A senior U.S. official declined on Wednesday at a Senate hearing to comment on the status in the United States of former far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, but said any such request from Brazil would be handled “expeditiously.”
Speaking at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the future of relations with Brazil, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols said: “We would handle any request from the Brazilian government expeditiously.”
Nichols did not comment on a request for a six-month visa to remain in the United States by Bolsonaro, who left Brazil in December two days before his term ended without conceding defeat at the polls by leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro has been accused by the Lula government of inciting riots in Brasilia by his supporters and continuing to maintain that the October elections was manipulated.
Committee Chairman Robert Menendez said Bolsonaro “continues to spew disinformation about Brazil’s election” from Florida.
The ranking Republican on the committee, Jim Risch, criticized the Lula government for not backing the Ukrainian war effort against the Russian invasion, and allowing two warships from Iran to dock in Rio de Janeiro last month.
via Reuters
