MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Bolsonaro supports Trump and combating terrorism; Teheran summons Brazilian ambassador
As thousands of mourners paid their respects to the slain head of the Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, Bolsonaro backed Trump's fight against “terrorism.” 
“We don't accept terrorism. If we have a terrorist in Brazil, we would deliver him” to justice, Bolsonaro told journalists in Brasilia. Brazil's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro offered his support to US counterpart Donald Trump on Monday amidst widespread criticism for the killing of a top Iranian commander.
As thousands of mourners in Tehran paid their respects to the slain head of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, and Iran vowed “severe revenge,” Bolsonaro backed Trump's fight against “terrorism.”
“We don't accept terrorism. If we have a terrorist in Brazil, we would deliver him” to justice, Bolsonaro told journalists in Brasilia.
However Bolsonaro's words and the foreign ministry statement supporting Trump and fighting terrorism did not go unnoticed to Iran, which summoned the Brazilian ambassador in Teheran for an explanation of Brazil's position.
The issue is not simple since Iran is one of Brazil's main trade partners in the Middle East. In the absence of the ambassador, on vacation, the chargé d'affairs, a lady, attended the Iranian ministry and apparently the meeting took place in very polite terms.
While many countries called for a de-escalation of tensions in the Middle East, Brazil was one of the few to back Trump over the drone attack.
Bolsonaro also played down the surge in oil prices and a slump in stocks provoked by the rising US-Iran tensions.
“I admit that prices have gone up in service stations,” he said, but “it seems that... the impact hasn't been that great. It seems to be stabilizing.”
Populists Trump and Bolsonaro have been allies since assuming power in their respective countries. Bolsonaro has also backed Trump to win a second term in US elections in November.
“Trump will be re-elected. Does anyone doubt it?” he said. “The country is doing very well.”
Another thing the two leaders have in common is a distrust of the mainstream media, which is often critical of them. But Bolsonaro, 64, expects to outlast the press.
“Those who don't read the newspapers are uninformed and those who read them are misinformed. You have to change that. You're an endangered species,” said Bolsonaro, joking that he would have to put journalists under the protection of Brazil's environment institute.
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Read all commentsA news item in the New York Times questions the suicide of an alleged mastermind of a terrorist attack in Buenos Aires. It also reminds Latin America of the alleged suicide of the prosecutor of those responsible of the cover up...
Jan 07th, 2020 - 02:03 pm 0https://m.imgur.com/SBCHVT5
”Notorious U.S. Intelligence Official Visits Lula Appeal Court
Jan 11th, 2020 - 06:59 pm 0The controversial TRF-4 (4th Regional Federal Court) in Porto Alegre has been hit by fresh scandal, one which re-opens the question of United States interference in Brazilian law enforcement, and its judiciary, for political ends.
On Tuesday 2nd December 2019 Willard Tenney Smith, former DIA and CIA intelligence official and now political advisor at the U.S. Embassy in Brasília, was recieved in Porto Alegre by Judge Victor Luiz dos Santos Laus, President of the TRF-4 regional court in Porto Alegre.
The timing of the visit has caused concern, given the TRF-4’s handling of appeals by former President Lula da Silva.
The court’s official explanation for the visit was that it was part of an effort on Tenney Smith’s part to understand the workings of the Brazilian Judiciary. The official was accompanied Rebekah Martinez and Aline Vecchia, advisor and assistant for Political and Economic Affairs of the U.S. Consulate in Porto Alegre.
Dos Santos Laus said he considered it important for bodies such as the U.S. Embassy to be able to approach the Brazilian Judiciary and Courts which, he said, enabled greater integration and articulation between the institutions. Such informal collaboration between U.S. agencies and Brazilian prosecutors was admitted by acting attorney general Kenneth Blanco in 2017, who boasted of Lula’s prosecution as a success story.
Facing widespread criticism of political partisanship on November 27th the TRF-4 voted to defy the Supreme Federal Court and augment the sentence for a case against Lula involving a country farmhouse owned by wealthy friends of his family which had already been discredited. Judge Gebran, who has a longstanding personal relationship with Lava Jato judge turned Bolsonaro Justice Minister, Sérgio Moro, ... was criticised for using political rather than legal points in his arguments, including a derided claim that the “real owner” of a property is the person who frequent
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