At the time Mr. Padilha's parent was in desperate need of assistance, the US provided him refuge.
This occurred in 1971, the height of the nation's harsh 20-year dictatorship, and his father Padilha, a young Methodist activist, had been forced to flee his country after spending 11 months in one of the city's most notorious detention facilities.
Spirited out of the country by a church group to avoid being killed, he made for Uruguay and Chile before finally escaping in the US. "In America, he was able to experience the freedom he could not enjoy in Brazil," said his son, Alexandre Padilha, who was born after his father's departure and only saw him almost a decade afterward when the situation in Brazil began to stabilize.
I'd want to understand what risk my young daughter poses to the government of the US
Recently, she and her mother were stripped of their US visas as the Trump administration singled out people tied to Brazil's administration and supreme court as part of failed efforts to assist former leader Jair Bolsonaro avoid prosecution for orchestrating a 2022 coup attempt. Recently, the former president was convicted to 27 years in prison for the failed power grab.
"I'd like to understand what danger my young daughter poses to the nation of the United States ... which implies she cannot visit the US," said Alexandre Padilha, who is Brazil's health minister and a well-known ally of its progressive president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Commenting in Rio, Padilha denounced the decision to target his child as an "astonishing absurdity" and a "diplomatic abuse".
Prior to Bolsonaro's trial, Trump imposed restrictions on Alexandre de Moraes presiding over the case; cancelled the visas of several of the nation's 11 supreme court judges, including Moraes; and ordered 50% tariffs on the country's products.
Following the ex-president's conviction, the US secretary of state, a US official, suggested the US would take additional measures against Brazil and "react appropriately to this witch-hunt".
Last month, Rubio declared that the visas of several government officials involved in creating Brazil's More Doctors health program had been canceled, allegedly because of the scheme's use of medical professionals from Cuba. Padilha believed he had avoided losing his visa because it had already expired. He has not yet been granted a visa for next week's UN general assembly in New York.
The US official claimed the individuals were targeted because the Brazilian program – which has brought healthcare to underserved regions – had helped benefit "a questionable government and deprive the Cuban people of critical medical care". But Padilha, who said Cuban medics were not involved in a program he credited with saving millions of lives, felt that was a false justification.
Actually, the minister claimed Trump's decision to target people associated with the program – including, by extension, his daughter – was a reflection of the US president's dual assault on healthcare and democracy.
Trump's attempt to pressure Brazil's president into "meddling" in Brazil's court system over Bolsonaro's judgment was an undemocratic insult. "None of this will intimidate us," Padilha vowed. "Under no circumstances will we give up on protecting our democracy".
Meanwhile, the minister believed Trump's targeting the Brazilian medical initiative was a manifestation of a politician who had initiated a sustained assault on public health 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, they have launched a series of assaults on health in the US and international public health," Padilha said, pointing out how the president had reduced funding for the production of innovative immunizations, sacked the head of the CDC, and removed the leaders of the NIH.
"He has targeted researchers, slashed funding for universities … and vowed to withdraw from the WHO." "Ninety percent of the organization's operations in Africa were paid for with the American voluntary donation – and this was cut," said Padilha, an infectious diseases specialist who wore a white coat celebrating Brazil's national health service, the SUS.
"This will affect Africa, which is deeply concerning in itself, but it will also affect the whole world … Attacking global health means attacking the wellness of your population too.
"For this reason I say we see these actions [against my family] as an stunning absurdity but also as having a clear pattern with the other astonishing absurdities the president of the US has undertaken."
The minister said his father was bewildered by the "unthinkable" US decision to penalize his grandchild. "I never imagined the country that offered me shelter, that saved my life … treating my granddaughter so outrageously," he recalled the 85-year-old man as saying.
But the minister expressed optimism that Trump's anti-public health campaign could prove an opportunity for his country. While the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has reduced investments in mRNA vaccines, the nation was pumping significant funds into healthcare institutes, leading Brazilian institutions, which are pushing ahead with the development of such life-saving vaccines.
"Come to Brazil," was the minister's message to US-based researchers and biomedical firms who were under the cosh because of the "uncertainty" under Trump.
"It is noteworthy that Brazil has managed to attract an foreign coach to coach the national squad. Now we're attracting numerous researchers to come and do their research in Brazil," said Padilha, who noted authorities had already observed an increase of researchers from the US.
"Trump has terminated contracts with US firms … and we're going to attract them to invest here in Brazil."
A spokesperson for the US embassy in Brasília did not respond on why the visas of the minister's daughter and wife had been canceled.
