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At the time Mr. Padilha's father most needed help, the United States took him in.

It was 1971, the peak of Brazil's harsh 20-year authoritarian rule, and his father Padilha, a youthful religious advocate, had been forced to flee his country after spending 11 months in one of the city's most notorious torture centres.

Spirited out of the country by a religious organization to avoid being killed, he traveled to Uruguay and Chile before ultimately finding asylum in the US. "In America, he was able to live the freedom he could not enjoy in Brazil," stated his son, Alexandre Padilha, who was born after his father's departure and only met him almost a decade afterward when the situation in Brazil began to improve.

I'd like to understand what threat my young daughter represents to the authorities of the US

Recently, she and her mother were lost their US visas as the Trump administration singled out people tied to the country's administration and supreme court as part of unsuccessful efforts to assist ex-president Jair Bolsonaro escape justice for orchestrating a recent power grab. On Thursday, the former president was sentenced to 27 years in prison for the unsuccessful power grab.

"It is baffling what danger my 10-year-old daughter could possibly present to the government of the United States ... that means she cannot visit the US," said Alexandre Padilha, who is Brazil's top health official and a prominent ally of its progressive president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Speaking publicly, Padilha called the decision to target his child as an "shocking absurdity" and a "political abuse".

Ahead of the former leader's trial, the US president slapped sanctions on a supreme court judge overseeing the case; revoked the visas of eight of the nation's eleven supreme court judges, including the judge; and ordered 50% tariffs on the country's goods.

After the ex-president's sentencing, the US top diplomat, a US official, suggested the US would further punish Brazil and "react appropriately to this unjust persecution".

Last month, the US official announced that the visas of two public servants involved in creating Brazil's More Doctors health program had been revoked, purportedly because of the program's use of medical professionals from Cuba. Padilha thought he had avoided losing his visa because it had already lapsed. He has not yet been granted a visa for next week's UN meeting in New York.

Rubio claimed the individuals were targeted because the Brazilian program – which has provided healthcare to underserved regions – had helped enrich "the corrupt Cuban regime and deny the Cuban people of essential medical care". But the minister, who said those professionals were not involved in a program he credited with preserving millions of lives, felt that was a pretext.

In fact, the minister argued Trump's decision to target people associated with the program – including, by extension, his daughter – was a reflection of the US president's two-pronged attack on public health and democratic institutions.

The US president's attempt to pressure Lula into "intervening" in Brazil's independent judiciary over Bolsonaro's judgment was an anti-democratic insult. "These actions will intimidate us," Padilha vowed. "We will not give up on protecting our democracy".

At the same time, the minister believed Trump's focus on the Brazilian medical initiative was a manifestation of a politician who had launched a sustained offensive on health systems and research – in the US and globally – since regaining power.

Attacking global health means attacking the health of your own people too.

"From the start of the Trump administration, he's launched a series of attacks on medical care in the US and international public health," Padilha said, noting how Trump had reduced funding for the production of innovative immunizations, sacked 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 wore a garment celebrating Brazil's national health service, the SUS.

"These cuts will affect Africa, which is deeply concerning in itself, but it will also affect the entire globe … Attacking international healthcare means attacking the health of your own people too.

"That's why I say we see these measures [against my family] as an astonishing absurdity but also as having a clear pattern with the other outrageous absurdities the leader of the US has committed."

Padilha said his father was perplexed by the "inconceivable" US decision to punish his granddaughter. "I never imagined the country that gave me refuge, that protected me … subjecting my granddaughter so unjustly," he recalled the elderly man as saying.

But the minister hoped that Trump's anti-public health campaign could prove an chance for his country. While the US health secretary, a US figure, has cut investments in advanced immunizations, the Brazilian government was pumping significant funds into healthcare institutes, leading Brazilian institutions, which are pushing ahead with the development of such life-saving shots.

"Come to Brazil," was the minister's invitation to US-based researchers and biomedical firms who were under the cosh because of the "instability" under the current administration.

"I like to joke that Brazil has managed to bring an foreign coach to coach the Brazilian football team. Now we're attracting numerous researchers to come and do their research in Brazil," said Padilha, who said authorities had already detected an increase of researchers from the US.

"The US president has terminated contracts with American companies … and we're going to encourage them to invest here in Brazil."

A spokesperson for the US embassy in Brasília did not respond on why the visas of Padilha's family members had been canceled.