BRASILIA: Brazilian officials have yet to receive visas to attend the UN General Assembly in New York next week, the foreign ministry said Monday, as trade and diplomatic ties with Washington remain strained.
The trial and conviction of Brazil’s far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro angered his ally Donald Trump, the US president who has already slapped a 50-percent tariff on Brazilian imports.
“We have received information from the US government that the visas have not yet been granted. They are being processed,” foreign ministry official Marcelo Marotta Viegas told a press conference.
He said a refusal to grant the visas would be a “legal violation” by the United States.
Viegas did not say how many visas were pending approval.
“It’s concerning,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said of the visa delay.
Bolsonaro was sentenced last week to 27 years in prison for a botched coup attempt.
Aside from the tariffs, Washington has also revoked the visas of several Brazilian Supreme Court judges and a government minister.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that further US action could be expected to pressure Brazil over Bolsonaro’s conviction.
“We’ll have some announcements in the next week or so about what additional steps we intend to take,” Rubio told Fox News from Jerusalem on Monday.
Brazilian officials yet to receive US visas for UN assembly
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Brazilian officials yet to receive US visas for UN assembly
- Foreign ministry official Marcelo Marotta said a refusal to grant the visas would be a “legal violation” by the US
Guinea confirms detention of 16 Sierra Leonean soldiers
- Guinea said late Tuesday the soldiers entered the Koudaya district in the Faranah region without authorization
- Guinea said its forces seized their equipment and supplies
CONAKRY: Guinea’s military confirmed the detention of 16 Sierra Leonean soldiers after accusing them of crossing the border and raising their flag on Guinean soil.
The two West African countries have been involved in a border dispute for more than two decades, stemming from the Sierra Leonean Civil War between 1991 and 2002. Sierra Leone’s government had invited Guinea to help defend its eastern borders during the war, but the Guinean troops didn’t completely withdraw after the war.
The GuineanMinistry of National Defense said in a statement, issued late Tuesday, the soldiers entered the district of Koudaya in Faranah, a border region in Guinea, without authorization, where they“set up a tent and raised their national flag”. Guinean authorities also seized their equipment and supplies.
The Sierra Leonean authorities earlier Tuesday said several members of a security unit, including an officer, had been apprehended while making bricks fora border post in Kalieyereh in the district of Falaba on Monday.
Last year, the Guinean military entered a mineral-rich border town in Sierra Leone, reigniting the tension.
