WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats added to pressure on President Joe Biden to kick Jair Bolsonaro out of the country, even as U.S. officials stick to a wait-and-see approach in hopes that the former Brazilian president will make good on a promise to return home on his own.
In a letter dated Thursday, 46 congressional Democrats urged Biden to remove Bolsonaro in light of the Jan. 8 attacks by his supporters on government buildings in Brasilia, the capital. They said the violence was “built upon months of pre- and post-election fabrications by Mr. Bolsonaro and his allies” about the October election that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva narrowly won.
“The United States must not provide shelter for him, or any authoritarian who has inspired such violence against democratic institutions,” the lawmakers wrote, calling on the U.S. to “cooperate fully with any investigation by the Brazilian government into their actions, if requested.”
