Brazil’s government on Saturday expressed outrage after dozens of immigrants deported from the US arrived by plane in handcuffs, calling it a “flagrant disregard” for their rights.
The Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would demand an explanation from Washington over the “degrading treatment of passengers on the flight.”
The spat comes as Latin America grapples with US President Donald Trump’s return to power bringing a hardline anti-immigration agenda, promising crackdowns on irregular migration and mass deportations.
Photo: AFP
When the plane landed in the northern city of Manaus, Brazilian authorities ordered US officials to “immediately remove the handcuffs,” the Brazilian Ministry of Justice and Public Security said in a statement.
Brazilian Minister of Justice and Public Security Ricardo Lewandowski told Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of “the flagrant disregard for the fundamental rights of Brazilian citizens,” the statement said.
Brazil would request “explanations from the US government about the degrading treatment of passengers” on the Friday night flight, the foreign ministry wrote on X.
The government said 88 Brazilians were aboard the aircraft.
Edgar Da Silva Moura, a 31-year-old computer technician, was on the flight, after seven months in detention in the US.
“On the plane they didn’t give us water, we were tied hands and feet, they wouldn’t even let us go to the bathroom,” he said. “It was very hot, some people fainted.”
Luis Antonio Rodrigues Santos, a 21-year-old freelancer, recounted the “nightmare” of people with “respiratory problems” during “four hours without air-conditioning” due to technical issues on the plane.
“Things have already changed [with Trump]; immigrants are treated as criminals,” he said.
The flight was originally destined for the southeastern city of Belo Horizonte, but encountered a technical issue forcing it to land in Manaus.
A government source said the deportation flight was not directly linked to any immigration orders issued by Trump upon taking office on Monday last week, but rather stemmed from a 2017 bilateral agreement.
Brazilian Minister of Human Rights and Citizenship Macae Evaristo told journalists that “children with autism ... who went through very serious experiences” were also on the flight.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
The Philippines yesterday slammed an “irresponsible” Chinese state media report claiming a disputed reef in the South China Sea was under Beijing’s control, saying the “status quo” was unchanged. Tiexian Reef (鐵線礁), also known as Sandy Cay Reef, lies near Thitu Island, or Pagasa, where the Philippines stations troops and maintains a coast guard monitoring base. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV on Saturday said that the China Coast Guard had “implemented maritime control” over Tiexian Reef in the middle of this month. The Philippines and China have been engaged in months of confrontations over the South China Sea, which Beijing claims nearly in its
RSS