Latin America

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The Colombian leader was filmed joining thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters outside UN headquarters in New York.

The United States Department of State has said it will revoke the visa of Colombian President Gustavo Petro, citing his “reckless and incendiary actions” in relation to a speech he gave to protesters outside the United Nations headquarters in New York City on Friday.

“Earlier today, Colombian president [Gustavo Petro] stood on a NYC [New York City] street and urged U.S. soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence,” the department said in a post on X.

The post did not provide specific details on Petro’s alleged offence, but footage circulated on social media showed the Colombian leader joining thousands of pro-Palestine protesters outside the UN building in Midtown Manhattan.

In one video clip, Petro can be heard saying his country plans to present a resolution to the UN seeking to establish an “army for the salvation of the world”.

In an unofficial translation of his speech to protesters, Petro said that world nations will contribute soldiers to the army, which will “enforce the orders of international justice” and must be “larger” than the US military.

“I ask all of the soldiers of the army of the US not to point their guns at humanity. Disobey the orders of Trump. Obey the orders of humanity,” the Colombian leader said.

Earlier today, Colombian president @petrogustavo stood on a NYC street and urged U.S. soldiers to disobey orders and incite violence.

We will revoke Petro’s visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions.

— Department of State (@StateDept) September 27, 2025

Huge protests took place outside the UN headquarters on Friday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on the fourth day of the UN General Assembly’s General Debate.

The Israeli leader delivered a bombastic speech as he told world leaders Israel must be allowed to “finish the job” in Gaza, where the Israeli army has been accused of perpetrating genocide, and lambasting Western states for their “disgraceful decision” to recognise a Palestinian state.

Petro’s office and Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the visa revocation from the Reuters news agency.

In a speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Petro also hit out at US President Donald Trump, saying the US leader was “complicit in genocide” in Gaza and called for “criminal proceedings” over US air attacks on boats in Caribbean waters that Washington has accused of trafficking drugs.

Petro’s social media profile on Friday showed he had reposted several video clips of himself speaking to the pro-Palestinian protesters in New York.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto has told the United Nations General Assembly that the United States has an “illegal and completely immoral military threat hanging over our heads”, as reports emerge that the US is planning to escalate attacks on the South American country.

Pinto told the gathering of UN member states on Friday in New York that his country was grateful for the support of governments and people “that are speaking out against this attempt to bring war to the Caribbean and South America”.

The minister claimed US threats towards his country were aimed at allowing “external powers to rob Venezuela’s immeasurable oil and gas wealth”.

He also accused Washington of using “vulgar and perverse lies” to “justify an atrocious, extravagant and immoral multibillion-dollar military threat”.

Earlier on Friday, US broadcaster NBC News reported that US military officials are drawing up plans to “target drug traffickers inside Venezuela” with air attacks, citing two unnamed US officials.

US President Donald Trump said last week that US forces had carried out a third strike targeting a vessel he said was “trafficking illicit narcotics”. At least 17 people have been killed in the three attacks.

Experts have cast doubt on the legality of US attacks on foreign boats in international waters, while data from both the UN and the US itself suggest that Venezuela is not a major source of cocaine coming into the US, as Trump has claimed.

In an address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump said of drug smugglers: ” To every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America, please be warned that we will blow you out of existence.”

By contrast, Colombian President Gustavo Petro used his UNGA address to call for a “criminal process” to be opened against Trump over the attacks on vessels in the Caribbean, which had killed Venezuelans who had not been convicted of any crime.

The US has so far deployed eight warships to international waters off Venezuela’s coast, backed by F-35 fighter jets sent to Puerto Rico, in what it calls an anti-drug operation.

Washington has also refused an appeal for dialogue from Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, whom the Trump administration has accused of drug trafficking – a claim Maduro has strenuously denied.

Maduro and his late predecessor, Hugo Chavez, had once been regular presences at the annual UNGA meetings taking place in New York, but Maduro did not come this year, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio describing him as a fugitive from justice over a US indictment on drug-trafficking allegations.

Back home in Venezuela, Maduro has called for military drills to begin on Saturday, to test “the people’s readiness for natural catastrophes or any armed conflict” amid US “threats”.

‘Our fishermen are peaceful’

Venezuelan fishers who spoke to the AFP news agency said that the US strikes on Venezuelan boats have made them fearful to venture too far from shore.

“It’s very upsetting because our country is peaceful, our fishermen are peaceful,” Joan Diaz, 46, told AFP in the northern town of Caraballeda.

“Fishermen go out to work, and they [the US] have taken these measures to come to our … workplace to intimidate us, to attack us,” he said.

Diaz said most fishers stay relatively close to shore, but that “to fish for tuna, you have to go very far, and that’s where they [the US forces] are.”

Luis Garcia, a 51-year-old who leads a grouping of some 4,000 fishermen and women in the La Guaira region, described the US actions as “a real threat”.

“We have nine-, 10-, 12-metre fishing boats against vessels that have missiles. Imagine the madness. The madness, my God!” he exclaimed.

“We keep contact with everyone … especially those who are going a little further,” he said.

“We report to the authorities where we are going, where we are, and how long our fishing operations will last, and we also report to our fishermen’s councils,” Garcia said.

But, Garcia added, they would not be intimidated.

“We say to him: ‘Mr Donald Trump, we, the fishermen of Venezuela … will continue to carry out our fishing activities. We will continue to go out to the Caribbean Sea that belongs to us.’”

Haiti’s transitional leader Laurent Saint-Cyr told the 80th UNGA Haiti faces a “modern-day Guernica,” with rampant killings, rapes, and mass hunger. He urged urgent, large-scale international action to defend democracy, protect children, and secure Haiti’s right to peace.

Paraguay is one of just 12 countries that maintains diplomatic ties with Taiwan, not China.

But is Beijing using unofficial channels to extend its influence into the South American nation?

In our three-year undercover investigation, we meet a shadowy Chinese businessman who says he is a proxy for Beijing, a claim that China denies.

Our undercover researchers reveal that the alleged middleman has his own agenda.

He is plotting to build a secret scam compound near the Paraguayan capital, a safe haven for Chinese crime bosses fleeing crackdowns in Southeast Asia.

In a special exclusive report, 101 East investigates China’s Paraguay connection.

You can read the full statements given to 101 East below:

MEXICO CITY — To help justify a sweeping deportation campaign, an extraordinary U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean and unprecedented strikes on boats allegedly trafficking drugs, President Trump has repeated a mantra: Tren de Aragua.

He insists that the street gang, which was founded about a decade ago in Venezuela, is attempting an “invasion” of the United States and threatens “the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.” Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump described the group as “an enemy of all humanity” and an arm of Venezuela’s authoritarian government.

According to experts who study the gang and Trump’s own intelligence officials, none of that is true.

While Tren de Aragua has been linked to cases of human trafficking, extortion and kidnapping and has expanded its footprint as Venezuela’s diaspora has spread throughout the Americas, there is little evidence that it poses a threat to the U.S.

“Tren de Aragua does not have the capacity to invade any country, especially the most powerful nation on Earth,” said Ronna Rísquez, a Venezuelan journalist who wrote a book about the gang. The group’s prowess, she said, had been vastly exaggerated by the Trump administration in order to rationalize the deportation of migrants, the militarization of U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, and perhaps even an effort to drive Venezuela’s president from power.

“It is being instrumentalized to justify political actions,” she said of the gang. “In no way does it endanger the national security of the United States.”

Before last year, few Americans had heard of Tren de Aragua.

The group formed inside a prison in Venezuela’s Aragua state then spread as nearly 8 million Venezuelans fled poverty and political repression under the regime of Nicolás Maduro. Gang members were accused of sex trafficking, drug sales, homicides and other crimes in countries including Chile, Brazil and Colombia.

As large numbers of Venezuelan migrants began entering the United States after requesting political asylum at the southern border, authorities in a handful of states tied crimes to members of the gang.

It was Trump who put the group on the map.

While campaigning for reelection last year, he appeared at an event in Aurora, Colo., where law enforcement blamed members of Tren de Aragua for several crimes, including murder. Trump stood next to large posters featuring mugshots of Venezuelan immigrants.

“Occupied America. TDA Gang Members,” they read. Banners said: “Deport Illegals Now.”

Shortly after he took office, Trump declared an “invasion” by Tren de Aragua and invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely used 18th century law that allows the president to deport immigrants during wartime. His administration flew 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador, where they were housed in a notorious prison, even though few of the men had documented links to Tren de Aragua and most had no criminal records in the United States.

In recent months, Trump has again evoked the threat of Tren de Aragua to explain the deployment of thousands of U.S. troops and a small armada of ships and warplanes to the Caribbean.

In July, his administration declared that Tren de Aragua was a terrorist group led by Maduro. That same month, he ordered the Pentagon to use military force against Latin American cartels that his government has labeled terrorists.

Three times in recent weeks, U.S. troops have struck boats off the coast of Venezuela that it said carried Tren de Aragua members who were trafficking drugs.

The administration offered no proof of those claims. Fourteen people have been killed.

Trump has warned that more strikes are to come. “To every terrorist thug smuggling poisonous drugs into the United States of America, please be warned that we will blow you out of existence,” he said in his address to the United Nations.

While he insists the strikes are aimed at disrupting the drug trade — claiming without evidence that each boat was carrying enough drugs to kill 25,000 Americans — analysts say there is little evidence that Tren de Aragua is engaged in high-level drug trafficking, and no evidence that it is involved in the movement of fentanyl, which is produced in Mexico by chemicals imported from China. The DEA estimates that just 8% of cocaine that is trafficked into the U.S. passes through Venezuelan territory.

That has fueled speculation about whether the real goal may be regime change.

“Everybody is wondering about Trump’s end game,” said Irene Mia, a senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think tank focused on global security.

She said that while there are officials within the White House who appear eager to work with Venezuela, others, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, are open about their desire to topple Maduro and other leftist strongmen in the region.

“We’re not going to have a cartel operating or masquerading as a government operating in our own hemisphere,” Rubio told Fox News this month.

Top U.S. intelligence officials have said they don’t believe Maduro has links to Tren de Aragua.

A declassified memo produced by the Office of Director of National Intelligence found no evidence of widespread cooperation between his regime and the gang. It also said Tren de Aragua does not pose a threat to the U.S.: “The small size of TDA’s cells, its focus on low-skill criminal activities and its decentralized structure make it highly unlikely that TDA coordinates large volumes of human trafficking or migrant smuggling.”

Michael Paarlberg, a political scientist who studies Latin America at Virginia Commonwealth University, said he believes Trump is using the gang to achieve political goals — and distract from domestic controversies such as his decision to close the investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Tren de Aragua, he said, is much less powerful than other gangs in Latin America. “But it has been a convenient boogeyman for the Trump administration.”

Colombian President Gustavo Petro told the UNGA the world must end the “genocide in Gaza,” blasting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the US, and Europe as genocidal. He also tied US strikes on Caribbean boats to wider abuses driven by racism and domination.

First day of high-level meeting to kick off with speeches from world leaders, including from Brazil, US, Turkiye, Qatar and France.

President Donald Trump has urged pregnant women to avoid taking Tylenol, pointing to an unproven claim that links the painkiller to autism.

Speaking from the Oval Office with Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, Trump claimed that acetaminophen, the main ingredient in Tylenol – also known as paracetamol in most parts of the world –  was “no good” and should only be used in pregnancy when there’s a high fever.

He then outlined steps his administration would take to restrict the use of the drug during pregnancy, in comments laced with unproven – and, in some cases, false – claims.

Here is what he said, and what the facts say, about the drug, autism and whether Cuba, as Trump claimed at one point, does not have autism.

What did Trump announce?

Trump opened the event by calling autism a “horrible, horrible crisis”.

“The meteoric rise in autism is among the most alarming public health developments in history. There’s never been anything like this,” Trump said, even though experts point out that the data on autism only captures increased diagnoses – not necessarily a rise in the incidence of autism itself.

Trump then laid out his administration’s plans to tackle the “crisis”.

“First, effective immediately, the FDA will be notifying physicians that the use of a – well, let’s see how we say that acetaminophen – is that OK? Which is basically commonly known as Tylenol during pregnancy, can be associated with a very increased risk of autism,” he said.

He went on to warn that Tylenol use during pregnancy should be avoided unless absolutely necessary.

“So taking Tylenol is not good. All right. I’ll say it. It’s not good. For this reason, they are strongly recommending that women limit Tylenol use during pregnancy unless medically necessary. That’s, for instance, in cases of extremely high fever, that you feel you can’t tough it out. You can’t do it. I guess there’s that.”

Trump then shifted to his broader concerns about vaccines, arguing against combination shots – like the MMR vaccine against measles, mumps and rubella – even though they have been proven to be safe in multiple rounds of research.

He also questioned giving newborns the hepatitis B vaccine.

“Hepatitis B is sexually transmitted. There’s no reason to give a baby that’s almost just born, hepatitis B. So I would say, wait till the baby is 12 years old and formed and take hepatitis B.”

Finally, Trump repeated a claim that countries without Tylenol, like Cuba, have little or no autism – framing it as evidence.

“I mean, there’s a rumour, and I don’t know if it’s so or not, that Cuba, they don’t have Tylenol because they don’t have the money for Tylenol. And they have virtually no autism, OK. Tell me about that one.”

President Donald J. Trump, @SecKennedy, @DrOzCMS, @NIHDirector_Jay, & @DrMakaryFDA announce the Autism Action Plan.

Make America Healthy Again. pic.twitter.com/1inEvIecYU

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 22, 2025

As with Trump’s other claims at the event, his assertion about Cuba doesn’t stand up to scrutiny – as we’ll get to in a bit.

But first …

What is autism?

Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a developmental condition that’s experienced by people in many different ways. In the United States, it’s recognised as a form of neurodivergence and disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), autism can shape how someone communicates, learns, and interacts with the world, often in ways that are simply different from most people.

Children diagnosed with autism can also have difficulties with social, emotional and communication skills. This can develop into traits that can affect interaction with others and difficulty in learning.

What causes autism?

Autism has been linked to a complex mix of genetic and developmental factors, and it looks different for every individual. Scientists have identified hundreds of genes that can play a role, either passed down from parents or appearing as new mutations during early brain development.

According to the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, certain environmental influences may increase autism risk, including:

• Advanced parental age
• Prenatal exposure to air pollution or certain pesticides
• Maternal obesity, diabetes or immune system disorders
• Extreme prematurity or very low birth weight
• Birth complications leading to periods of oxygen deprivation to the baby’s brain.

Is autism on the rise in the US?

At first look, that’s what the numbers would suggest.

Figures from the CDC show that in 2022, 1 in 31 eight-year-old children were identified with autism in the US, up from 1 in 149 in 2000.

According to the CDC, the condition is also about three times more common in boys than in girls.

Globally, estimates vary. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported in 2021 that about 1 in 127 people worldwide were living with autism. Similarly, a 2022 review of 71 studies found an average prevalence of about 1 percent.

These numbers have been cited by some, like supporters of US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, to argue that the US faces a particularly acute challenge with autism, and have been used to justify crackdowns on drugs like Tylenol.

But experts warn that the data might not necessarily agree with these assertions and the measures that the Trump administration is taking.

Why are the numbers going up?

First, say experts, comparing autism rates across countries is problematic because of differences in diagnostic practices, awareness and access to healthcare – all of which affect how prevalence is measured and reported.

The increased numbers in the US, they point out, only demonstrate a sharp rise in diagnoses – not necessarily a rise in the incidence of autism itself.

According to experts, there are two main factors behind the rise in autism diagnoses. First, the definition of autism has broadened as scientists have recognised its wide spectrum of traits and symptoms. This has led to updated diagnostic criteria and better screening tools.

At the same time, growing awareness has meant that more parents are seeking evaluations.

What about acetaminophen?

Acetaminophen (also known as paracetamol) is one of the most widely used over-the-counter pain relievers and fever reducers.

For more than a decade, researchers have studied whether acetaminophen use during pregnancy is linked to developmental disorders. Findings have been mixed: Some studies reported associations with autism, while a 2025 Mount Sinai review suggested evidence for broader neurodevelopmental risks.

But association is not the same as causation. The largest and most rigorous study to date, published in 2024, found no link between prenatal acetaminophen use and autism, ADHD, or other learning or developmental disorders. Experts note that the best-quality studies so far show no evidence of harm from acetaminophen.

According to the Autism Science Foundation, claims of a connection remain “limited, conflicting, and inconsistent”.

“The big reveal about autism was a total bust full of misinformation,” Arthur L Caplan, an American ethicist and professor of bioethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, told Al Jazeera.

“There is no data to show Tylenol causes autism and lots of data to show that fever in pregnant women harms the fetus,” he added.

To be sure, even without a Tylenol-autism link, most doctors “will probably tell pregnant women they should always be careful about medication”, Catherine Lord, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA who specialises in autism, told Al Jazeera.

But those doctors will likely also caution women not to avoid taking medicines when they have a fever during pregnancy, she said. “They also need to realise that having a high fever or being in pain is not good for a growing baby, either, so they should consult their doctor,” she added.

Have there been other claims about what causes autism?

Over the years, autism has been wrongly linked to many supposed causes. The most notorious was the false vaccine-autism link from a 1998 study, now fully debunked. That study claimed an association between the MMR vaccine – the same one that Trump targeted on Monday – and autism. The Lancet, the highly respected British journal that published that study, retracted it 12 years later, in 2010.

Other debated factors include prenatal medications or antidepressants, environmental toxins, and diet, but the evidence is weak or inconsistent. Earlier, the discredited “refrigerator mother” theory blamed parents who were perceived to lack adequate emotional warmth with their children for higher risks of autism.

And finally, is it true, as Trump claims, that autism does not exist in Cuba?

It’s untrue – and if anything, Cuba undercuts Trump’s argument.

Cuba officially recognises autism spectrum disorder (ASD). There are multiple specialised schools and paediatric clinics that provide diagnosis and therapy for children with autism.

In Cuba, acetaminophen is generally known as paracetamol and is sold in government pharmacies. In other words, it is very much available and used as in other parts of the world.

According to a 2022 study, Cuba had an autism incidence of about 2 to 4 per 10,000 children in some settings. While research on autism diagnoses in Cuba is much more limited than in the US, the data from the 2022 study shows a far lower rate of recognised cases than in the US – despite the presence of acetaminophen.

Brazil’s prosecutor general has charged federal lawmaker Eduardo Bolsonaro with coercion in a case linked to the one in which his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, was convicted for plotting a coup.

The younger Bolsonaro has “repeatedly sought to subordinate the interests of Brazil and the entire society to his own personal and family agenda”, the prosecutor general’s office said in a statement on Monday.

Eduardo Bolsonaro moved to the United States this year to seek support from President Donald Trump to stop criminal proceedings against his father and has claimed credit for pushing the White House to announce 50 percent tariffs on most Brazilian goods.

The lawmaker linked Monday’s charge to new sanctions imposed by the US on the wife of Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who presided over Jair Bolsonaro’s trial. His son called the staff of the prosecutor general’s office “Moraes’s lackeys”.

Eduardo Bolsonaro added that he received news of the “bogus accusation” from the media and would wait for the legal case to be communicated through official channels before making a formal statement.

Protesters are angry over bills that could grant Bolsonaro amnesty after a coup attempt and give lawmakers immunity.

Thousands of Brazilians have taken to the streets to protest against moves by the National Congress to boost lawmakers’ immunity and push for an amnesty that could include far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro, sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison on charges related to an attempted military coup.

Protesters in rallies in more than a dozen cities accused the conservative-majority Congress of putting its own interests above social and economic issues. Music legends Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque and Gilberto Gil – who defied censorship during the military dictatorship of the 1960s – reunited in Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana neighbourhood to perform a protest concert.

Aline Borges, a 34-year-old environmentalist who attended the protest in the capital, Brasilia, expressed her frustration at the political establishment. “We are here to protest this Congress, which is made up of criminals and corrupt people dressed as politicians, who are pushing for a law that protects them,” she told the AFP.

Calls for demonstrations grew after the lower house of parliament passed a constitutional amendment that would make it harder to arrest or launch criminal proceedings against lawmakers. Under the so-called “Shielding Bill”, lawmakers voting in a secret ballot must give the go-ahead for one of their own to be charged or arrested.

The following day, the lower house voted to fast-track a bill backed by right-wing opposition lawmakers – dubbed by critics as the “Bandit’s Bill” –  that could grant amnesty to Bolsonaro, his closest allies and hundreds of supporters convicted for their roles in the January 2023 uprising.

Both bills face an uphill battle in the Senate. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he would veto the amnesty bill.

Ahead of Bolsonaro’s Supreme Court trial on September 11, thousands of his supporters had rallied in his defence. The former president, who has denied any wrongdoing, is the first to be convicted of trying to overturn an election in Latin America’s largest economy.

Polls show the country remains deeply divided over his fate. According to a recent Datafolha poll, 50 percent of 2,005 respondents said Bolsonaro should be jailed, while 43 percent disagreed and 7 percent declined to answer.

Currently under house arrest, Bolsonaro faces up to 40 years in prison after being found guilty on five charges, including leading a “criminal organisation” to conspire to overthrow Lula. A detailed operational plan called “Green and Yellow Dagger” was identified, which included a plan to assassinate Lula.

Bolsonaro has maintained he will run for president in 2026, despite Brazil’s top electoral court barring him from running in elections until 2030 for spreading unfounded claims about Brazil’s electronic voting system.

Outburst comes after another US strike on alleged drugs vessel in Caribbean, as Maduro rallies to defend sovereignty.

United States President Donald Trump has threatened Venezuela with “incalculable” consequences if the country does not “immediately” take back immigrants he described as “prisoners” and “people from mental institutions”.

“GET THEM THE HELL OUT OF OUR COUNTRY, RIGHT NOW, OR THE PRICE YOU PAY WILL BE INCALCULABLE!” he said on his Truth Social platform on Saturday. He insisted that Venezuela had “forced” such people into the US and claimed without evidence that “thousands of people have been badly hurt, and even killed, by these ‘Monsters.’”

Trump’s latest outburst came amid soaring tensions, one day after he announced another strike against alleged drug vessels from Venezuela in the Caribbean that killed three men he described as “male narcoterrorists”.

Venezuela, for its part, has accused the US of waging an “undeclared war” in the Caribbean and called for a United Nations investigation into at least three strikes on boats that have killed a total of 17 people since the beginning of September.

Washington has deployed seven warships, a nuclear-powered submarine and F-35 stealth fighters to international waters off Venezuela’s coast, backed by F-35 fighters sent to Puerto Rico, in the biggest US naval deployment in the Caribbean.

Trump says the military is engaged in an anti-drug operation, but has not provided specific evidence to back up claims that the boats targeted so far had actually been trafficking drugs. Legal analysts have warned that the attacks amount to extrajudicial killings.

Reward offered for Maduro’s arrest

The deployment has stoked fears of an attack on Venezuelan territory, with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro repeatedly alleging the US is hoping to drive him from power.

Trump this week denied he was interested in regime change, but Washington last month doubled its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to $50m, accusing him of links to drug trafficking and criminal groups.

Maduro denies links between high-ranking authorities and drug gangs and pledged to mobilise more than four million militia fighters in response to US “threats” after Washington raised the reward for his arrest.

Maduro sent letter to Trump

Days after the first US strike on a boat from the South American country at the beginning of the month, Maduro offered to engage in direct talks with Washington, according to the Reuters news agency, which viewed a personal letter sent to Trump.

“President, I hope that together we can defeat the falsehoods that have sullied our relationship, which must be historic and peaceful,” Maduro wrote in the letter, calling for “direct and frank” talks to “overcome media noise and fake news”.

In a separate development on Saturday, Maduro’s YouTube channel disappeared from the video-sharing platform on Saturday, according to the AFP news agency.

“Without any justification, the YouTube channel was closed at a time when the US was fully implementing hybrid warfare operations against Venezuela,” AFP cited Telesur as saying on its website.

Brazil now joins Spain, Ireland, Mexico, Turkiye and others who have signed on to the case.

Brazil has formally joined the case launched by South Africa at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that alleges Israel is committing “genocide” in the Gaza Strip.

The Hague court confirmed in a statement on Friday that Brazil invoked Article 63 of the ICJ statute, filing a declaration of intervention in the case.

The article gives any United Nations member state the right to intervene in a case when the interpretation of a treaty to which it is a party is in question. Brazil used the article to formally recognize that Israel is violating the Genocide Convention of 1948.

South Africa and Israel are now invited to “furnish written observations on the declaration of intervention”, the World Court said.

The Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in July it intended to join the case, citing “impunity” that undermined international law as it denounced Israeli aggression in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Brazil now joins Spain, Ireland, Mexico, Turkiye and others who have intervened in favor of South Africa to join the case against Israel over the genocidal war, which has killed more than 65,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023.

COMMUNIQUÉ : le Brésil, se référant à l’article 63 du Statut de la #CIJ, a déposé une déclaration d’intervention en l’affaire #AfriqueduSud c. #Israël.

Lien vers le communiqué : https://t.co/7UW0uUrP8o pic.twitter.com/wGoQwUNRqC

— CIJ_ICJ (@CIJ_ICJ) September 19, 2025

The ICJ’s final verdict could still take several years to come, but the court issued an interim order in January 2024 that obliged Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza and allow for unimpeded access to humanitarian aid.

The court also ruled that Israel’s presence in occupied Palestinian territory is unlawful, and that its policies amount to annexation .

Ignoring those rulings, as well as mounting international condemnation of its conduct, Israel has since then destroyed far more of Gaza and West Bank, and is quickly advancing with plans to sixteen much of the Palestinian territory.

The United States and the European allies of Israel continue to arm and fund Israel, even as credible international bodies are increasingly recognizing that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza .

Washington has also rejected the merits of the ICJ case, and US legislators have directed threats and criticism against South Africa. The US has also issued unprecedented sanctions of members of the International Criminal Court (ICC), who have issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

President Claudia Sheinbaum has made history as the first woman to lead Mexico’s Independence Day celebrations in 215 years, delivering a resolute message against foreign intervention amid ongoing diplomatic pressure from the United States.

From the National Palace balcony in Mexico City, Sheinbaum presided over the traditional “grito” ceremony on Monday night, ringing the bell that symbolises the call to arms during Mexico’s 1810-21 independence struggle against Spain. While Independence Day is officially marked on September 16, the “grito” has been performed the evening before for more than a century.

During Tuesday’s military parade, Sheinbaum firmly declared, “No foreign power makes decisions for us.” Speaking before her cabinet and thousands of soldiers, she emphasised that “no interference is possible in our homeland”. Though she named no specific nation, her statement comes as the US government increases pressure on Mexico to combat drug cartels and enhance border security.

The Trump administration has offered to deploy US troops against cartels — some of which his government has designated as “terrorist” organisations — but Sheinbaum has consistently rejected such proposals.

Her administration has taken stronger action against cartels than her predecessor, extraditing numerous cartel figures to US authorities and highlighting reduced fentanyl seizures at the Mexico-US border. However, Sheinbaum maintains these efforts serve Mexico’s interests rather than responding to US pressure.

Sheinbaum, who assumed office in October, is Mexico’s first female president.

Convicted ex-leader rushed to a hospital in Brasilia after falling ill at his residence, his son says.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who was sentenced to prison last week for plotting a coup, has been rushed to hospital after falling ill while under house arrest, his son said.

The emergency visit on Tuesday is the 70-year-old former army captain’s second hospital visit since his conviction.

Bolsonaro has had recurring intestinal issues since he was stabbed while campaigning in 2018, including at least six related surgeries, including a 12-hour-long procedure in April. He won the election that year, and governed from 2019 to 2023.

“Bolsonaro felt unwell a short while ago, with a severe bout of hiccups, vomiting, and low blood pressure,” his son, Flavio, wrote on X.

“He was taken to DF Star [Hospital] accompanied by correctional police officers who guard his home in Brasília, as it was an emergency,” he wrote.

Bolsonaro visited the same hospital on Sunday, and had eight skin lesions removed and sent for biopsies.

A panel of Supreme Court justices on Thursday found the former leader guilty of plotting a coup after he lost the 2022 election to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

They sentenced him to 27 years and three months in prison.

The sentence, however, does not immediately send him to jail. The court panel has up to 60 days to publish the ruling after the decision, and once it does, Bolsonaro’s lawyers have five days to file motions for clarification.

Bolsonaro has denied wrongdoing and said he is the victim of political persecution. United States President Donald Trump has also called the trial a “witch-hunt”, and imposed tariffs of 50 percent on Brazilian goods, citing the case against Bolsonaro, among other issues.

The former Brazilian leader has been under house arrest since August for allegedly courting pressure on the courts from Trump. He had already been wearing an ankle monitor.

Separately on Tuesday, a federal court ordered Bolsonaro to pay 1 million reais ($188,865) in damages for collective moral harm stemming from racist comments he made while in office.

The inquiry originated from Bolsonaro’s statements to a Black supporter who approached him in May 2021 and asked to take a picture.

The former president joked, saying he was seeing a cockroach in the man’s hair. He also compared the man’s hairstyle with a “cockroach breeding ground”, implying the hair was unclean.

There was no immediate comment from his legal team after the latest court order.

His defence had previously told media outlets that the former leader’s remarks were intended as jokes rather than racist statements, denying any intent to cause offence.

Public opinion in Brazil, meanwhile, is split on Bolsonaro’s prison sentence on coup charges, and the far-right politician’s allies have laid out several plans to overturn or reduce the jail term.

In the Congress, they have rallied behind an amnesty bill, building on the campaign to free hundreds of his supporters who stormed and vandalised government buildings in January 2023.

Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas, a leading Bolsonaro ally, has also promised repeatedly to pardon the former leader if he were to become president in next year’s election. A court has barred Bolsonaro from running for office until 2030, though the former president insisted earlier this year that he would compete in the 2026 presidential election.

For his part, Lula, the incumbent president, has hailed the sentencing of Bolsonaro as a “historic decision” that followed months of investigations that uncovered plans to assassinate him, the vice president and a Supreme Court justice.

Bolsonaro’s conviction, he also said, “safeguards” Brazil’s institutions and the democratic rule of law.

On Thursday, a Brazilian Supreme Court panel found former President Jair Bolsonaro guilty of multiple charges, including leading a criminal group and attempting the violent overthrow of democratic rule. He was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison.

According to the prosecution, Bolsonaro and members of his cabinet and the military sought to orchestrate a coup after his electoral defeat in November 2022 and assassinate current president and political rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Brazil’s judiciary associated the former president’s actions with the events that led to the ransacking of the presidential palace, Congress and the Supreme Court in the capital Brasilia by his supporters in January 2023.

While the verdict was welcomed by other Latin American leaders like Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Chilean President Gabriel Boric, United States President Donald Trump’s administration, a staunch ally of Bolsonaro, swiftly condemned it. In the days leading up to the court panel’s verdict, Washington intensified pressure on Brazil’s government by imposing a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian goods and issuing personal sanctions against Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes under the Magnitsky Act, citing alleged human rights abuses.

But the Brazilian government and institutions were unshaken. Lula hailed the decision as “historic” and rejected US attempts of interference in Brazil’s internal affairs.

The verdict is indeed historic, not only because it marks the first time a Brazilian head of state was convicted on such charges but also because it demonstrates that despite Brazil’s tumultuous history, its democracy is a resilient, dynamic and adaptable system that works.

This may come as a surprise to some. After all, the country’s recent past reflects struggles with authoritarianism and repression. From the seven decades of imperial monarchy in the 19th century after independence from Portugal through the republican period, the revolution of 1930, the unstable parliamentarian regime, the military dictatorship during the Cold War and the impeachment of two presidents in the democratic era, Brazil could easily be labelled as an unstable and unpredictable state.

What is more, the country is situated in a region that has long known coups, dictatorships and authoritarianism, often backed or orchestrated by the US.

Brazil’s own military dictatorship was firmly supported by the US government. Washington encouraged and backed the military coup of 1964, which ushered in an era of bloody repression that would only end two decades later. And yet, the democratic system that followed proved resilient even when confronted with wrongdoing by political leaders.

In 1979, President Joao Baptista Figueiredo signed a law giving amnesty to both military personnel and opponents of the dictatorship in an attempt to pave the way for democratisation. It also served to cover up the military regime’s crimes and protect those responsible.

In 2021, Bolsonaro decided to break with this policy of amnesty for crimes against the state by signing legislation that criminalised coup attempts and attacks on democracy. It is this very provision that was used by the Supreme Court in its ruling against him.

This is not the only time Brazilian courts have used presidents’ own legislative agendas against them. In 2005 during Lula’s first term, the country was shaken by a major scandal of vote-buying in Congress. As part of his efforts to appease the public, the president enacted the Clean Record Law (Lei da Ficha Limpa) in 2010, which rendered any candidate convicted by a collective judicial body (more than one judge) ineligible to hold public office for eight years. In 2018, Lula himself was barred from running for president again under his own law due to a conviction for corruption.

But these are not the only examples of Brazilian democracy weathering political storms linked to its leaders. The country has been through two presidential impeachments without major shocks to the system. Right-wing President Fernando Collor (1990-1992) was removed from office due to corruption involving his campaign treasurer while left-wing President Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016) lost her position for manipulating the federal budget.

The removal of both leaders did not lead to institutional instability but instead paved the way for significant reforms. Among them are the Plano Real (Real Plan) of 1994, which finally brought inflation under control, and the labour reform of 2017, which established the primacy of employer-employee agreements over existing labour legislation.

Taken together, these examples show that Brazil’s political system derives institutional strength from the application of the rule of law across the ideological spectrum.

The Brazilian case calls for a reconsideration of the longstanding but inaccurate view that Latin America is a breeding ground for unstable and unpredictable democracies. It shows that institutions are functioning and demonstrate both modernity and adaptability.

Brazil thus offers a reference point for other democracies in the region and beyond.

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

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Last week, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was found guilty of attempting a coup and sentenced to just over 27 years in prison.

A panel of Supreme Court justices on Thursday found that the 70-year-old had sought to overthrow democracy and hang onto power despite his 2022 electoral defeat to current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Four out of five justices voted in favour of convicting Bolsonaro and his fellow defendants. Justice Luiz Fux, in the sole dissenting vote, said there was not enough evidence to find Bolsonaro guilty of attempting a coup.

The other justices ruled that the attempted coup began in 2021 when Bolsonaro began casting unfounded doubts about the reliability of Brazil’s electronic voting system. After Bolsonaro lost to Lula, efforts to maintain himself in office illegally accelerated, they said.

Bolsonaro’s alleged multipronged plan included a draft decree to suspend the election result, a meeting with Brazil’s top military commanders to ask for their support in a coup and a plot to assassinate Lula, Vice President-elect Geraldo Alckmin and Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who spearheaded the case against Bolsonaro.

On January 8, 2023, when Bolsonaro supporters ransacked the Supreme Court, the presidential palace and Congress a week after Lula’s inauguration, it was a last-ditch effort to force an army takeover, the court said.

Relations between Brazil and the United States are likely to further deteriorate after the ruling. US President Donald Trump imposed a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian goods in July, citing what he called a “witch-hunt” against Bolsonaro. After Bolsonaro’s conviction, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Trump’s government “will respond accordingly”.

In response, Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the government will continue to defend the country’s sovereignty “from aggressions and attempts at interference, no matter where they come from”.

As Brazilians brace for economic repercussions, many are wondering about the political ones as well. Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters took to the streets this month before the high court deliberations, leading to concerns of possible violence after a guilty verdict.

But after the sentencing announcement, the streets were mostly filled with delighted Bolsonaro opponents celebrating the outcome.

Whether Bolsonaro will be granted amnesty, win some sort of appeal or be made to serve an unprecedented sentence remains to be seen. On the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Al Jazeera spoke to Brazilians about how they viewed the verdict.

Sidney Santos, 50, taxi driver, lives in Rio’s Gloria neighbourhood

“I feel very indignant and revolted because it was a set-up. The left, along with Alexandre de Moraes and the entire Supreme Court, created this whole scheme to get Bolsonaro out of politics because he was strong.

“Trump’s tariff didn’t change anything because the outcome was already planned. Trump is pressuring other countries as well, but here, the current president didn’t sit down to negotiate.

“Unfortunately, there’s no democracy. The fake democracy they’re talking about, that they claim they’re fighting for, it’s all a lie because if you say something, if you go against their actions, then you’re going against democracy. This is a dictatorship of the robe.

“The left wants to collapse Brazil and turn Brazil into the next Venezuela. Things are only going to get worse.”

Lea Aparecida Gomes, 55, cleaner, lives in Rio’s northern zone Madureira

“Bolsonaro won’t be arrested. Here in Brazil, nothing works. If he really ends up in jail, then Brazil will start working.

“When Bolsonaro ran for the first time, I voted for him because I thought he was going to make the country better. I trusted him because he was part of the military, like my son is. But I was really disappointed. The pandemic was horrible. I think a lot of people died because of him. I lost a cousin to COVID. She was 44 years old. He kept delaying the vaccine.

“I think it’s just stupidity. A person over 70 years old could be living happily with the salary he already gets, but he wanted more. Well, I hope he’s happy in prison. He brought this on himself. He had so much and still wasn’t satisfied.”

Caio Eduardo Alves de Aquino, 21, works at a kiosk in Copacabana and lives in the Rocinha favela

“I don’t care about the conviction. I don’t know whether there was an attempted coup. Whether Bolsonaro is free or in prison, for me, it doesn’t matter. They are all the same.

“The least politicians could do is think about the future of the children. They always say that children are the future, but education is terrible. My mum says school was better in her time. Everything just keeps getting worse.

“Lula talks about education, about other things, but nothing improves. Nothing changes.”

Morena, 16, student

“When I found out Bolsonaro had been convicted, it was emotional. I felt a sense of justice finally being served after so many years enduring the Bolsonaro government and its absurdity. Pure irresponsibility during the pandemic – not buying vaccines, not wearing a mask as president. This led to over 500,000 deaths. And yes, he is guilty for that.

“There was an attempted coup on January 8. I believe Bolsonaro knew about it and supported it, and I think the 27-year sentence is justified.

“It’s a very important step. He is the first former president to be arrested for attempting a coup. But there’s still a lot that needs to be done. Many arrests are still missing, and there is still much justice to be served for various things that happened during, before and after Bolsonaro’s government.

“I think a lot about remarks in small interviews or comments by Bolsonaro himself, his sons, his friends. Racist remarks, homophobic remarks, things that are criminal. He hasn’t been judged or prosecuted for those because we’re in Brazil.

“There are many others who hold the same ideology and uphold the same values as he does. Bolsonarism is still very strong. So there’s still a lot left to do. This is just the beginning.”

Altair Lima, 50, public servant who lives in Sao Paulo state

“I don’t cheer for one side. I analyse technically and coldly because I’m not on one side or the other. I want what’s best for my country. I followed the trial every day. I agree with Justice Luiz Fux’s vote: The prosecutor general didn’t prove anything.

“Bolsonaro said a lot of things during the 2022 campaign, but when politicians are campaigning, they say whatever they want to win over voters. But never once did he fail to comply with what the law required.

“Trump’s tariff is an overreaching intervention. That’s not the way to influence things, and I don’t think that’s the way things will be resolved. No country should interfere so much in another’s affairs. What’s going to resolve this is Congress itself with our laws here inside the country. I believe an amnesty law will pass. If not now, then next year.

“We currently have a sitting president who has been convicted. So everything can change.

“My father is a bus driver. My mother has been a housewife her whole life. My whole life I leaned more to the left. But after so many corruption scandals, I was disappointed.

“Brazilians are hopeful by nature, and hope is always the last thing to die. So we always hang onto the hope that one day things will get better. We work every day towards that. But it’s a very long-term thing. It’s hard.”

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, has dismissed criticism from the United States over the conviction of the country’s former leader, Jair Bolsonaro, on coup charges, and slammed Washington’s sweeping tariffs as “misguided” and “illogical”.

The comments, published in an op-ed in The New York Times on Sunday, came as Bolsonaro made his first public appearance since last week’s conviction for a hospital visit.

In his essay, Lula said he wanted to establish “an open and frank dialogue” with US President Donald Trump over his administration’s decision to impose a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian products in the wake of Bolsonaro’s trial.

He noted that the US has a trade surplus with Brazil, accumulating a surplus of $410bn in trade over the past 15 years, making it “clear that the motivation of the White House is political”.

The tariffs, Lula wrote, are aimed at seeking “impunity” for Bolsanaro, whom he accused of orchestrating the riots in Brasilia on January 8, 2023, when the former leader’s supporters stormed the presidential palace, the Supreme Court and the Congress in protest over his election defeat the previous year.

The events in the Brazilian capital echoed the storming of the US Capitol by Trump’s supporters on January 6, 2021, after he insisted for months, without evidence, that there had been widespread fraud during the election he lost to his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.

Lula described Bolsonaro’s actions as “an effort to subvert the popular will at the ballot box” and said he was proud of the Brazilian Supreme Court’s “historic decision” on Thursday to sentence the former president to 27 years and three months in prison.

“This was not a ‘witch hunt’,” he wrote.

Instead, it “safeguards” Brazil’s institutions and the democratic rule of law, he added.

Brazil’s democracy ‘not on table’

Lula’s op-ed comes after Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, threatened more action against Brazil over Bolsonaro’s conviction. In addition to the tariffs, the US has so far sanctioned Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has overseen Bolsonaro’s trial, and revoked visas for most of the high court’s justices.

For his part, Trump, who has repeatedly labelled the judicial proceedings a “witch-hunt”, has said he was “surprised” by the ruling. The US president, who also had faced criminal charges over the Capitol attack before they were withdrawn following his re-election, likened the trial against Bolsonaro to the legal actions against him.

“It’s very much like they tried to do with me, but they didn’t get away with it,” Trump told reporters on Thursday, describing the former leader as a “good president” and a “good man”.

In his op-ed, Lula said the US’s decision to turn its back on a relationship of more than 200 years means that “everyone loses” and said the two countries should continue to work together in areas where they have common goals.

But he said Brazil’s democracy was non-negotiable.

“President Trump, we remain open to negotiating anything that can bring mutual benefits. But Brazil’s democracy and sovereignty are not on the table,” he wrote.

Economists in Brazil estimate that Trump’s tariffs would hurt the country’s economy, including through the loss of tens of thousands of jobs, but not derail it, given its strong trade ties with other countries such as China. The blow has further been softened when the US granted hundreds of exceptions, including on aircraft parts and orange juice.

US consumers, too, are paying more for products imported from Brazil, including coffee, which has already seen recent price rises due to droughts.

In Brasilia, meanwhile, Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest, left his home to undergo a medical procedure to remove several skin lesions.

His doctor, Claudio Birolini, told reporters that the former president had eight skin lesions removed and sent for biopsies.

He added that Bolsonaro, who has had multiple operations in recent years due to complications from a 2018 stabbing in his stomach, was “quite weak” and had developed slight anaemia, “probably due to poor nutrition over the last month”.

Dozens of supporters gathered outside the hospital to cheer on the former leader, waving Brazilian flags and shouting, “Amnesty now!”.

The chant is in reference to the push of Bolsonaro’s allies in Congress to grant the former president some kind of amnesty.

“We’re here to provide spiritual and psychological support,” Deuselis Filho, 46, told the Associated Press news agency.

Thursday’s sentence does not mean that Bolsonaro will immediately go to prison.

The court panel now has up to 60 days to publish the ruling. Once it does, Bolsonaro’s lawyers have five days to file motions for clarification.

His lawyers have said that they will try to appeal both the conviction and sentence before the full Supreme Court of 11 justices, although some experts think it is unlikely to be accepted.

US military action against a Venezuelan boat sparks condemnation and troop deployments.

Venezuela has accused the United States of illegally boarding and occupying one of its fishing vessels in the country’s special economic zone, further escalating tensions between Caracas and Washington.

In a statement on Saturday, Venezuela’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the vessel, carrying nine “humble” and “harmless” fishermen, was intercepted by the US destroyer USS Jason Dunham (DDG-109) on Friday.

“The warship deployed 18 armed agents who boarded and occupied the small, harmless boat for eight hours,” the statement said, calling the incident a “direct provocation through the illegal use of excessive military means”.

The move follows a US military strike last week in the Caribbean that killed 11 Venezuelans and sank a boat that the administration of US President Donald Trump claimed, without evidence, had been transporting narcotics.

Venezuela has rejected these claims, with Minister of the Popular Power for Interior Diosdado Cabello insisting none of those killed was a member of the Tren de Aragua gang, as alleged by Washington.

“They openly confessed to killing 11 people,” Cabello said on state television. “Our investigations show the victims were not drug traffickers. A murder has been committed against a group of citizens using lethal force.”

The White House defended the strike, with spokeswoman Anna Kelly calling the victims “evil Tren de Aragua narcoterrorists” and saying that Nicolas Maduro is “not the legitimate president of Venezuela” and is a “fugitive.”

Several countries deny Maduro’s legitimacy as a democratically elected leader due to what some have viewed as unfair elections, but the Trump administration has not provided evidence linking the Venezuelan president to Tren de Aragua. US intelligence agencies have said there is no sign of coordination between the government and traffickers.

Pentagon officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Venezuelan President Maduro announced the deployment of troops, police and civilian militias across 284 “battlefront” locations, reinforcing previous troop increases along the Colombian border.

Speaking from Ciudad Caribia, Maduro signalled Venezuela’s readiness to defend its water, saying: “We’re ready for an armed fight, if it’s necessary.”

The US has also expanded its military presence in the southern Caribbean, sending warships and deploying 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico.

Last month, Washington doubled its reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to $50m, citing alleged drug trafficking and criminal ties, a claim Venezuela denies, asserting it is not a drug-producing country.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison, shortly after a majority of a Supreme Court panel voted to convict him on charges related to an attempted military coup.

On Thursday, four out of five of the justices had found Bolsonaro guilty of trying to illegally retain power after his 2022 electoral defeat to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Justice Carmen Lucia said there was ample evidence that Bolsonaro acted “with the purpose of eroding democracy and institutions”.

A fourth judge, Justice Luiz Fux, broke with his colleagues on Wednesday and voted to acquit the 70-year-old former president of all charges.

Currently under house arrest, Bolsonaro faced up to 40 years in prison after being found guilty on five charges, including leading a “criminal organisation” to conspire to overthrow Lula.

Still, Fux’s vote could invite challenges to the ruling.

Bolsonaro has maintained he will run for president in 2026, despite Brazil’s top electoral court barring him from running in elections until 2030 for spreading unfounded claims about Brazil’s electronic voting system.

The Supreme Court also convicted seven co-conspirators, including former defence minister and Bolsonaro’s 2022 running mate Walter Braga Netto; former Defence Minister Paulo Sergio Nogueira; Bolsonaro’s former aide-de-camp Mauro Cid; his military adviser Augusto Heleno Ribeiro; former Justice Minister Anderson Torres; former naval chief Almir Garnier Santos; and ex-police officer Alexandre Ramagem.

Reporting from Brasilia, Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman said the sentencing, which was originally scheduled for Friday, was unexpected.

“It’s extremely significant and also a surprise,” she said. “The last of the five justices gave his guilty verdict just a short time ago, and then he and the remaining four had to calculate what the sentence would be.”

“We have to keep very much in mind that this may or may not happen immediately,” she added. “Bolsonaro’s lawyers and that of the other seven co-defendants still have some legal wiggle room here.”

“Apart from that, the supporters of Bolsonaro in Congress have already submitted an amnesty law, hopefully to get Bolsonaro off the hook,” she said.

United States President Donald Trump has called his ally’s trial a “witch-hunt”, hitting Brazil with 50 percent tariffs, imposing sanctions against the presiding judge, Alexandre de Moraes, and revoking visas for most members of Brazil’s high court. Trump said on Thursday that he was very unhappy about Bolsonaro’s conviction.

In a statement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US would “respond accordingly to this witch-hunt”.

“The political persecutions by sanctioned human rights abuser Alexandre de Moraes continue, as he and others on Brazil’s supreme court have unjustly ruled to imprison former President Jair Bolsonaro,” Rubio said.

Antiestablishment anger

Bolsonaro, a former army captain and paratrooper, became known for his defence of Brazil’s two-decade military dictatorship after being elected to the back benches of Congress in 1990 in the early years of Brazil’s democracy.

He never hid his admiration for the military regime, which killed hundreds of Brazilians from 1964 to 1985.

In one interview, he said Brazil would only change “on the day that we break out in civil war here and do the job that the military regime didn’t do: killing 30,000”. He was referring to leftists and political opponents.

Later, he surfed on mass protests that erupted across Brazil in 2014 during the sprawling “car wash” bribery scandal that implicated hundreds of politicians – including Lula, whose conviction was later annulled.

His antiestablishment anger helped elevate him to the presidency in 2018, and dozens of far-right lawmakers were elected on his coattails, creating roadblocks to Lula’s progressive agenda.

Facing a close re-election campaign against Lula in 2022 – an election Lula went on to win – Bolsonaro’s comments took on an increasingly messianic quality, raising concerns about his willingness to accept the results.

“I have three alternatives for my future: being arrested, killed or victory,” he said in remarks to a meeting of evangelical Christian leaders in 2021. “No man on Earth will threaten me.”

Bolsonaro maintains a solid political base within Brazil, and the verdict is expected to be met with widespread unrest.

About 40,000 of his supporters took to the streets of Brasilia over the weekend to voice their discontent, supporting his claim that he is being politically targeted.

The island of 10 million’s worsening energy and economic crisis has led to a series of ‘frustrating’ grid collapses.

Another total electricity blackout has struck Cuba, the latest in a string of grid collapses that have rocked the island of 10 million over the past year.

The island-wide outage, which hit just after 9am local time on Wednesday, is believed to be linked to a malfunction at one of Cuba’s largest thermoelectric plants, the Ministry of Energy and Mines said.

The ministry said crews had been dispatched to build a microsystem capable of providing basic services, and were prioritising the return of electricity to essential sites such as hospitals and food production plants.

Prime Minister Manuel Marrero also made an appearance on state TV at Cuba’s state-run power company, asking Cubans for their trust and promising that electricity would be restored gradually.

Cuba’s worsening economic and energy crisis has led to repeated daily blackouts and full grid outages. In March, a breakdown at a substation in the capital, Havana, led to rolling blackouts across the island, with three more blackouts occurring late last year.

Across Havana, traffic lights were down as people scurried around to buy groceries and basic goods before dark. Pumps supplying the capital’s apartments with water rely on electricity.

Havana resident Danai Hernandez told Al Jazeera she had left work to prepare her home for the blackout. “We just have to wait. There’s no other choice,” she said.

“We’re cooking with wood and charcoal, so we have to adjust our schedules,” resident Ernesto Gutierrez told Al Jazeera. “It’s complicated, stressful, and frustrating, too.”

Cuba’s energy supply crisis has deteriorated in recent years because of US sanctions, which prevent it from holding sufficient foreign currency to upgrade or repair fast-ageing plants that have been in use for more than three decades.

Havana has tried to fill the gap by renting floating Turkish power ships and installing Chinese-funded solar parks. Some wealthier families have installed rechargeable devices and solar panels in their homes.

Still, the blackouts have prompted rare protests, with crowds flooding the second-largest city of Santiago last year.