🔗 Share this article

When Minister Padilha's parent most needed assistance, the United States took him in.

This occurred in 1971, the height of the country's brutal 20-year dictatorship, and Anivaldo Padilha, a youthful Methodist advocate, had been compelled to escape his homeland after spending 11 months in one of São Paulo's most infamous detention facilities.

Spirited out of the country by a church group to avoid execution, he made for Uruguay and Chile before finally escaping to the US. “There, he was able to experience the freedom he wasn’t able enjoy in Brazil,” said his son, Alexandre Padilha, who was born after his parent's departure and only met him eight years later when the situation in Brazil began to stabilize.

I’d want to understand what risk my 10-year-old daughter poses to the authorities of the United States

Recently, she and her parent were lost their US visas as the US administration targeted people associated with Brazil’s government and judiciary as part of failed attempts to assist ex-president Jair Bolsonaro escape justice for masterminding a 2022 coup attempt.

“I want to know what risk my young daughter represents to the state of the United States … that means she cannot travel to the US,” remarked Alexandre Padilha, who is Brazil’s top health official and a prominent ally of its progressive president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Commenting on the matter, Padilha called the decision to target his child as an “shocking injustice” and a “diplomatic overreach”.

Prior to Bolsonaro’s court case, US authorities imposed sanctions on key national justices; revoked the travel documents of eight of Brazil’s 11 supreme court judges; and introduced trade duties on Brazilian goods.

After Bolsonaro’s sentencing, a US official suggested the US would additionally punish Brazil and “react accordingly to this unjust process”.

Recently, it was declared that the entry permits of two state representatives involved in establishing Brazil’s Mais Médicos public health initiative had been revoked, allegedly because of the program's use of foreign doctors.

Padilha believed he had avoided losing his permit because it had already lapsed. He has yet to been issued a travel authorization for next week’s UN general assembly in New York.

American authorities claimed the officials were selected because the Brazilian initiative – which has brought medical services to isolated regions – had contributed to benefit “the corrupt government” and deprived their own people of essential medical care.

But Padilha, who clarified foreign medics were no longer involved in a program he attributed with saving countless of lives, felt that was a pretext.

In fact, the minister claimed the decision to target people connected to the health initiative – including, by extension, his child – was a reflection of a two-pronged attack on public health and democracy.

The US administration's attempt to pressure Lula into “meddling” in Brazil’s autonomous legal system over Bolsonaro’s judgment was an anti-democratic affront. “None of this will intimidate us,” Padilha pledged. “[We will not] give up on defending our freedom.”

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

Meanwhile, the minister contended the targeting of the Brazilian medical program was a manifestation of a politician who had launched a relentless campaign on public health and research – in the US and across the world – since returning to power.

“Since the beginning of the current administration, we've seen a succession of attacks on health in the US and worldwide health,” Padilha said, highlighting how financial support for the production of advanced immunizations had been reduced, public health leaders sacked, and agencies purged.

“Researchers have been persecuted, funding for academic institutions slashed … and intentions to exit from the WHO.”

“Ninety per cent of the organization's work in Africa were paid for with the US’s voluntary donation – and this was eliminated,” explained Padilha, an infectious diseases expert.

“It will affect Africa, which is extremely concerning in itself, but it will also affect the whole world … Attacking international health means attacking the well-being of your own people too.

“This is why I say we see these measures [against my family] as an shocking injustice but also as having a clear consistency with the other astonishing actions the leader of the US has committed.”

Padilha stated his parent was confused by the “inconceivable” US decision to penalize his grandchild. “I never expect the nation that provided me shelter, that preserved my life … handling my grandchild so unjustly,” he quoted the elderly man as saying.

But the official suggested the hostile health campaign could prove an opportunity for his nation. While the US has cut investments in mRNA vaccines, the Brazilian government was pumping significant sums of dollars into healthcare institutes, which are pushing ahead with the development of such life-saving vaccines.

“Come to Brazil,” was Padilha’s message to US-based researchers and health companies who were under the cosh because of the “instability” under the current US administration.

“It's been said that Brazil has managed to attract an Italian manager to guide the national soccer team. Now we’re welcoming numerous experts to relocate and do their research in Brazil,” added Padilha, who mentioned authorities had already detected an influx of researchers from the US.

“Agreements with American companies have been terminated … and we’re going to invite them to put resources here in Brazil.”

An official for the US diplomatic mission refused to respond on why the visas of Padilha’s daughter and wife had been canceled.