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When Mr. Padilha's father was in desperate need of assistance, the United States took him in.

This occurred in 1971, the height of Brazil's brutal 20-year authoritarian rule, and his father Padilha, a young Methodist activist, had been forced to flee his country after spending 11 months in one of the city's most notorious detention facilities.

Spirited out of the country by a religious organization to avoid execution, he made for Uruguay and Chile before ultimately finding asylum in the US. "In America, he was able to experience the freedom he could not live in Brazil," said his son, Alexandre Padilha, who was born after his father's departure and only saw him almost a decade afterward when the political climate in Brazil began to stabilize.

I'd want to understand what threat my 10-year-old daughter poses to the government of the US

Recently, she and her mother were lost their US visas as the US government singled out people associated with the country's government and judiciary as part of failed efforts to help ex-president Jair Bolsonaro escape justice for masterminding a 2022 coup attempt. On Thursday, the former president was sentenced to 27 years in prison for the unsuccessful power grab.

"It is baffling what risk my young daughter could possibly present to the government of the United States ... that means she cannot visit the US," remarked Alexandre Padilha, who is the country's top health official and a well-known ally of its progressive president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Speaking in Rio, Padilha denounced the decision to target his child as an "shocking absurdity" and a "political abuse".

Ahead of Bolsonaro's trial, the US president slapped restrictions on a supreme court judge presiding over the case; cancelled the visas of several of the nation's eleven supreme court judges, including Moraes; and enacted significant tariffs on the country's products.

After Bolsonaro's conviction, the US secretary of state, a US official, suggested the US would further punish Brazil and "respond accordingly to this witch-hunt".

Previously, Rubio announced that the visas of two public servants connected to creating Brazil's Mais Médicos health program had been revoked, allegedly because of the scheme's use of medical professionals from Cuba. Padilha believed he had avoided losing his visa because it had already expired. He has yet to been granted a visa for the upcoming UN general assembly in New York.

The US official asserted the officials were targeted because the Brazilian program – which has brought healthcare to underserved regions – had helped benefit "the corrupt Cuban regime and deprive the Cuban people of critical medical care". But Padilha, who said Cuban medics were not involved in a program he praised with saving millions of lives, felt that was a false justification.

In fact, the minister argued Trump's decision to target people associated with the program – including, by extension, his daughter – was a example of the US president's two-pronged attack on healthcare and democratic institutions.

The US president's attempt to coerce Lula into "meddling" in Brazil's independent judiciary over Bolsonaro's judgment was an anti-democratic affront. "These actions will deter us," Padilha declared. "We will not give up on defending our nation".

Meanwhile, the minister contended Trump's focus on the Brazilian medical initiative was a manifestation of a politician who had initiated a relentless assault on health systems and research – in the US and globally – since returning to power.

Attacking global health means attacking the well-being of your own people too.

"From the start of the Trump administration, he's launched a series of attacks on medical care in the US and international public health," Padilha said, noting how Trump had reduced funding for the production of mRNA vaccines, sacked the head of the CDC, and removed the leaders of the National Institutes of Health.

"The administration has persecuted researchers, slashed funding for universities … and threatened to withdraw from the WHO." "Ninety percent of the WHO's operations in Africa were funded with the US's voluntary donation – and this was cut," said Padilha, an infectious diseases specialist who wore a white coat celebrating Brazil's public healthcare system, the SUS.

"This will affect Africa, which is very serious in itself, but it will also affect the whole world … Attacking global health means attacking the health of your own people too.

"That's why I say we see these measures [against my family] as an astonishing absurdity but also as having a clear pattern with the other astonishing actions the leader of the US has committed."

The minister said his father was perplexed by the "unthinkable" US decision to penalize his grandchild. "I never imagined the country that gave me refuge, that saved my life … subjecting my granddaughter so outrageously," he quoted the elderly man as saying.

But the minister hoped that the US's anti-public health campaign could prove an chance for his country. While the US health secretary, a US figure, has cut investments in mRNA vaccines, the Brazilian government was pumping significant funds into research centers, Fiocruz and Butantan, which are pushing ahead with the development of such life-saving shots.

"Come to Brazil," was Padilha's message to US-based researchers and companies who were facing pressure because of the "uncertainty" under Trump.

"I like to joke that Brazil has managed to attract an Italian manager to coach the Brazilian football team. Now we're welcoming numerous researchers to come and work in Brazil," said Padilha, who said authorities had already observed an influx of researchers from the US.

"The US president has torn up contracts with US firms … and we're going to attract them to invest here in Brazil."

Representatives for the American diplomatic mission in the capital declined to comment on why the visas of Padilha's family members had been revoked.