When Alexandre Padilha's father most needed help, the US took him in.
This occurred in 1971, the height of the nation's harsh two-decade dictatorship, and his father Padilha, a youthful Methodist activist, had been compelled to escape his country after enduring 11 months in one of São Paulo's most infamous detention facilities.
Spirited out of the country by a religious organization to avoid execution, he traveled to Uruguay and Chile before ultimately finding asylum in the US. "In America, he was able to experience the liberty he could not live in Brazil," stated his son, Alexandre Padilha, who was born after his father's departure and only saw him almost a decade afterward when the political climate in Brazil began to stabilize.
I'd like to understand what risk my young daughter poses to the government of the US
Recently, she and her mother were stripped of their US visas as the US government targeted people associated with Brazil's government and supreme court as part of unsuccessful efforts to assist ex-president Jair Bolsonaro escape justice for masterminding a 2022 coup attempt. On Thursday, the former president was sentenced to 27 years in prison for the unsuccessful power grab.
"I'd like to understand what risk my young daughter poses to the nation of the United States ... which implies she cannot visit the US," said Alexandre Padilha, who is Brazil's top health official and a prominent supporter of its leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Commenting publicly, Padilha denounced the decision to target his child as an "shocking absurdity" and a "political abuse".
Prior to Bolsonaro's trial, Trump imposed restrictions on Alexandre de Moraes overseeing the case; revoked the visas of eight of Brazil's 11 supreme court judges, including the judge; and ordered 50% tariffs on the country's goods.
After the ex-president's conviction, the US top diplomat, Marco Rubio, hinted the US would take additional measures against Brazil and "react appropriately to this unjust persecution".
Last month, Rubio declared that the visas of two public servants involved in creating Brazil's More Doctors public health initiative had been revoked, purportedly because of the program's use of Cuban doctors. The minister thought he had escaped losing his visa because it had already lapsed. He has not yet been issued with a visa for next week's UN general assembly in New York.
Rubio asserted the officials were targeted because the Brazilian program – which has provided healthcare to remote areas – had helped enrich "a questionable Cuban regime and deprive the citizens of critical medical care". But the minister, who said those professionals were not involved in a program he credited with saving millions of lives, believed that was a pretext.
Actually, the minister claimed Trump's decision to target people linked to the program – including, by extension, his daughter – was a reflection of the US president's dual assault on public health and democratic institutions.
The US president's attempt to coerce Brazil's president into "intervening" in Brazil's court system over Bolsonaro's judgment was an undemocratic affront. "None of this will intimidate us," Padilha declared. "We will not give up on protecting our democracy".
Meanwhile, the minister contended the US leader's focus on the Brazilian medical initiative was a manifestation of a politician who had launched a sustained assault on health systems and research – in the US and around the world – since returning to power.
Attacking global health means attacking the health of your citizens too.
"Since the beginning of the current US government, he's launched a series of assaults on medical care in the US and global health," Padilha said, pointing out how Trump had reduced funding for the production of innovative immunizations, dismissed the head of the CDC, and purged the leaders of the National Institutes of Health.
"The administration has targeted researchers, slashed funding for universities … and threatened to withdraw from the WHO." "90 percent of the organization's operations in Africa were funded with the US's voluntary donation – and this was cut," said Padilha, an medical specialist who displayed a garment celebrating the nation's public healthcare system, the SUS.
"This will affect Africa, which is very serious in itself, but it will also affect the whole world … Attacking global health means attacking the health of your population too.
"For this reason I say we see these measures [against my family] as an stunning absurdity but also as having a certain consistency with the other astonishing absurdities the president of the US has undertaken."
Padilha said his father was perplexed by the "inconceivable" US decision to penalize his granddaughter. "It is shocking the country that offered me shelter, that saved my life … treating my granddaughter so unjustly," he quoted the 85-year-old man as saying.
But the minister expressed optimism that the US's anti-public health campaign could prove an chance for his country. While the US top health official, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has cut investments in advanced immunizations, the nation was pumping tens of millions into research centers, leading Brazilian institutions, which are pushing ahead with the development of such life-saving shots.
"Come to Brazil," was the minister's message to US-based researchers and biomedical firms who were facing pressure because of the "uncertainty" under Trump.
"I like to joke that Brazil has managed to attract an foreign coach to lead the national squad. Now we're welcoming numerous researchers to come and work in Brazil," said Padilha, who said authorities had already observed an influx of researchers from the US.
"The US president has torn up contracts with American companies … and we're going to attract them to invest here in Brazil."
A spokesperson for the US embassy in Brasília did not respond on why the visas of Padilha's daughter and wife had been revoked.
