When Brazil's Health Minister Alexandre Padilha was a young boy, his father Anivaldo, a Methodist minister, sought refuge in the United States from Brazil's brutal two-decade dictatorship.
It was 1971, and after spending 11 months in one of São Paulo's most notorious torture centres, he was smuggled out of the country by a church group.
'There, he was able to live the freedom he wasn't able to live in Brazil,' Alexandre recalls.
More than five decades later, the family's relationship with the US government has taken a 180-degree turn, reports Tom Phillips in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.
Padilha's 10-year-old daughter -- Anivaldo's granddaughter -- has become, as he put it, the 'youngest victim' of a pressure campaign by the Donald Trump administration against the Brazilian government.
Last month, the child and her mother were stripped of their US visas because the Trump administration is incensed that Brazil's current government pursued Trump ally and Brazil's ex-president Jair Bolsonaro to face justice for his role in a 2022 coup attempt.
Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison last week for the failed power grab.
'I'd like to understand what risk my 10-year-old daughter poses to the government of the United States,' Alexandre Padilha told The Guardian.
Padilha, who is a key ally of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, called the decision to target his child an 'astonishing absurdity' and a 'diplomatic abuse'.
In the lead-up to Bolsonaro's trial, Trump slapped Magnitsky sanctions on Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who presided over the case.
The US also cancelled US visas of eight of Brazil's 11 supreme court judges, including Moraes, and imposed 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods.
Following Bolsonaro's conviction, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hinted at further punishment for Brazil and vowed to 'respond accordingly to this witch-hunt'.
Rubio also announced the revocation of visas for two government officials involved in Brazil's Mais Médicos (More Doctors) health programme, which brought healthcare to remote areas.
Rubio claimed the officials were targeted because the programme had helped 'the corrupt Cuban regime and [deprive] the Cuban people of essential medical care'.
Padilha, who noted that Cuban medics are no longer involved in the programme, dismissed this as a pretext.
The minister believes the actions are a reflection of a two-pronged assault on healthcare and democracy.
He vows, 'None of this will intimidate us. [We will not] give up on defending our democracy'.
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