world has changed. We don’t want an emperor.”

The last time Marta saw her 14-year-old son was three months ago – he was wearing rebel army fatigues and holding a rifle as he marched down the street with the other child soldiers.

She ran to the commanding officer and begged him to release her boy, who had been abducted nine months earlier in the middle of the night from their home in eastern Colombia at age 13. The officer, part of a dissident group of the now-demobilised Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, waved her away, threatening to shoot her if she didn’t leave.

“All I do is pray and cry and cry and cry and ask God to get my boy out of there,” said Marta, who asked to remain anonymous in order to share her family’s experience safely.

The 40-year-old mother is not alone. Hundreds of mothers across Colombia have lost children to similar armed groups, either through abduction or coercion.

In its annual report for 2024, the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) warned that Colombia faces its worst humanitarian outlook since the 2016 peace deal with the FARC rebel group. It drew special attention to surging child recruitment by armed groups, finding that 58 percent of those living in conflict zones cited it as the top risk in their communities.

As Colombia’s long-running and complex conflicts continue to escalate, with multiple ceasefires and dialogues between the state and armed groups collapsing this year, criminal organisations increasingly rely on underage soldiers to bolster their ranks.

And there is little being done to stop them.

Marta said she is too afraid to report her son’s abduction to the authorities after the armed group made a clear threat when they took him: if she tells the police, they will execute her boy and then come for the rest of the family.

“I have to let him be. I tell myself he is in God’s hands, so as not to put my other children at risk … I have to leave everything in God’s hands,” Marta said. “I don’t sleep, I don’t eat. Sometimes I have no will to do anything, but I have three smaller children with me. And they need me, they need me.”

Gloria, a 52-year-old mother from eastern Colombia who also asked to remain anonymous, shared with Al Jazeera a similar story to Marta’s. In June, her 16-year-old son was taken in the middle of the night and forced to join another armed group.

“I’m desperate, I don’t know what to do,” she said.

Gloria found out about her son’s abduction after receiving a call from a distressed family member. They told her rebel fighters had forcibly entered the house where her son was staying and taken him away.

“They recruited him to fight, and the boy had never even touched a gun,” she said. “He doesn’t know what he’s doing, nothing. At home, we never had any sort of guns.”

Her family fled their rural hamlet in eastern Colombia earlier this year amid intense fighting between the National Liberation Army (ELN) and dissidents of the now-demobilised FARC.

But after arriving at a refugee shelter in the nearest city, they struggled to make ends meet.

Her son tried unsuccessfully to look for work in Bogota and, unable to join his mother at the shelter due to space, he returned to their family home.

“He had to go back [to our hometown], and there they took him by force,” Gloria said.

Unlike with Marta, Gloria’s son was returned home in late June following intense negotiation efforts by local community members and the ICRC.

From 2021 to 2024, officially documented child recruitments jumped by 1,000 percent, increasing from 37 to 409 – but the real number is likely much higher, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG).

“We’re seeing a generation of children lost into these networks of criminality for whom they bear little importance,” Elizabeth Dickinson, senior Colombia analyst at ICG, told Al Jazeera.

She authored a recent report detailing the scourge of child recruitment in Colombia. It found that minors are often given the most basic training before being sent to the front lines, used as cannon fodder to shield higher ranks.

“The casualty rates of kids in combat over the last year have been extremely high,” said Dickinson.

It is difficult to estimate how many child soldiers are killed annually since monitoring groups do not distinguish between civilian and soldier deaths when it comes to children.

However, according to the 2024 UN Secretary-General’s Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict, at least 14 of the 262 children (176 boys and 86 girls) recruited in 2023 were killed, though rights workers said this number is much higher.

“The majority of those children remain associated (136), 112 were released or escaped, and 14 were killed. Some 38 children were used in combat roles,” according to the report, which noted that one child was recruited on two separate occasions by different armed groups.

The report said 186 children were recruited by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP) dissident groups, 41 by the National Liberation Army (ELN), and 22 by the Gulf Clan (also known as Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia).

“According to the Colombian Family Welfare Institute, 213 children formerly associated with armed groups entered its protection programme,” it said.

As a result, families who lose children to recruitment endure unbearable pain, fearing that their child may be dead or injured.

By force or coercion

While cases of forced recruitment are far too common, in most cases, minors “voluntarily” enlist to fight after being lured in with false promises, according to ICG’s Dickinson.

“We’re talking about armed and criminal groups winding a fantastical tale to these children that it sounds so much better than their normal life, that they leave of their own volition,” said Dickinson.

Groups use TikTok, WhatsApp and Facebook to sell a glamourised image of life in arms, according to Dickinson. Boys are targeted with videos showing flashy motorbikes, guns and money. The armed groups target young girls by luring them with promises of romance, empowerment, education and in some cases, even cosmetic surgery.

But children face a very different reality after enlisting and are used by senior-ranking members to do their dirty work. Seen as more pliable, minors are given tasks like dismembering bodies or patrolling remote jungle areas for days on end. Child sexual abuse is also rampant.

“All [child recruitment] is forced even if it wasn’t done using force, even if it wasn’t through coercion,” said Hilda Molano, coordinator at the Coalition Against the Involvement of Children and Young People in the Armed Conflict in Colombia (COALICO).

COALICO provides assistance to families and children affected by recruitment and helps compile official data on the phenomenon. Molano says the number of cases officially registered and verified is likely less than 10 percent of the reality.

She said child recruitment is at its worst level since 2009, when the decimated FARC rebels sought to recoup lost manpower.

“It is a cultural problem that transcends the boy and the girl of today,” Molano told Al Jazeera, citing historical cycles of conflict that have dogged Colombia for decades.

The COALICO coordinator described how violence has become normalised, and with it, the acceptance of illicit activities as a means of escaping poverty. Many of Colombia’s youth view joining an armed group as the only way to improve their quality of life and gain independence.

“Young people in Colombia have very few spaces where they feel like they have a voice, feel like they’re heard,” explained Dickinson.

With child recruitment rising, experts warn that stopping it is a mammoth task that would have to address poverty, armed conflict and cultural norms.

“We cannot save everyone. It’s a sad reality,” said Molano.

But that has not stopped her from fighting recruitment when she can; Molano believes that protecting children must start at the grassroots level.

“The solution lies in daily support, in the case-by-case, because otherwise, we don’t make a difference. In the masses we get lost,” explained Molano.

As with Marta, who still holds out hope that her son will return, hundreds of mothers across the country remain at the mercy of armed groups, praying to see their children healthy and living once again.

“I trust in God that he is alive. I also trust in [the group], that they will not harm him. You cannot imagine the agony that I have to live through,” said Marta.

The US imports roughly half of its copper needs each year, which is used in construction, transportation and electronics.

United States President Donald Trump has said he will announce a 50 percent tariff on copper, hoping to boost domestic production of a metal critical to electric vehicles, military hardware, the power grid and many consumer goods.

Trump told reporters at a White House cabinet meeting that he planned to make the copper tariff announcement later in the day, but did not say when the tariff would take effect.

“I believe the tariff on copper, we’re going to make 50 percent,” Trump said.

US Comex copper futures jumped more than 12 percent to a record high after Trump announced the planned tariff, which came earlier than the industry had expected, with the rate steeper.

After Trump spoke, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said in an interview on CNBC that the tariff would likely be put in place by the end of July or August 1. He said Trump would post details on his Truth Social media account sometime on Tuesday.

In February, the administration announced a so-called Section 232 investigation into US imports of the red metal. Such an investigation allows the US Department of Commerce to analyse the impact of an import on national security. The deadline for the investigation to conclude was November, but Lutnick said the review was already complete.

“The idea is to bring copper home, bring copper production home, bring the ability to make copper, which is key to the industrial sector, back home to America,” Lutnick said.

The National Mining Association declined to comment, saying it preferred to wait until details were released. The American Critical Minerals Association did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Copper is used in construction, transportation, electronics and many other industries. The US imports roughly half of its copper needs each year.

Copper supplies

Major copper mining projects across the US have faced strong opposition in recent years due to a variety of reasons, including Rio Tinto and BHP’s Resolution Copper project in Arizona and Northern Dynasty Minerals’s Pebble Mine project in Alaska.

Shares of the world’s largest copper producer, Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan, shot up nearly 5 percent in Tuesday afternoon trading. The company, which produced 1.26 billion pounds of copper in the US last year, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Freeport, which would benefit from US copper tariffs but worries that the duties would hurt the global economy, has advised Trump to focus on boosting US copper production.

Countries set to be most affected by any new US copper tariff would be Chile, Canada and Mexico, which were the top suppliers to the US of refined copper, copper alloys and copper products in 2024, according to US Census Bureau data.

Chile, Canada and Peru, three of the largest copper suppliers to the US, have told the Trump administration that imports from their countries do not threaten US interests and should not face tariffs. All three have free trade deals with the US.

Mexico’s Secretariat of Economy, Chile’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Canada’s Department of Finance did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Chile’s Mining Ministry and Codelco, the country’s leading copper miner, declined to comment.

A 50 percent tariff on copper imports would affect US companies that use the metal because the country is years away from meeting its needs, said Ole Hansen, the head of commodity strategy at Saxo Bank.

“The US has imported a whole year of demand over the past six months, so the local storage levels are ample,” Hansen said. “I see a correction in copper prices following the initial jump.”

The 17th BRICS summit is being held in Brazil, again aiming to balance Western economic power and political dominance.

But as the meetings take place, eyes are on the US and President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, perhaps showing America still holds the cards.

While the host nation Brazil condemns Israel’s aggression and NATO’s increased defence spending, other countries are not so outspoken.

And two important faces are not attending – Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

So does BRICS still have a cohesive purpose?

Has the grouping made tangible achievements over the years since it launched in 2009?

And what can it realistically hope to do, in today’s world?

Presenter:

James Bays

Guests:

Gustavo Ribeiro – Founder and editor-in-chief of The Brazilian Report

Sergey Markov –  Director at the Institute of Political Studies in Moscow and former public spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin

Jayant Menon – Former lead economist at Asian Development Bank and visiting senior fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore

United States President Donald Trump has taken to social media to defend his fellow right-wing leader, Jair Bolsonaro, the former Brazilian president who faces criminal charges for allegedly plotting a coup d’etat.

On Monday, Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, that Bolsonaro’s indictment was an example of political persecution.

“Brazil is doing a terrible thing on their treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro,” Trump said.

“I have watched, as has the World, as they have done nothing but come after him, day after day, night after night, month after month, year after year! He is not guilty of anything, except having fought for THE PEOPLE.”

Trump went on to compare his own legal troubles to Bolsonaro’s. Both leaders have been accused of trying to undermine their country’s elections, following losses.

In Trump’s case, the accusations concern his 2020 race against Democrat Joe Biden. Though Trump lost, prosecutors say he and his allies conspired to defraud voters by pressuring officials to say that he won. The lie culminated in an attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, as Trump’s supporters sought to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election results.

Trump later faced a federal indictment in Washington, DC, and a state-level indictment in Georgia over his actions. The federal charges, however, were dropped once he took office for a second term in January.

Bolsonaro, meanwhile, is facing criminal trial for allegedly masterminding a scheme to retain power after his 2022 election loss to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

In the lead-up to the election, Bolsonaro spread falsehoods about the accuracy of Brazil’s voting machines, and afterwards refused to publicly concede defeat. Thousands of his supporters likewise stormed government buildings in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, to protest the outcome.

Prosecutors say police unearthed evidence of a scheme wherein Bolsonaro and his allies plotted to hold onto power by means of a coup, one that would have seen Lula and other officials assassinated.

Both Trump and Bolsonaro have denied wrongdoing. In Monday’s posts, Trump said that both of their cases reflected a politically motivated “WITCH HUNT” designed to dim their popularity among voters.

“This is nothing more, or less, than an attack on a Political Opponent – Something I know much about! It happened to me, times 10,” Trump wrote. “The Great People of Brazil will not stand for what they are doing to their former President.”

He appeared to end his post with a call for Bolsonaro’s re-election: “The only Trial that should be happening is a Trial by the Voters of Brazil – It’s called an Election. LEAVE BOLSONARO ALONE!”

Bolsonaro, however, has been barred from running for office for eight years, a period which expires in 2030. Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court issued the punishment in a separate case in 2023 after it found Bolsonaro had abused his power by using government offices to spread doubt about the country’s voting machines.

Trump and Bolsonaro have long faced comparisons with one another. They both took office for a first term in 2017, and both lost their initial re-election attempt. Bolsonaro, a former army captain, has been referred to as the “Trump of the tropics”.

Critics have long speculated that Trump may seek to intervene in Brazil’s prosecution of the far-right leader through political pressure.

Earlier this year, for example, the Trump Media and Technology Group joined a lawsuit in Florida against Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, arguing that a recent decision from the judge amounted to the censorship of right-wing voices.

De Moraes has overseen the criminal case against Bolsonaro and is considered a target of ire for Brazil’s right.

In a social media response on Monday, President Lula indicated that Trump’s social media missive could be viewed as an attempt to interfere with the Brazilian justice system.

Though he mentioned neither Trump nor Bolsonaro by name, Lula, a left-wing leader, rejected the advice of those who sought to influence the ongoing trial from abroad.

“The defence of democracy in Brazil is a matter for Brazilians to deal with. We are a sovereign country. We do not accept interference or tutelage from anyone,” Lula wrote. “We have solid and independent institutions. No one is above the law. Especially those who threaten freedom and the rule of law.”

Bolsonaro, on the other hand, took to social media to thank Trump explicitly for his words of support.

“I thank the illustrious President and friend. You went through something similar. You were relentlessly persecuted, but you won for the good of the United States and dozens of other truly democratic countries,” Bolsonaro wrote, reflecting on how “happy” he was to see Trump’s note.

Bolsonaro used the occasion to once again proclaim his innocence and blast his political opponents as puppeteering the trial.

“This process to which I am responding is a legal aberration (Lawfare), clear political persecution,” he said.

The former president could face up to 40 years in prison if convicted.