Lula Accuses U.S. of Interfering in Brazil's Election — SkimNews
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- Lula's Workers' Party (PT) filed petitions with Brazil's Federal Supreme Court (STF) and Superior Election Tribunal (TSE) on September 23, 2026, seeking investigations into alleged U.S. interference in the electoral process and U.S. support for far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro's campaign
- Lula declared at the United Nations that "Brazil does not fit in anyone's backyard," directly rebuking the same-day signing of a Shield of Americas pact by 14 right-wing Latin American governments that designated 24 drug-trafficking groups — including Brazil's PCC and Red Command — as "shared threats"
- Brazil's intelligence agency Abin sent a confidential report to Lula and the TSE raising the risk of U.S. interference to "critical level," citing Washington's priority to "reaffirm U.S. hegemony" in Latin America specifically to counter China's influence over strategic assets
- Flávio Bolsonaro faces allegations — reported to the TSE by PT — that his campaign received funding through the RockBridge Network, founded in 2019 by U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and Chris Buskirk and backed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, with a Thiel-linked delegation reportedly visiting São Paulo months before the official campaign launch
- Meta temporarily disabled Lula's campaign advertisements days before the first-round vote; the account was restored after an appeal, but the California-based firm has not explained the block, fueling PT allegations that U.S. tech companies are working against Lula
- 31 Democratic members of the U.S. Congress, including Senator Bernie Sanders, sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticizing "an apparent effort to interfere with, and potentially undermine" Brazil's elections as part of a broader pattern in Argentina, Honduras, and Colombia
- Lula holds a five-point lead over Flávio in first-round polling ahead of the October 4 vote; he has rolled out welfare expansion, debt-relief measures, and a ban on online betting while appealing to nationalist sentiment against what he calls Flávio Bolsonaro's eagerness to align with Trump on critical minerals and rare earths
Why it matters: With the first round on October 4 and a potential second round on October 25, the formal legal complaints and Abin's "critical" threat assessment escalate a bilateral crisis that could entangle Brazil's sovereignty, its critical-minerals relationship with Washington, and the Trump administration's broader Latin America hegemony push against Chinese influence.
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