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

It was 1971, the peak of the country's harsh two-decade authoritarian rule, and Anivaldo Padilha, a young religious activist, had been compelled to escape his nation after enduring 11 long months in one of São Paulo's most infamous detention facilities.

Spirited out of the nation by a church group to prevent execution, he made for Uruguay and Chile before ultimately escaping to the US. “There, he was able to experience the freedom he could not enjoy in Brazil,” stated his son, Alexandre Padilha, who was born after his father’s departure and only saw him eight years later when the situation in Brazil began to stabilize.

I’d like to comprehend what threat my 10-year-old daughter poses to the authorities of the United States

Last month, she and her mother were stripped of their US entry permits as the US administration singled out people tied to Brazil’s administration and judiciary as part of unsuccessful efforts to help ex-president Jair Bolsonaro escape justice for masterminding a 2022 power grab.

“I want to know 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 key supporter of its leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

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

Ahead of Bolsonaro’s court case, American officials imposed sanctions on key Brazilian judges; cancelled the visas of eight of Brazil’s 11 supreme court members; and introduced tariffs on Brazilian goods.

Following Bolsonaro’s sentencing, a US official suggested the US would further retaliate against Brazil and “respond appropriately to this unjust process”.

Recently, it was announced that the entry permits of two state representatives participating in creating Brazil’s Mais Médicos health program had been revoked, purportedly because of the program's employment of foreign doctors.

Padilha thought he had escaped losing his permit because it had already expired. He has yet to been granted a visa for the upcoming UN general assembly in New York.

US officials claimed the officials were targeted because the Brazilian initiative – which has brought healthcare to remote regions – had contributed to benefit “a certain government” and deprived local people of essential medical care.

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

Actually, the minister argued the move to target people connected to the program – including, indirectly, his child – was a reflection of a two-pronged assault on public health and political freedom.

Trump’s attempt to pressure Lula into “intervening” in Brazil’s independent legal system over Bolsonaro’s case was an anti-democratic insult. “Not one of this will deter us,” Padilha vowed. “[We will not] abandon on protecting our democracy.”

Attacking global health means attacking the health of your own people too.

Meanwhile, the official contended the focus of the Brazilian healthcare program was a manifestation of a politician who had initiated a relentless campaign on public health and research – in the US and across the world – since returning to power.

“From the start of this administration, there has been a series of assaults on health in the US and worldwide health,” Padilha said, highlighting how funding for the production of advanced immunizations had been reduced, medical officials sacked, and institutions purged.

“Scientists have been persecuted, grants for academic institutions slashed … and intentions to exit from the WHO.”

“90 per cent of the organization's operations in Africa were funded with the America's optional donation – and this was cut,” explained Padilha, an medical specialist.

“It will impact Africa, which is very serious in itself, but it will also harm the whole world … Undermining international health means attacking the health of your own people too.

“This is why I say we see these measures [against my family] as an astonishing injustice but also as having a certain consistency with the other astonishing absurdities the leader of the US has committed.”

Padilha said his father was perplexed by the “unthinkable” US action to punish his grandchild. “I never imagined the country that offered me shelter, that saved my life … handling my grandchild so outrageously,” he recalled the 85-year-old man as stating.

But the official suggested the hostile health approach could prove an chance for his nation. While the US reduced investments in modern immunizations, the Brazilian state was investing tens of millions of dollars into healthcare institutes, which are pushing ahead with the creation of such critical shots.

“Come to Brazil,” was Padilha’s invitation to US-based researchers and health companies who were under the cosh because of the “uncertainty” during the present US government.

“I like to joke that Brazil has managed to bring an Italian manager to lead the national soccer team. Currently we’re attracting numerous experts to relocate and do their studies in Brazil,” said Padilha, who mentioned officials had already observed an arrival of researchers from the US.

“Agreements with American firms have been ended … and we’re going to attract them to invest here in Brazil.”

A spokesperson for the US embassy declined to respond on why the visas of Padilha’s daughter and wife had been canceled.