Diplomatic abuse': Brazil minister on US revoking his 10-year-old daughter's visa

"When Alexandre Padilha's father most needed help, the United States took him in. It was 1971, the height of Brazil's brutal two-decade dictatorship, and Anivaldo Padilha, a young Methodist activist, had been forced to flee his homeland after spending 11 months in one of Sao Paulo's most notorious torture centres. Smuggled out of the country by a church group to avoid being killed, he made for Uruguay and Chile before finally escaping to the US."

"There, he was able to live the freedom he wasn't able to live in Brazil, said his son, Alexandre Padilha, who was born after his father's departure and only met him eight years later when the political climate in Brazil began to improve. So more than five decades later, it came as a nasty surprise when Padilha's 10-year-old daughter Anivaldo's granddaughter became the youngest victim of Donald Trump's pressure campaign against Brazilian authorities."

"I'd like to understand what risk my 10-year-old daughter poses to the government of the United States Last month, she and her mother were stripped of their US visas as the Trump administration targeted people tied to Brazil's government and supreme court as part of unsuccessful efforts to help the ex-president Jair Bolsonaro escape justice for masterminding a 2022 coup attempt."

Anivaldo Padilha fled Brazil's 1971 dictatorship after torture and was smuggled through Uruguay and Chile before settling in the US. His son, Alexandre Padilha, grew up after meeting his father once Brazil's political climate eased and later became Brazil's health minister and an ally of President Lula. Decades later, Alexandre Padilha's 10-year-old daughter had her US visa revoked when the Trump administration targeted people linked to Brazil's government and supreme court during attempts to shield Jair Bolsonaro from accountability for his 2022 coup attempt. Bolsonaro was later sentenced to 27 years in prison for the failed power grab. Padilha denounced the visa revocations as an astonishing absurdity and a diplomatic abuse.

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