US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington would “respond accordingly” after Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup.
Rubio’s comments come after the Trump administration imposed 50% tariffs on Brazil over what it alleges are spurious charges against the rightist Trump ally. Bolsonaro was accused of having masterminded a plan to kill his successor along with one of the Supreme Court judges who convicted him.
In response to what he called “tariff blackmail,” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva this week vowed to pursue closer ties with BRICS nations, saying the group had become “victims of unjustified and illegal trade practices.”
A chart showing Brazil’s exports to China and the US.
