The former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro he asked a six month visa to stay in the United States.
It is, writes the Financial Times who first reported the news, of a tourist visa. The United States received the question on Friday, lawyer Felipe Alexandre specified, adding that Bolsonaro will remain in the country pending an answer. “He would like to take a break, clear his head and enjoy being a tourist in the United States for a few months, before deciding what his next step will be,” said the lawyer.
The question comes about two weeks after dozens of US Democratic lawmakers called for the Biden administration to revoke the diplomatic visa with which he entered the country – no longer valid after his successor took office Lula da Silva – or any other authorization that allows him to remain in the US.
Bolsonaro, who arrived in Florida in late December and was absent from Lula’s swearing-in ceremony on New Year’s Day, was not in Brazil when thousands of his supporters stormed the buildings of power in Brasilia last January 8. The former head of state therefore asks to extend his stay in the US, just as investigations are continuing at home into the assault on Brazilian institutions which, according to Lula, saw in him as the main “moral inspirer”. The new government has ordered an investigation into Bolsonaro and arrested its last justice minister, Anderson Torres.
