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At the time Alexandre Padilha's parent was in desperate need of assistance, the United States provided him refuge.

This occurred in 1971, the peak of Brazil's brutal two-decade authoritarian rule, and his father Padilha, a young religious advocate, had been compelled to escape his homeland after spending 11 months in one of São Paulo's most infamous detention facilities.

Smuggled out of the country by a religious organization to avoid being killed, he made for Uruguay and Chile before ultimately finding asylum in the US. "There, he was able to experience the liberty he wasn't able to live in Brazil," said 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 comprehend what threat my young daughter poses to the authorities of the United States

Recently, she and her mother were stripped of their US visas as the US government singled out people associated with Brazil's government and supreme court as part of failed efforts to assist ex-president Jair Bolsonaro escape justice for orchestrating a recent coup attempt. On Thursday, Bolsonaro was convicted to 27 years 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 cannot visit the US," remarked Alexandre Padilha, who is the country's top health official and a well-known ally of its progressive president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Commenting in Rio, Padilha called the decision to target his child as an "astonishing absurdity" and a "diplomatic abuse".

Prior to Bolsonaro's trial, Trump slapped sanctions on Alexandre de Moraes overseeing the case; revoked the visas of several of Brazil's 11 supreme court judges, including the judge; and ordered 50% tariffs on the country's products.

After the ex-president's conviction, the US top diplomat, a US official, suggested the US would further punish Brazil and "respond accordingly to this witch-hunt".

Last month, the US official announced that the visas of two government officials connected to creating Brazil's More Doctors public health initiative had been revoked, purportedly because of the program's use of medical professionals from Cuba. The minister thought he had avoided losing his visa because it had already lapsed. He has yet to been granted a visa for the upcoming UN meeting in New York.

The US official asserted the officials were selected because the Brazilian program – which has provided healthcare to underserved regions – had helped benefit "the corrupt government and deprive the Cuban people of essential medical care". But Padilha, who said Cuban medics were no longer involved in a program he credited with saving millions of lives, felt that was a false justification.

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

The US president's attempt to pressure Lula into "intervening" in Brazil's independent judiciary over the former leader's judgment was an anti-democratic affront. "None of this will intimidate us," Padilha declared. "We will not give up on defending our democracy".

Meanwhile, the minister believed the US leader's focus on the Brazilian healthcare project was a reflection of a leader who had launched a relentless offensive on health systems and research – in the US and around the world – since returning to power.

Attacking worldwide healthcare means attacking the well-being of your citizens too.

"Since the beginning of the current US government, he's launched a series of attacks on health in the US and international public health," Padilha said, pointing out how Trump had cut funding for the production of innovative immunizations, dismissed the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and purged the leaders of the National Institutes of Health.

"The administration has persecuted researchers, cut funding for universities … and threatened to withdraw from the World Health Organization." "Ninety percent of the organization's operations in Africa were paid for with the US's voluntary donation – and this was cut," said Padilha, an infectious diseases specialist who displayed a white coat celebrating Brazil's public healthcare system, the SUS.

"These cuts will affect Africa, which is deeply concerning in itself, but it will also affect the entire globe … Attacking global health means attacking the health of your population 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 astonishing actions the leader of the US has undertaken."

The minister said his father was perplexed by the "inconceivable" US decision to penalize his grandchild. "It is shocking the country that gave me refuge, that saved my life … subjecting my granddaughter so outrageously," he recalled the elderly man as saying.

But the minister hoped that Trump's anti-healthcare campaign could prove an chance for his country. While the US top health official, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has reduced investments in advanced immunizations, the nation was investing significant funds into healthcare institutes, leading Brazilian institutions, which are making progress with the development of such life-saving vaccines.

"Consider relocating 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.

"It is noteworthy that Brazil has managed to bring an foreign coach to coach the Brazilian football team. Now we're welcoming numerous researchers to come and work in Brazil," said Padilha, who noted authorities had already observed an influx of researchers from the US.

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

Representatives for the American diplomatic mission in the capital declined to comment on why the visas of Padilha's family members had been revoked.