By Henry Srebrnik, Saint John-Telegraph-Journal
Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, on July 25 formally launched his bid to challenge President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (known as Lula) in October’s presidential election, gaining support from Argentina’s President Javier Milei, an AI-generated message from his jailed father, and a video address from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Bolsonaro, the candidate of the right-wing Liberal Party (PL), who is 45 years old, is the son of the disgraced former president, who is in jail after receiving a 27-year prison sentence for trying to overturn the result of the 2022 election. As for Lula, this will be the 80-year old’s seventh presidential campaign since he first sought Brazil’s top job in 1989, when he was 44. He is the standard-bearer of the Workers’ Party (PT), which founded in 1980.
Many on the right wanted Tarcisio de Freitas, the current governor of Sao Paulo, to run, but Jair Bolsonaro wanted his own son instead, and de Freitas respected Bolsonaro’s wish.
Flavio Bolsonaro began by pledging tax cuts and a tougher stance on crime and stressed his commitment to carrying forward his father’s political legacy. But his campaign has been filled with turmoil so far. He has been heavily involved in the Banco Master scandal, in which leaked audio messages revealed that he was receiving millions of reais, Brazil’s currency, from businessman Daniel Vorcaro, the bank’s major shareholder, to finance a movie about his father. The revelation shocked many allies.
The scandal, involving investigations into financial fraud, emerged in late 2025 with the launch of Operation Compliance Zero by the authorities and the liquidation of the financial institution, as well as Vorcaro’s arrest. It has been described as the country’s biggest ever banking fraud scandal.
The country’s recent past has been tumultuous. In 1961 Brazil’s voters elected left populist president Joao Goulart, but he was deposed by a military coup in 1964. A military dictatorship followed, marked by fierce anticommunism enforced with secret police, torture centres, and disappearances. I visited Brazil in the mid-1970s, when the army officer Ernesto Geisel was running the country. In 1985, the dictatorship finally gave way to civilian control and popular elections. But democracy remains a fragile shoot. Hence the important of this October’s presidential election.
Lula has many enemies, including the current leaders of the United States and Argentina. He and Trump don’t like each other, and that’s an understatement. Lula has argued that his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro’s 2022 bid to cling to power after his election defeat was reminiscent of Trump’s bid to remain in power in 2020. Tensions intensified after Flavio Bolsonaro took part in a pro-Trump Conservative Political Action Conference held in Texas on March 28.
The U.S. imposed a 25 per cent tariff on most imports from Brazil July 15, arguing that Brazil’s trade practices on a range of issues from digital trade to illegal deforestation were unfair. The tariffs affect about $6.6 billion in exports to the U.S.
Brazil has formally requested consultations at the World Trade Organization over the new U.S. tariffs on Brazilian exports, insisting the measures violate international trade rules under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Lula has called the tariffs interference in the election.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio maintained that the blame lay with Lula and his administration. He clamed that Lula’s economic policies are bad for Americans and bad for Brazilians. “For the past year, Lula has put his own ego ahead of making a deal for the welfare of the Brazilian people.”
Brazil on July 24 denied visa requests for two officials in Trump’s administration who planned to travel to the country to cast doubt on the integrity of its electoral system, according to Brazilian officials. A State Department spokesperson rejected any suggestion of a “ploy” to undermine Brazil’s elections.”
Now, the Trump administration has revoked the visa of Brazil’s top diplomat in the United States. The visa of the Brazilian ambassador, Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, was canceled Aug. 4 in response to her country’s decision to stall the approval of President Trump’s newly appointed ambassador to Brazil and refuse entry to the other U.S. diplomats.
Another right-wing leader is also at loggerheads with Lula. Brazil’s foreign ministry summoned Argentina’s ambassador after inflammatory remarks delivered by Argentinian President Javier Milei about Lula, during the national convention of Brazil’s Liberal Party (PL), which nominated Bolsonaro in Sao Paulo July 25.
Milei denounced what he called the “tragedy of socialism” in Latin America, singling out Lula and Minister Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Federal Court for intense criticism.
The Argentinian leader hailed Flavio Bolsonaro as the “only candidate who can stop Lula.” Milei was also angry at not being allowed to visit Jair Bolsonaro in prison. “I was not allowed to visit my unjustly imprisoned friend,” remarked Milei, a declared ally of the Bolsonaro family.
It escalated further when Brasilia on Aug. 5 requested the recall of Argentina’s ambassador and reduced diplomatic representation to Charge d’Affaires level after Milei called President Lula a thief.
Brazil has tremendous institutional problems, ranging from vote buying, organized crime, and systemic inequality to a very dysfunctional judicial system. Yet with Bolsonaro and Lula as the main candidates, regardless of who wins, this is unlikely to change.
No comments:
Post a Comment