A Brazilian Supreme Court justice has rejected a request for Argentine President Javier Milei to visit former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently under house arrest. The proposed meeting was scheduled to take place in Brasilia on July 25.
Justice Alexandre de Moraes issued the decision late Friday, stating that Bolsonaro is already prohibited from receiving visits of a "political-electoral nature." De Moraes also presided over the trial that resulted in Bolsonaro's more than 27-year prison sentence for his alleged involvement in a coup attempt.
Milei is expected to attend a Liberal Party convention in Sao Paulo, where Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, one of Jair Bolsonaro's sons, is slated to be formally nominated as a candidate to challenge incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Relations between Lula da Silva and Milei have been strained, with the Brazilian president historically aligning with adversaries of Milei, such as former Argentine presidents Cristina Fernández and Alberto Fernández.
This is not the first time a request to visit Bolsonaro has been denied. In March, Justice de Moraes rejected a similar request from Darren Beattie, a conservative author and former Trump administration official, to visit Bolsonaro in prison.