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At the time Minister Padilha's father most needed help, the US took him in.

This occurred in 1971, the peak of the country's brutal two-decade dictatorship, and his father Padilha, a young Methodist activist, had been forced to flee his nation after enduring 11 long months in one of the city's most notorious torture centres.

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

I’d want to comprehend what threat my young daughter represents to the government of the United States

Recently, she and her parent were stripped of their US visas as the US administration targeted people tied to Brazil’s government and judiciary as part of unsuccessful attempts to help former leader Jair Bolsonaro escape justice for orchestrating a 2022 coup attempt.

“I want to understand what danger my young daughter poses to the government of the United States … which implies she cannot visit the US,” said Alexandre Padilha, who is Brazil’s health minister and a prominent supporter of its leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Speaking publicly, Padilha called the action to target his daughter as an “astonishing absurdity” and a “political abuse”.

Prior to Bolsonaro’s trial, US authorities enacted sanctions on key Brazilian judges; revoked the visas of eight of Brazil’s 11 supreme court judges; and ordered tariffs on Brazilian products.

Following Bolsonaro’s conviction, a US official suggested the US would additionally punish Brazil and “respond appropriately to this witch-hunt”.

Recently, it was announced that the entry permits of two state representatives involved in establishing Brazil’s More Doctors health program had been canceled, allegedly because of the scheme's use of foreign doctors.

Padilha thought he had avoided losing his visa because it had already expired. He has not yet been granted a visa for next week’s UN general assembly in New York.

American authorities claimed the officials were selected because the Brazilian initiative – which has provided healthcare to isolated regions – had helped enrich “a certain regime” and deprived their own people of critical medical care.

But Padilha, who clarified Cuban medics were no longer involved in a system he credited with saving millions of lives, believed that was a false justification.

In fact, the official argued the move to target people connected to the program – including, by extension, his child – was a reflection of a two-pronged attack on public health and democracy.

Trump’s effort to pressure Lula into “intervening” in Brazil’s independent judiciary over Bolsonaro’s case was an anti-democratic insult. “Not one of this will intimidate us,” Padilha vowed. “[We will not] give up on defending our democracy.”

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

Meanwhile, the minister contended the focus of the Brazilian medical project was a reflection of a leader who had initiated a relentless assault on public health and science – in the US and across the world – since returning to power.

“Since the beginning of the current administration, there has been a series of assaults on health in the US and global health,” Padilha noted, highlighting how funding for the development of advanced immunizations had been cut, public health officials dismissed, and institutions restructured.

“Researchers have been targeted, funding for universities slashed … and there are plans to withdraw from the WHO.”

“90 per cent of the WHO’s work in Africa were paid for with the America's voluntary donation – and this was cut,” explained Padilha, an medical specialist.

“It will impact Africa, which is very serious in itself, but it will also affect the entire globe … Attacking international 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 injustice but also as having a certain consistency with the additional outrageous absurdities the leader of the US has undertaken.”

Padilha said his parent was confused by the “unthinkable” US decision to punish his grandchild. “I never imagined the nation that provided me shelter, that preserved my life … handling my grandchild so outrageously,” he quoted the 85-year-old man as stating.

However the minister suggested the anti-healthcare approach could prove an opportunity for his country. While the US reduced funding in modern immunizations, the Brazilian government was investing tens of millions of dollars into medical institutions, which are pushing ahead with the development of such life-saving vaccines.

“Come to Brazil,” was Padilha’s invitation to US-based researchers and health companies who were facing pressure because of the “instability” under the current US government.

“I like to joke that Brazil has managed to bring an foreign manager to lead the Brazilian soccer team. Currently we’re attracting numerous researchers to relocate and do their research in Brazil,” added Padilha, who said authorities had already observed an influx of professionals from the US.

“Agreements with US companies have been ended … and we’re going to attract them to put resources here in Brazil.”

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