By Lisandra Paraguassu
BRASILIA, March 13 (Reuters) – Brazil’s government will revoke the visa of Darren Beattie, who was recently tapped by U.S. President Donald Trump for a senior advisory role monitoring the South American country, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.
Earlier in the day, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva suggested that Beattie would be barred from entering Brazil until the U.S. reinstated a visa for his Health Minister Alexandre Padilha, which was revoked last year.
Beattie, a critic of Brazil’s government, was appointed to the position shaping U.S. policy toward the country last month, suggesting relations between the two nations remain delicate despite recent rapprochement.
Lawyers for imprisoned former President Jair Bolsonaro asked the Brazilian Supreme Court to allow Beattie to visit him in jail next week, when he had a trip scheduled to Brazil, but Justice Alexandre de Moraes denied it on Thursday.
Citing a document sent by Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, Moraes noted the U.S. official only committed to attend a critical minerals forum and meetings with the government while in Brazil.
Bolsonaro, who served as president between 2019 and 2022, was a close Trump ally during the period when both were in office. He is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting a coup against Lula, his successor.
“That American guy who said he was coming here to visit Jair Bolsonaro was prohibited from visiting, and I forbade him from coming to Brazil until they release the visa for my health minister,” Lula told an event on Friday.
(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Additional reporting by Eduardo Simoes; Writing by Isabel Teles and Gabriel Araujo, Editing by William Maclean)
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