Lula says Trump wants to ‘colonise’ and capture Brazil’s resources by meddling in election

Supporters of opposition presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro march with an effigy of US president Donald Trump holding a doll depicting Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva earlier this month.

Fotografia: André Penner/APView imagem em tela cheia. Apoios do candidato à presidência da oposição Flavio Bolsonaro marcham com uma effigy do presidente dos EUA Donald Trump segurando uma boneca que representa o presidente brasileiro Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva no início deste mês.

Prefer the Guardian on GoogleLuiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s presidential campaign has accused Donald Trump of wanting to “colonise” Brazil in order to capture its natural resources by meddling in next month’s presidential election.

A acusação surgiu em um anúncio de campanha publicado nas redes sociais na noite de quinta-feira pela equipe de Lula e será exibido na televisão na sexta-feira, em meio a crescentes temores sobre o impacto que a suposta interferência dos EUA poderia ter na votação.

The TV spot claims the US president is trying to sway the election in favour of Lula’s far-right adversary in the election, Flávio Bolsonaro, in order to advance Trump’s interests in the South American nation.

The state department has denied claims the US is meddling in Brazil’s election. “Any insinuation of a ‘ploy’ to undermine a democratic nation’s election is a baseless lie,” it said last month in a statement.

Read moreWriting on X, Lula accused Bolsonaro of wanting to “hand our natural resources over to the United States”.

With just over a week to go until the 4 October first round vote, Lula and Bolsonaro are neck and neck in the polls. A second round run-off will be held on 25 October if no candidate secures more than half of the votes.

Nas últimas semanas, tem crescido o alarme – tanto no Brasil quanto no exterior – sobre as aparentes tentativas de Washington de influenciar o resultado, com uma campanha de pressão diplomática e econômica, incluindo tarifas de 25% sobre as importações brasileiras.

View image in fullscreenWorkers prepare electronic voting machines during a sealing operation before being used in the first round of Brazilian elections. Photograph: Adriano Machado/ReutersSpeaking at the UN general assembly in New York this week, Lula indirectly criticised the US’ perceived meddling, telling delegates: “We will not allow the enemies of democracy – internal or external – to attack the will of the people.

Brazilian democracy belongs to the Brazilians.”.

No início desta semana, dezenas de congressistas do Partido Democrata escreveram ao secretário de Estado, Marco Rubio, para denunciar o “apparent effort to interfere with, and potentially undermine” as eleições do Brasil, por meio do que chamaram de “sustained, multifaceted campaign of interference and destabilisation in Brazil”.

The narrator of Lula’s campaign ad cited a series of recent media stories relating to alleged acts of US meddling.

Eles incluem relatórios sobre a suposta interferência de empresas de Big Tech, bem como um documento confidencial enviado às autoridades eleitorais pela agência de inteligência do Brasil, alertando sobre um “nível crítico” de risco de interferência dos EUA.

The campaign video also highlighted recent claims about links between Bolsonaro’s campaign and the conservative donor network Rockbridge, which was co-founded by Trump’s vice-president JD Vance.

Éden Valadares, the communications secretary for Lula’s Worker’s party (PT), said the campaign ad was part of efforts to “alert the Brazilian people” to the ideologically-driven US campaign.

Fears over US meddling are not confined to the Brazilian left. This week, another of the right-wing candidates in Brazil’s election, Renan Santos, also denounced Trump’s behaviour and said he did not want Brazil to become a US vassal state.

Recalling the US invasion of Venezuela in January, Santos added: “I don’t want to see Latin America become an American protectorate.”.

Na carta enviada a Rubio na sexta‑feira, os legisladores democratas escreveram que “rather than helping defend Brazilian democracy”, os EUA estavam “acting as an agent of interference and destabilisation – using diplomatic, economic and political pressure in ways that risk weakening the country’s democratic institutions, undermining confidence in Brazil’s electoral process, and inflicting further damage on our relationship with a strategic US ally and trading partner”.

They asked Rubio if Trump’s administration would commit to respecting Brazil’s electoral process and requested a response by 1 October. The state department has not yet responded to a request for comment.