US Pressure on Bolsonaro Trial Electrifies Brazil’s Race (1)

Brazil’s Supreme Court hadn’t yet handed down Jair Bolsonaro his sentence when the US promised retaliation.

“The United States will respond accordingly to this witch hunt,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X Thursday soon after the former president’s conviction for attempting a coup.

For months, the White House demanded Brazil drop charges against one of Donald Trump’s closest allies in the region, forcefully inserting itself into the domestic affairs of a foreign country. But a majority of justices on a Supreme Court panel voted to find Bolsonaro guilty of plotting to remain in power after his 2022 ...