Brazil’s government has accepted an apology to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from lawyers for a New York Times reporter who wrote an article suggesting the president has a drinking problem, the justice minister said on Friday.
The article, run by the newspaper last Sunday, said Silva’s drinking habits have become a ”national concern” in Brazil.
The government on Tuesday said it is suspending the visa of correspondent Larry Rohter.
But Silva has been condemned by critics who called the measure extreme and more in line with dictators than with a democratic president.
”I told the president that legally the letter constituted a retraction, and the president said that in that case he considered the case closed,” Justice Minister Thomaz Bastos told reporters in Sao Paulo.
Bastos said that in the letter, the lawyers indicate that Rohter had ”no intention of offending the president”.
He added that Rohter had ”expressed ”great respect for Brazil’s institutions and lamented the polemic created by his article”. — Sapa-AP