SAO PAULO: In early May, an air of triumph filled a dinner in Beijing, where Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva celebrated a diplomatic victory: businessmen traveling with him said they had secured billions of dollars in investments as the veteran leader renewed his international prestige standing alongside his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.
But then Brazilian first lady Rosângela da Silva, better known as Janja, raised her hand.
Although no one was expected to speak, da Silva addressed Xi, saying that Chinese social media company TikTok posed a challenge for leftists, claiming its algorithm favors right-wingers. China’s president reportedly answered. The exchange was leaked to Brazilian media by the time dessert was served.
Lula’s government is grappling with unpopularity that has dented his credentials as the frontrunner for reelection next year. Some analysts, including members of his government, attribute this partly to his wife’s perceived overstepping in what was once a ceremonial role.
Janja, a 58-year-old sociologist, has drawn criticism for insulting tech billionaire Elon Musk, mocking the suicide of a pro-Jair Bolsonaro supporter and advising the president on how to use the military during the Jan. 8, 2023 riots in the capital, Brasilia. Still, she insists she will speak out whenever it serves the public interest.
A Datafolha poll released June 12 found that 36 percent of Brazilians think the first lady’s actions hurt the government, while 14 percent say they are helpful. It was the pollster’s first measure of the first lady’s approval.
The same poll showed Lula with a 40 percent job disapproval rating, an 8 percentage point increase from October 2024.
Brazil’s presidency said in a statement to The Associated Press on June 20 that da Silva adheres to the solicitor-general’s office guidelines, adding that she “acts as a citizen, combining her public visibility with the experience she has built throughout her professional career in support of relevant social issues and matters of public interest.”
‘Undue interference’
Under guidelines published by the solicitor-general’s office, the president’s spouse primarily fulfills “a symbolically representative role on behalf of the president in a social, cultural, ceremonial, political or diplomatic nature.” For many of her critics, this does not grant her the authority to speak as a government representative.
Brazilian media have reported that government ministers, lawmakers and staunch leftist campaigners are privately raising concerns about the first lady being a hindrance more than an asset. These worries have skyrocketed since the incident in China — even as Lula himself has praised his wife for speaking out.
“It looks like Brazil is governed by a couple,” said Beatriz Rey, a political science postdoctoral and research fellow at the University of Lisbon. “When (the first lady) says there won’t be any protocols to silence her, she disrespects our democratic institutions for she has no elected office, no government position. It is not about being a woman or a feminist. It is undue interference.”
‘Present and vocal’
Lula’s first wife, Maria de Lourdes, died in 1971. His second, Marisa Letícia, died in 2017. Lula, 79, and Janja said they met in 2017 and started seeing each other frequently during the leftist leader’s 580 days in jail in the city of Curitiba between 2018 and 2019. They married in 2022.
Many supporters of Lula’s Workers’ Party partly attribute the criticism against the first lady to misinformation and disinformation. In May, the party launched the “I am with Janja” social media campaign in her defense. But the week-long effort garnered less than 100,000 views and only a few hundred comments.
“Janja is an asset because she rejuvenates Lula, everyone in the government understands that, even her critics,” a Brazilian government source told the AP. “No one wants to alienate her. But many important people in Brasilia, friends and allies of Lula, do understand that by overstepping she brings some of her rejection to the president.”
The source, who spoke under condition of anonymity for lack of authorization to speak about the matter publicly, often travels with the president and the first lady.
Adriana Negreiros, a journalist who profiled the first lady for a 2024 podcast titled “Janja,” said that allies of the president who criticize her do it with extreme caution.
”(Janja) dances, sings, speaks out, appears at official events and meetings with heads of state. She insists on being present and vocal,” Negreiros said. “There’s a lot of sexism and misogyny directed at her, no doubt. But not all criticism is sexist.”
‘She will say what she wants’
Da Silva said she doesn’t go to dinners “just to accompany” her husband.
“I have common sense. I consider myself an intelligent person. So I know very well what my limits are. I’m fully aware of that,” she told a podcast of daily Folha de S. Paulo.
Da Silva did, however, express remorse during the same podcast for the expletive she used against Musk in 2024, once a close ally of US President Donald Trump.
Many of Lula’s adversaries say they want the first lady to remain in the spotlight.
“The more she speaks, the more she holds a microphone, the more she helps the right wing,” said Nikolas Ferreira, one of Brazil’s most popular right-wing lawmakers.
Ferreira, a prominent social media figure, claims the role of regulating social media is a matter for Brazil’s Congress, not for the first lady to debate with foreign leaders like Xi.
Da Silva is also expected to play as a keen hostess at the BRICS summit in Rio on July 6-7, a role her husband is almost certain not to oppose.
“She will be wherever she wants,” Lula told journalists in March following criticism for sending the first lady as his representative to a nutrition summit in Paris that month.
“She will say what she wants and go wherever she wants.”
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Brazil’s outspoken first lady is coming under fire, but she refuses to stop speaking out
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Brazil’s outspoken first lady is coming under fire, but she refuses to stop speaking out
- Lula’s government is grappling with unpopularity, some analysts including members of his government, attribute this partly to his wife’s perceived overstepping in what was once a ceremonial role
Trump administration’s capture of Maduro raises unease about the international legal framework
THE HAGUE, Netherlands: From the smoldering wreckage of two catastrophic world wars in the last century, nations came together to build an edifice of international rules and laws. The goal was to prevent such sprawling conflicts in the future.
Now that world order — centered at the United Nations headquarters in New York, near the courtroom where Nicolás Maduro was arraigned Monday after his removal from power in Venezuela — appears in danger of crumbling as the doctrine of “might makes right” muscles its way back onto the global stage.
UN Undersecretary-General Rosemary A. DiCarlo told the body’s Security Council on Monday that the “maintenance of international peace and security depends on the continued commitment of all member states to adhere to all the provisions of the (UN) Charter.”
US President Donald Trump insists capturing Maduro was legal. His administration has declared the drug cartels operating from Venezuela to be unlawful combatants and said the US is now in an “armed conflict” with them, according to an administration memo obtained in October by The Associated Press.
The mission to snatch Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from their home on a military base in the capital Caracas means they face charges of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy. The US ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, defended the military action as a justified “surgical law enforcement operation.”
The move fits into the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy, published last month, that lays out restoring “American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” as a key goal of the US president’s second term in the White House.
But could it also serve as a blueprint for further action?
Worry rises about future action
On Sunday evening, Trump also put Venezuela’s neighbor, Colombia, and its leftist president, Gustavo Petro, on notice.
In a back-and-forth with reporters, Trump said Colombia is “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States.” The Trump administration imposed sanctions in October on Petro, his family and a member of his government over accusations of involvement in the global drug trade. Colombia is considered the epicenter of the world’s cocaine trade.
Analysts and some world leaders — from China to Mexico — have condemned the Venezuela mission. Some voiced fears that Maduro’s ouster could pave the way for more military interventions and a further erosion of the global legal order.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the capture of Maduro “runs counter to the principle of the non-use of force, which forms the basis of international law.”
He warned the “increasing number of violations of this principle by nations vested with the important responsibility of permanent membership on the United Nations Security Council will have serious consequences for global security and will spare no one.”
Here are some global situations that could be affected by changing attitudes on such issues.
Ukraine
For nearly four years, Europe has been dealing with Russia’s war of aggression in neighboring Ukraine, a conflict that grates against the eastern flank of the continent and the transatlantic NATO alliance and has widely been labeled a grave breach of international law.
The European Union relies deeply on US support to keep Ukraine afloat, particularly after the administration warned that Europe must look after its own security in the future.
Vasily Nebenzya, the Russian ambassador to the UN, said the mission to extract Maduro amounted to “a turn back to the era of lawlessness” by the United States. During the UN Security Council’s emergency meeting, he called on the 15-member panel to “unite and to definitively reject the methods and tools of US military foreign policy.”
Volodymyr Fesenko, chairman of the board of the Penta think tank in Kyiv, Ukraine, said Russian President Vladimir Putin has long undermined the global order and weakened international law.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “Trump’s actions have continued this trend.”
Greenland
Trump fanned another growing concern for Europe when he openly speculated about the future of the Danish territory of Greenland.
“It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” Trump told reporters Sunday as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement that Trump has “no right to annex” the territory. She also reminded Trump that Denmark already provides the US, a fellow NATO member, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.
Taiwan
The mission to capture Maduro has ignited speculation about a similar move China could make against the leader of Taiwan, Lai Ching-te. Just last week, in response to a US plan to sell a massive military arms package to Taipei, China conducted two days of military drills around the island democracy that Beijing claims as its own territory.
Beijing, however, is unlikely to replicate Trump’s action in Venezuela, which could prove destabilizing and risky.
Chinese strategy has been to gradually increase pressure on Taiwan through military harassment, propaganda campaigns and political influence rather than to single out Lai as a target. China looks to squeeze Taiwan into eventually accepting a status similar to Hong Kong and Macau, which are governed semi-autonomously on paper but have come under increasing central control.
For China, Maduro’s capture also brings a layer of uncertainty about the Trump administration’s ability to move fast, unpredictably and audaciously against other governments. Beijing has criticized Maduro’s capture, calling it a “blatant use of force against a sovereign state” and saying Washington is acting as the “world’s judge.”
The Mideast
Israel’s grinding attack on Gaza in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas underscored the international community’s inability to stop a devastating conflict. The United States, Israel’s staunchest ally, vetoed Security Council resolutions calling for ceasefires in Gaza.
Trump already has demonstrated his willingness to take on Israel’s neighbor and longtime US adversary Iran over its nuclear program with military strikes on sites in Iran in June 2025.
On Friday, Trump warned Iran that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the US “will come to their rescue.” Violence sparked by Iran’s ailing economy has killed at least 35 people, activists said Tuesday.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the “illegal US attack against Venezuela.”
Europe and Trump
The 27-nation European Union, another post-World War II institution intended to foster peace and prosperity, is grappling with how to respond to its traditional ally under the Trump administration. In a clear indication of the increasingly fragile nature of the transatlantic relationship, Trump’s national security strategy painted the bloc as weak.
While insisting Maduro has no political legitimacy, the EU said in a statement on the mission to capture him that “the principles of international law and the UN Charter must be upheld,” adding that members of the UN Security Council “have a particular responsibility to uphold those principles.”
But outspoken Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a close Trump ally, spoke disparagingly about the role international law plays in regulating the behavior of countries.
International rules, he said, “do not govern the decisions of many great powers. This is completely obvious.”
Now that world order — centered at the United Nations headquarters in New York, near the courtroom where Nicolás Maduro was arraigned Monday after his removal from power in Venezuela — appears in danger of crumbling as the doctrine of “might makes right” muscles its way back onto the global stage.
UN Undersecretary-General Rosemary A. DiCarlo told the body’s Security Council on Monday that the “maintenance of international peace and security depends on the continued commitment of all member states to adhere to all the provisions of the (UN) Charter.”
US President Donald Trump insists capturing Maduro was legal. His administration has declared the drug cartels operating from Venezuela to be unlawful combatants and said the US is now in an “armed conflict” with them, according to an administration memo obtained in October by The Associated Press.
The mission to snatch Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from their home on a military base in the capital Caracas means they face charges of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy. The US ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, defended the military action as a justified “surgical law enforcement operation.”
The move fits into the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy, published last month, that lays out restoring “American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere” as a key goal of the US president’s second term in the White House.
But could it also serve as a blueprint for further action?
Worry rises about future action
On Sunday evening, Trump also put Venezuela’s neighbor, Colombia, and its leftist president, Gustavo Petro, on notice.
In a back-and-forth with reporters, Trump said Colombia is “run by a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States.” The Trump administration imposed sanctions in October on Petro, his family and a member of his government over accusations of involvement in the global drug trade. Colombia is considered the epicenter of the world’s cocaine trade.
Analysts and some world leaders — from China to Mexico — have condemned the Venezuela mission. Some voiced fears that Maduro’s ouster could pave the way for more military interventions and a further erosion of the global legal order.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the capture of Maduro “runs counter to the principle of the non-use of force, which forms the basis of international law.”
He warned the “increasing number of violations of this principle by nations vested with the important responsibility of permanent membership on the United Nations Security Council will have serious consequences for global security and will spare no one.”
Here are some global situations that could be affected by changing attitudes on such issues.
Ukraine
For nearly four years, Europe has been dealing with Russia’s war of aggression in neighboring Ukraine, a conflict that grates against the eastern flank of the continent and the transatlantic NATO alliance and has widely been labeled a grave breach of international law.
The European Union relies deeply on US support to keep Ukraine afloat, particularly after the administration warned that Europe must look after its own security in the future.
Vasily Nebenzya, the Russian ambassador to the UN, said the mission to extract Maduro amounted to “a turn back to the era of lawlessness” by the United States. During the UN Security Council’s emergency meeting, he called on the 15-member panel to “unite and to definitively reject the methods and tools of US military foreign policy.”
Volodymyr Fesenko, chairman of the board of the Penta think tank in Kyiv, Ukraine, said Russian President Vladimir Putin has long undermined the global order and weakened international law.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “Trump’s actions have continued this trend.”
Greenland
Trump fanned another growing concern for Europe when he openly speculated about the future of the Danish territory of Greenland.
“It’s so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” Trump told reporters Sunday as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement that Trump has “no right to annex” the territory. She also reminded Trump that Denmark already provides the US, a fellow NATO member, broad access to Greenland through existing security agreements.
Taiwan
The mission to capture Maduro has ignited speculation about a similar move China could make against the leader of Taiwan, Lai Ching-te. Just last week, in response to a US plan to sell a massive military arms package to Taipei, China conducted two days of military drills around the island democracy that Beijing claims as its own territory.
Beijing, however, is unlikely to replicate Trump’s action in Venezuela, which could prove destabilizing and risky.
Chinese strategy has been to gradually increase pressure on Taiwan through military harassment, propaganda campaigns and political influence rather than to single out Lai as a target. China looks to squeeze Taiwan into eventually accepting a status similar to Hong Kong and Macau, which are governed semi-autonomously on paper but have come under increasing central control.
For China, Maduro’s capture also brings a layer of uncertainty about the Trump administration’s ability to move fast, unpredictably and audaciously against other governments. Beijing has criticized Maduro’s capture, calling it a “blatant use of force against a sovereign state” and saying Washington is acting as the “world’s judge.”
The Mideast
Israel’s grinding attack on Gaza in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas underscored the international community’s inability to stop a devastating conflict. The United States, Israel’s staunchest ally, vetoed Security Council resolutions calling for ceasefires in Gaza.
Trump already has demonstrated his willingness to take on Israel’s neighbor and longtime US adversary Iran over its nuclear program with military strikes on sites in Iran in June 2025.
On Friday, Trump warned Iran that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” the US “will come to their rescue.” Violence sparked by Iran’s ailing economy has killed at least 35 people, activists said Tuesday.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned the “illegal US attack against Venezuela.”
Europe and Trump
The 27-nation European Union, another post-World War II institution intended to foster peace and prosperity, is grappling with how to respond to its traditional ally under the Trump administration. In a clear indication of the increasingly fragile nature of the transatlantic relationship, Trump’s national security strategy painted the bloc as weak.
While insisting Maduro has no political legitimacy, the EU said in a statement on the mission to capture him that “the principles of international law and the UN Charter must be upheld,” adding that members of the UN Security Council “have a particular responsibility to uphold those principles.”
But outspoken Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a close Trump ally, spoke disparagingly about the role international law plays in regulating the behavior of countries.
International rules, he said, “do not govern the decisions of many great powers. This is completely obvious.”
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