Photo: Collected
Brazil’s incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has vented strong anger over possible interference by the government of US President Donald Trump in the country’s upcoming presidential election. A new television advertisement released by his election campaign team claims that Trump is meddling in this election in order to seize Brazil’s natural resources and turn the country into a colony of the United States. According to the advertisement, Trump is making all-out efforts to make Lula’s far-right rival Flavio Bolsonaro win.
In the advertisement, a female voice narrates that Flavio Bolsonaro is Trump’s preferred candidate; and Trump wants to make Brazil a colony, snatch away the country’s resources and destroy its future. Alongside this, Lula himself has also alleged on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that Bolsonaro wants to hand over Brazil’s natural resources to the United States. His warning is that if Bolsonaro’s wish is fulfilled, Brazil will go back to the colonial era again. However, the US State Department has been denying these allegations from the beginning. They claim that this allegation of conspiracy or interference in the election of a democratic state is completely baseless.
The first-round vote of the presidential election will be held in Brazil on 4 October. Recent surveys are indicating a neck-and-neck fight between Lula and Flavio Bolsonaro. If no candidate gets more than 50 per cent of the votes in the first round, the second-round run-off will be held on 25 October. The closer polling day approaches, the more concern is growing in Brazil and the international arena over Washington’s possible influence. Allegations have already been raised that the US administration is trying to exert influence on the election through diplomatic and economic pressure, including imposing a 25 per cent tariff on Brazilian goods.
