The son of Brazil’s president-elect Jair Bolsonaro met with Trump administration officials in Washington, D.C., on Monday as part of an effort to “recover Brazil’s credibility” with the United States, Brazilian paper Folha De S.Paulo reported Tuesday. National Security Adviser John Bolton will meet with the president-elect himself in Brazil on Thursday.
The son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, has been a member of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies since 2015 and is a member of the Social Liberal Party (PSL), Brazil’s right-wing conservative party. In 2018, he was re-elected to a second term as federal deputy after receiving 1.8 million votes — the most votes for a lawmaker in Brazil’s history.
“We came here to take the first steps,” he told reporters outside of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank where he attended a lunch meeting. “We came here to say that the new administration is willing not only to trade, but also to cooperate in several other areas,” he added.
Filipe Martins, secretary of international affairs for PSL, accompanied Bolsonaro on the trip. “Brazil is ready to work with the US on all fronts,” Martins tweeted:
O Brasil está pronto a trabalhar com os EUA em todas as frentes, não por alinhamento automático, mas por convicção de que há grande convergência entre os objetivos e a visão de mundo das duas nações, o que abre caminho para uma relação mutuamente benéfica e claramente afirmativa.
— Filipe G. Martins (@filgmartin) November 28, 2018
Bolsonaro met with members of the White House National Security Council, Vice President Mike Pence, and the Department of Commerce, according to Miami-based Hispanic news station Americateve.
He reportedly said that whether or not President Donald Trump will attend the elder Bolsonaro’s inauguration will be decided during Bolton’s visit to Brazil later this week.
Bolsonaro also met with Jared Kushner, whom he called “one of the most important advisers of the White House and great entrepreneur—besides being President Trump’s son-in-law”:
Reunião hoje de manhã com Jared Kushner @jaredkushner que é um dos mais importantes conselheiros da Casa Branca e grande empresário – além de ser genro do Presidente Trump @realDonaldTrump . pic.twitter.com/EDPOAUZpCf
— Eduardo Bolsonaro🇧🇷 (@BolsonaroSP) November 27, 2018
Bolsonaro told Kushner that his country’s embassy will definitely be moving to Jerusalem: “The question should not be whether we will do it, but when we will do it,” he said.
Bolsonaro also said he spoke at the Brazil-U.S. Business Council, “explaining the political panorama of the new Congress and the configuration of the Bolsonaro government that is to come”:
🇺🇸 Palestrando na Brazil-US Business Council, explanando o panorama político do novo congresso e a configuração do governo Bolsonaro que está por vir. É perceptível nos olhos dos investidores a animação a espera deste novo momento, certamente a confiança no Brasil virá em breve. pic.twitter.com/WuWhkrO9Mi
— Eduardo Bolsonaro🇧🇷 (@BolsonaroSP) November 27, 2018
The conservative Brazilians also met with like-minded Senator Ted Cruz for a “friendly conversation” in his office. Bolsonaro tweeted that the “U.S. conservative senator [is] committed to free Internet, the right to bear arms and individual freedoms”:
(POR) Conversa amigável com Ted Cruz @tedcruz (Rep.-Texas🇺🇸), senador conservador dos EUA comprometido com a internet livre , o direito de portar armas e as liberdades individuais. Precisamos nos aliar as pessoas certas – com @filgmartin . pic.twitter.com/z8mqOgUyGa
— Eduardo Bolsonaro🇧🇷 (@BolsonaroSP) November 28, 2018
(ENG) Friendly conversation with Ted Cruz @tedcruz (Rep.-Texas🇺🇸), US conservative Senator committed to free internet, the right to bear arms and individual freedoms. We need to partner with the right people – with @filgmartin . pic.twitter.com/CddMFK9Ior
— Eduardo Bolsonaro🇧🇷 (@BolsonaroSP) November 28, 2018
On Tuesday, Bolsonaro and Martins met with Florida Senator Marco Rubio:
Satisfação conhecer ontem rapidamente o Senador Marco Rubio @marcorubio (Rep.-Florida) que tem destacada atuação em temas latino americanos como a defesa dos direitos humanos na Venezuela – com @filgmartin @mcoimbra pic.twitter.com/qd0F18hSGE
— Eduardo Bolsonaro🇧🇷 (@BolsonaroSP) November 28, 2018
President-elect Bolsonaro said the incoming administration is forming an alliance with the U.S. government to investigate the financial crimes of the “Venezuelan and Cuban dictatorships.” He further stated that the investigation would be coordinated by the Itamaraty (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
“There are various tools of investigation that Brazil for years, intentionally, did not take seriously. They are tools that are at hand. Judge Sérgio Moro knows better than anyone about money laundering, the fight against organized crime, the Palermo Convention. And together with the team of Ambassador Ernesto Araújo, he has a lot (knowledge) in that area,” Jair Bolsonaro told Globo. “If one could freeze everything that is sent back and go through the Cuban and Venezuelan dictatorships, it could give a big blow to those dictators,” he added.
John Bolton will travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on November 29 to visit with Bolsonaro to continue those discussions, Terça Livre reported.
Look forward to seeing Brazil’s next President @JairBolsonaro in Rio on November 29th. We share many bilateral interests and will work closely on expanding freedom and prosperity throughout the Western Hemisphere.
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) November 21, 2018
According to Terça Livre’s sources, the main issue on the table will be Venezuela and strategies to “combat human rights violations committed by the socialist regime of Maduro”:
Other issues that need to be addressed revolve around drug trafficking and money laundering on the triple border of Brazil organized by terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.
Fighting the actions of terrorist groups and drug traffickers is an old White House target on the triple border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, but there has never been a political will on the part of the PT and PSDB governments to counter such actions.
The White House expects to resume dialogue with the future Bolsonaro government in hopes of dismantling part of this criminal structure.
The triple frontier along the junction of Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil is reportedly a hotspot for drug-trafficking, money-laundering, and Islamic terrorism. The large Muslim community in the region has helped finance terror groups, including Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and al-Qaeda, according to the United States Treasury and other organizations.
“The triple border moves 20% (1/5) of the funds that finance terrorist groups and drug traffickers in Latin America and the Middle East,” Terça Livre reported.
A 2017 Politico investigation found that the Obama administration allowed Hezbollah to build a criminal empire in the Americas unimpeded in exchange for the Iran nuclear deal:
In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States, according to a POLITICO investigation.
The campaign, dubbed Project Cassandra, was launched in 2008 after the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed evidence that Hezbollah had transformed itself from a Middle East-focused military and political organization into an international crime syndicate that some investigators believed was collecting $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities. … But as Project Cassandra reached higher into the hierarchy of the conspiracy, Obama administration officials threw an increasingly insurmountable series of roadblocks in its way …
The campaign, dubbed Project Cassandra, was launched in 2008 after the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed evidence that Hezbollah had transformed itself from a Middle East-focused military and political organization into an international crime syndicate that some investigators believed was collecting $1 billion a year from drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering and other criminal activities. … But as Project Cassandra reached higher into the hierarchy of the conspiracy, Obama administration officials threw an increasingly insurmountable series of roadblocks in its way …
One Obama-era Treasury official, Katherine Bauer, in little-noticed written testimony presented last February to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, acknowledged that “under the Obama administration … these [Hezbollah-related] investigations were tamped down for fear of rocking the boat with Iran and jeopardizing the nuclear deal.”
The partnership between the new conservative administration in Brazil and the Trump administration will likely include a renewed law enforcement campaign to combat the criminal activities along the problematic triple frontier.
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