When Mr. Padilha's parent most needed help, the US took him in.
This occurred in 1971, the height of Brazil's brutal two-decade dictatorship, and Anivaldo Padilha, a young Methodist activist, had been compelled to escape his country after enduring 11 months in one of the city's most notorious torture centres.
Spirited out of the country by a religious organization to avoid execution, he made for Uruguay and Chile before ultimately finding asylum in the US. "In America, he was able to live the liberty he wasn't able to enjoy in Brazil," stated his son, Alexandre Padilha, who was born after his parent left and only met him almost a decade afterward when the political climate in Brazil began to improve.
I'd want to comprehend what risk my young daughter represents to the authorities of the US
Recently, she and her mother were stripped of their US visas as the Trump administration singled out people associated with the country's government and judiciary as part of unsuccessful efforts to help ex-president Jair Bolsonaro avoid prosecution for orchestrating a 2022 coup attempt. Recently, the former president was sentenced to decades in prison for the unsuccessful power grab.
"It is baffling what danger my young daughter poses to the government of the United States ... that means she is barred from being able to visit the US," said Alexandre Padilha, who is Brazil's top health official and a prominent supporter of its leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Speaking publicly, Padilha called the decision to target his child as an "shocking absurdity" and a "diplomatic abuse".
Ahead of Bolsonaro's trial, the US president slapped sanctions on Alexandre de Moraes presiding over the case; cancelled the visas of several of the nation's 11 supreme court judges, including the judge; and enacted 50% tariffs on the country's goods.
After the ex-president's conviction, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, hinted the US would further punish Brazil and "react appropriately to this witch-hunt".
Last month, the US official declared that the visas of several public servants connected to creating Brazil's More Doctors public health initiative had been canceled, allegedly because of the program's use of medical professionals from Cuba. Padilha believed he had escaped losing his visa because it had already expired. He has not yet been issued with a visa for the upcoming UN meeting in New York.
Rubio claimed the officials were targeted because the Brazilian program – which has brought healthcare to remote areas – had helped enrich "a questionable Cuban regime and deprive the citizens of essential medical care". But Padilha, who said those professionals were no longer involved in a program he credited with preserving millions of lives, felt that was a pretext.
Actually, the minister claimed the US leader's decision to target people associated with the program – including, indirectly, his daughter – was a reflection of the US president's dual attack on public health and democracy.
Trump's attempt to pressure Lula into "meddling" in Brazil's independent judiciary over the former leader's judgment was an anti-democratic affront. "None of this will intimidate us," Padilha vowed. "We will not give up on defending our democracy".
Meanwhile, the minister believed Trump's targeting the Brazilian healthcare project was a reflection of a politician who had initiated a sustained offensive on public health and research – in the US and around the world – since regaining power.
Attacking worldwide healthcare means attacking the health of your citizens too.
"From the start of the current US government, he's launched a succession of attacks on medical care in the US and international public health," Padilha said, pointing out how the president had cut funding for the production of mRNA vaccines, dismissed the head of the CDC, and removed the leaders of the National Institutes of Health.
"The administration has targeted researchers, cut funding for universities … and threatened to withdraw from the World Health Organization." "90 percent of the organization's operations in Africa were paid for with the American voluntary donation – and this was cut," said Padilha, an medical specialist who displayed a white coat celebrating the nation's public healthcare system, the SUS.
"This will affect Africa, which is very serious in itself, but it will also affect the entire globe … Attacking international healthcare means attacking the wellness of your own people too.
"That's why I say we see these actions [against my family] as an astonishing absurdity but also as having a certain consistency with the other outrageous absurdities the president of the US has committed."
Padilha said his father was perplexed by the "unthinkable" US decision to penalize his grandchild. "It is shocking the country that gave me refuge, that protected me … subjecting my granddaughter so unjustly," he recalled the 85-year-old man as saying.
But the minister hoped that Trump's anti-healthcare campaign could prove an opportunity for his country. While the US health secretary, a US figure, has cut investments in mRNA vaccines, the nation was pumping significant funds into research centers, Fiocruz and Butantan, which are making progress with the development of such critical vaccines.
"Come to Brazil," was the minister's invitation to US-based researchers and companies who were facing pressure because of the "uncertainty" under Trump.
"It is noteworthy that Brazil has managed to bring an foreign coach to lead the Brazilian football team. Now we're welcoming numerous researchers to come and work in Brazil," said Padilha, who noted authorities had already detected an influx of researchers from the US.
"The US president has terminated contracts with US firms … and we're going to encourage them to invest here in Brazil."
Representatives for the US embassy in Brasília did not respond on why the visas of Padilha's family members had been revoked.
