BRASILIA, Brazil — In a high-stakes ruling that underscores deep political divides across South America, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice has formally blocked a planned visit by Argentine President Javier Milei to imprisoned former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently serving a sentence for his role in a 2022 coup attempt.
The request for the visit, which was scheduled to take place July 25 in Brazil’s capital Brasilia, was submitted by Bolsonaro’s legal team and rejected late Friday, according to official court documents. Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the judge overseeing the high-profile coup trial that resulted in Bolsonaro’s conviction and 27-plus year prison sentence, made clear in his ruling that the proposed meeting falls outside the parameters of allowed visits for the former leader.
De Moraes emphasized that Bolsonaro has already been prohibited from receiving any visits that fall under a “political-electoral nature,” a restriction that applies to Milei’s planned trip. The Argentine president’s visit to Brazil was already tied to a key political event on the calendar: Milei is set to attend a national convention for Brazil’s right-wing Liberal Party in Sao Paulo, where the party is expected to formally confirm Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro — Jair Bolsonaro’s eldest son — as its presidential candidate challenging incumbent left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in next year’s election.
The blocked visit also brings to the surface long-running tensions between Lula and Milei. Lula, a veteran left-wing leader, has maintained decades-long close alliances with Argentine politicians who are ideological opponents of Milei, including former Argentine Presidents Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Alberto Fernández. The frosty dynamic between the two current heads of state has added another layer of political sensitivity to the proposed meeting.
This ruling is not without precedent, either. Back in March, de Moraes issued an identical rejection to a visit request from Darren Beattie, a conservative U.S. State Department official who holds the post of undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs during the second Trump administration. Beattie had also sought to meet with Bolsonaro in prison, a request the justice turned down for similar reasons related to the former president’s political activity restrictions.