What does the suspension of the application of the Magnitsky Act to the Minister of the Supreme Federal Court say about the ethics and values ​​of the American people?

People are known by their actions, a truth that transcends social and political classes.

For over 25 years, I worked for American multinational companies and lived in the United States on an L-1 (work) visa for almost two years. I know American society: hardworking, honest, and resilient. I've seen American companies succumb because they couldn't compete with French companies in the rest of the world, due to their refusal to pay bribes. American laws are very strict. If bribery is proven anywhere in the world, the American company can face prison for the Chief Executive Officer and members of the Board, the entire management of the branch in the country where the event occurred, the suspension of stock market sales, fines, and millions of dollars in payments to lawyers in the United States.

In this environment, I developed professionally, being trained in non-corruption. I closely follow what happens in Brazil and how, for decades, corruption has pushed our people into misery, causing hunger, ignorance, and a lack of basic sanitation, security, and education. Almost half the population is forced to live on welfare because of corruption. Keeping the people ignorant and poor is every socialist's dream. They generate votes without questioning.

The wife of the minister, sanctioned by the Magnitzky Law, five months ago, which President Trump lifted, earns 129 million reais to "represent Banco Master," according to a CNN Brazil article detailing the responsibilities in the signed contract: "defending the Bank's interests before the Central Bank, the Federal Revenue Service, Congress, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the Judicial Police, the Judiciary (Federal Police), the Federal Revenue Service, the National Treasury Attorney's Office, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense, and the Legislative branch."

The contract amount is staggering for the Brazilian reality, comparable only to what Brazilian soccer players from major teams earn. I can assure you that no Brazilian lawyer graduates thinking they will have access to so much money through honest work.

The President of Brazil, with whom President Trump negotiated the lifting of sanctions, was convicted in three instances for various crimes and then quickly acquitted (a word hastily invented specifically for this case; nothing like this had ever happened before in the country's history). But then we think: well, it's Brazil. Corruption runs rampant, unchecked, reaching all branches of government, including the Judiciary. A Congress that sells itself for 30 pieces of silver (a centrist majority), and if the people accept living in misery while witnessing all this and let it pass: "long live democracy!"

My sadness and disappointment don't stem from that. We're already used to it; after all, it's Brazil. There's a reason we're poor and subjugated. My sadness stems from my disappointment with the United States government, which, in order to initiate negotiations with the corrupt Brazilian president, sanctioned a Supreme Court justice for human rights violations, and then suspended the sanction with a simple, almost commonplace statement: “The sanctions were suspended in the interests of the American state, and the 'amnesty for prisoners was already underway,'” which is not true. What passed through Congress was a reduction in sentence, already approved by President Lula and the Supreme Court, not an amnesty, and his advisors know this. President Trump did not care about human rights violations, political prisoners convicted of non-existent crimes, hundreds of political exiles, including journalists, and people dying due to lack of care in prison. The sole intention of all this persecution of the conservative right in Brazil with these petty, Frankensteinian processes has simply been to exclude conservatives from the political game, for not stealing and not letting others steal. So, the conclusion, Mr. Trump, is that the interests of the American state are above the ethics and values ​​of the American people? From what I know of the people Americans, they wouldn't put their interests above ethics and morals, but they chose a president who would? If so, then the American people were wrong about you? That's the question that remains.

Rutilea Provete

Graduated in Auditing and Finance and a Journalism student