Apr 25 2025| Nº. 163

Editorial

Facing political pressures and ongoing challenges to shore up his base in Congress, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva this week appointed Frederico Siqueira Filho, president of Telebras, the state-owned telecommunications company, as Minister of Communications after the unexpected refusal of Congressman Pedro Lucas Fernandes to take the role. Fernandes’ withdrawal, driven by concerns within his conservative União Brasil party about losing its preeminent opposition role in the lower house of Congress, forced Lula to pivot toward candidate with more technical qualifications. Siqueira, an experienced telecommunications executive, was supported by Senate President Davi Alcolumbre. His appointment helps Lula navigate coalition demands while stabilizing a ministry left vacant after the prior occupant resigned amid corruption allegations—highlighting the ongoing challenges Lula faces in balancing political alliances with his political agenda, which is expected to include some heavy lifts this year ahead of the start of the campaign cycle in 2026.

Indeed, Lula found himself looking ahead as he hosted Chile’s President Gabriel Boric in Brasília on Tuesday, April 22. “What will Brazil be like when I am no longer president, if the far right returns here? What will Chile be like if the far right comes into Chile?” Lula asked in an almost elegiac tone. “You don't want a Cold War, and I don't want a Cold War. I don't want to choose between the United States or China,” he added. Celebrating nearly two centuries of diplomatic relations, the leaders held talks at the presidential palace and later joined ministers and business leaders at the Itamaraty Palace and the Brazil-Chile Business Forum. Their agenda focused on strengthening bilateral ties through increased trade, investment, and finalizing the Bioceanic Road Corridor, an ambitious infrastructure project aimed at improving logistics and integration across South America from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

On Thursday, April 24, Lula traveled to Italy to attend the funeral of Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff. Lula was accompanied by the first lady and top officials from Brazil’s three branches of government: Luís Roberto Barroso (Supreme Court), Hugo Motta (Chamber of Deputies), and Davi Alcolumbre (Senate). The funeral is set for Saturday, April 26, and the group is expected to return the same day. Lula, who declared seven days of national mourning, praised Francis as a pope for the poor and marginalized. Also attending the funeral is U.S. President Donald Trump, possibly setting the stage for the first meeting between the two heads of state.

Highlights

• Candidate Lula. President Lula said on Wednesday, April 23 to a group of federal lawmakers from the government's allied base in Congress that he intends to run in the 2026 presidential elections. The statement was made during a dinner organized in Brasília by the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Hugo Motta. Lula ran in the last election, in 2022, as a representative of a broad and heterogeneous front of parties that went beyond those of the Left. On that occasion, he said that he did not intend to run for a fourth term, if elected. After assuming the presidency for the third time, however, the Brazilian president began to relativize this promise and began to increasingly consider the chance of running again. Brazil limits reelection to two consecutive terms, but does not establish limits for a president who has been reelected once to run again for new elections, if he has alternated periods out of office.

• Retirement fraud. After the Lula government lost its minister of communications due to a corruption allegation, now it was time for the president of the National Institute of Social Security (INSS), Alessandro Stefanutto, to step down due to an operation launched by the Federal Police against a fraud scheme regarding Brazilian public funds. The embezzlement was carried out through unauthorized discounts on retirements and pensions between 2019 and 2024. Stefanutto's removal was ordered by the courts and, subsequently, he was dismissed from his position by Lula.

  
  

• Court summons. On Wednesday, April 23, a court officer entered the Intensive Care Unit, where former President Jair Bolsonaro is hospitalized in Brasília to deliver to him the court summons regarding the case in which he is a defendant in the Supreme Court for an attempted coup d'état. The former president had been saying that he was unavailable to receive a subpoena for health reasons, but after broadcasting on several social media accounts from his hospital room, Justice Alexandre de Moraes decided to subpoena him. Bolsonaro and his supporters reacted by comparing the subpoena from his hospital bed to Nazi practices.

  
  

• New defendants. The First Chamber of the Supreme Federal Court made public on Tuesday, April 22 a new group of people accused of leading an attempted coup d'état to keep Jair Bolsonaro in power after the 2022 presidential elections. Among the new defendants are former military personnel, former members of the intelligence services, and former direct advisors to Bolsonaro. The Court refers to the first group of defendants, of which Bolsonaro is a part, as a “crucial” group in the coup actions. This second group is defined as a “managerial” group of actions that would lead to a coup d'état in 2022/2023.

News from ABO and social organizations and movements:

IACHR Course. The online course on the functioning of the Inter-American Human Rights System, taught by the WBO and the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University, continues on April 25 with the class on “Precautionary Measures and Requests for Provisional Measures Before the Inter-American Court”, taught by Fernanda dos Anjos. Among the topics discussed will be examples of the impact of precautionary measures on indigenous, environmental, racial, and LGBTI rights.

No amnesty. The Pact for Democracy – an initiative that brings together more than 200 civil society organizations – published a note in which it opposes Bill 2858/2022, known as the Amnesty Bill. This bill is being promoted in Congress as a way of pardoning those involved in the failed coup attempt of 2022/2023. “The Amnesty Bill must be immediately shelved by the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies. It is the duty of members of Congress who defend democracy to prevent the processing of this proposal, which is a direct threat to the integrity of the Brazilian democratic regime,” the note says.

Job insecurity. Ação da Cidadania launched a study on the food insecurity of delivery workers who work in association with app-based companies. The organization concluded that “delivery workers through apps are going hungry. The precariousness and lack of rights worsen this situation. It is urgent to guarantee better working and food conditions.” Of every 10 delivery workers, 3 are in a situation of food insecurity. Read the research.

Decent housing. The Brazilian Center for Climate Justice (CBJC) just published a booklet that addresses the struggle of Black women for decent and safe housing in Brazil. The booklet reveals housing inequalities and highlights transformative solutions that are already underway. The document can be downloaded for free from the organization’s website.

Death of the Pope. The Dom Hélder Câmara Center for Studies and Social Action published an article its networks in which it highlights aspects of Francis’s positions in favor of human rights. The organization recalls that the pope, who died on April 21, went to “meet migrants and refugees, denounced the mass deaths of children in Gaza; became a beacon in the face of the lack of global leaders who defended socio-environmental justice.” He was also “a pope who asked for forgiveness from Indigenous peoples and called for an alternative to capitalism, which produces an urban life of inequalities.”

Feature Article

The United States Made Me a
Victim of Global Anti-trans Policies

By Erika Hilton*

I am the first Black and trans woman elected to the Brazilian Congress and one of the most influential progressive voices in Brazil, and I had my gender deliberately changed from “feminine” to “masculine” on a diplomatic visa issued by the U.S. Embassy in Brasília.

The case, which occurred on April 7, 2024, reveals the international consequences of the U.S. government’s anti-trans policies and raises urgent questions about human rights, sovereignty, and diplomacy that we need to address.

I had been invited to debate on April 12, alongside other Brazilian authorities, in an official mission approved by the Presidency of the Chamber of Deputies, the theme “Diversity and Democracy” at the Brazil Conference at Harvard & MIT – the largest conference on Brazil organized by Brazilian students, researchers, and professors abroad. However, when I applied for the visa, the US Embassy publicly denied my gender identity.

Despite all legal procedures having been followed – authorization from the President of the Chamber of Deputies for the trip to be an Official Mission and the corresponding request for a diplomatic visa (class A) intended for government authorities –, the American embassy ignored official documents that attest to my female gender, such as my birth certificate, passport and even a previous diplomatic visa issued by the United States in 2023. The “sex” field was changed to “male” without justification or consultation in a unilateral decision that I classify simply as transphobic state violence.

I received this measure, taken unilaterally, as what it is: serious transphobic violence, in addition to a strong indication that there would not be the necessary security conditions to enter the country. For this reason, I canceled my trip to the event and brought the case to the public last week.

I repeat here what I said in one of my statements about the case to the press: “This is a situation of violence, disrespect, and even abuse of power because it ignores a Brazilian document. It is a blatant, perverse, and cruel expression of state transphobia practiced by the U.S. government. When carried out in the United States, it still requires a response from the authorities and the U.S. judiciary. But when it affects another country, it also requires a diplomatic response, a response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”

The case has become one of the most talked about topics in the Brazilian media and on social media, generating a broad debate about institutional transphobia and international relations.

The embassy’s justification cited Executive Order 14168, signed by Donald Trump in January 2025, which determines that the U.S. federal government only recognizes “male” and “female” based on “biological sex at birth.” The measure, which had already caused controversy by barring passports with an “X” marker and restricting the rights of trans people in the United States, reached a new level when it was applied to a foreign authority on an official mission.

For the first time, an elected member of congress had her gender identity denied on a diplomatic document, constituting direct interference by the US government in the political representation of another country. The case is even more serious because it completely disregarded Brazilian law, which has allowed the changing of name and gender on birth certificates without medical or judicial requirements since 2018.

The US policy clearly violates the rights protected by the American Convention on Human Rights, especially Articles 3 (right to recognition of legal personality), 7.1 (right to liberty), and 11.2 (right to a private life). Furthermore, it contravenes Advisory Opinion 24/17 of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which determines that States must guarantee the correction of documents in accordance with self-declared gender identity.

Although the United States does not accept the binding jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), it formally recognizes the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

I am already gathering support to activate international protection mechanisms and seeking the support of U.S. congressional representatives and human rights organizations to increase the repercussions of the case.

This is not an isolated episode. Since 2025, reports of trans people who have had their U.S. visas or passports refused or changed have multiplied. The difference is that, this time an elected representative with institutional support made the violence even more visible, exposing how domestic policies can become instruments of transphobic discrimination on a global scale.

As long as the Donald Trump administration insists on denying the existence of trans people, cases like mine will continue to challenge the international community to act against policies that restrict people’s freedom and impose incorrect rules and norms on the bodies and identities of its own citizens and foreign citizens.

*Erika Hilton (PSOL-SP) is the first Black and trans woman elected to the Brazilian Congress and one of the most influential progressive voices in Brazil.

Feature articles express the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or WBO.