By Marcela Ayres, Gabriel Araujo and Luciana Magalhaes
BRASILIA/SAO PAULO, May 6 (Reuters) - Brazilian billionaire Joesley Batista, one of the owners of meatpacker JBS, played a key role in arranging a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, scheduled for Thursday in Washington, one person with direct knowledge of the talks told Reuters.
A jet owned by the family's J&F company, which controls JBS, was due to fly from Colorado to Washington on Wednesday,
according to plane tracking data from FlightAware.
The encounter between Lula and Trump has been in the works since January, when the two leaders spoke by phone, but had been put on the back burner as the White House shifted its focus to the war in Iran. Last week, however, U.S. officials reached out offering the meeting on Thursday.
The involvement of Batista in brokering the meeting underscores the growing power of business leaders in setting the agenda for the Trump administration.
In January, Batista met Venezuelan interim President Delcy Rodriguez before and after holding talks with U.S. officials, whom he sought to reassure about Caracas' willingness to open its oil and gas sector to investment.
Late last year, the same aircraft tracked on Wednesday en route to Washington had flown to Venezuela's capital, amid press reports that Batista was seeking to persuade then-President Nicolas Maduro to step down.
A second source confirmed that Joesley Batista and his brother Wesley are in the United States, and that Wesley initially traveled to Colorado. The source was unable to comment on their involvement in the talks surrounding the meeting between Lula and Trump.
J&F declined to comment.
The shuttle diplomacy underscores Batista's access in Washington and across the Americas. JBS has significant operations in the United States.
Pilgrim's Pride, a U.S.-based poultry producer majority owned by JBS, donated $5 million to Trump's 2025 inauguration committee, the largest single disclosed contribution.
(Reporting by Marcela Ayres in Brasilia and Gabriel Araujo and Luciana Magalhaes in Sao Paulo; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
