00:00And support for Brazil's President Lula Silva has increased since U.S. President Donald Trump
00:05announced imposing 50% tariffs on all Brazilian imports as of Friday.
00:11Our correspondent Brian Mir with the details.
00:14The Trump administration has announced that the U.S. government will impose 50% tariffs
00:20on all imports from Brazil starting on Friday, August 1st,
00:24unless ex-president Jair Bolsonaro's criminal conviction for plotting a military coup is reversed.
00:29This has led to a heated debate in Brazil's Congress.
00:35It's embarrassing to see members of Congress whose salaries are paid through Brazilian taxes
00:40standing here defending the United States and defending taxes of 50% on the backs of the Brazilian people.
00:49Bolsonaro's allies in the far-right Liberal Party are applauding the measure,
00:54trying to frame it positively as the Brazil tariff.
00:57Meanwhile, deputies from parties aligned with the Lula administration have been more successful
01:02in convincing the public that the tariff represents an attempt by the Bolsonaro family,
01:06working through their ally Steve Bannon, to blackmail Brazil.
01:10If they are saying it's because of Bolsonaro, then this tariff that they want to impose on Brazil
01:18should be called the Bolsonaro tax, which is going to take away Brazilian jobs
01:23to create more jobs in the United States.
01:26So, warn now.
01:27Warn now.
01:28I want to know if Mr. Bolsonaro and Mr. Tarsis and Mr. Nicholas will keep wearing their little MAGA hats.
01:36However, neither the Liberal Party nor the parties in the Lula administration's inner circle
01:40have enough elected seats to do anything on their own.
01:43As has been the case since the end of the dictatorship in 1985,
01:47nothing gets done in Congress without the support of the big, center-right parties
01:51tied to families descended from the slave plantation owners and industrialists
01:55who have been powerful actors in Brazilian politics for centuries.
02:04Trump's status has caused an important change in the relationship
02:07between the Lula administration and the Brazilian Congress.
02:11Political parties from the center-right, known as the Central,
02:15have realigned in support of the Lula administration.
02:19Earlier, those parties had been acting very hostile to the president.
02:23Recent polls show that public support for President Lula
02:26has significantly increased since Donald Trump announced the new tariffs.
02:31Brian Mir, Telesur, Brasilia.
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