Lula says Brazil blocked US officials' visas to prevent 'election meddling'

State Department calls election meddling allegation a ‘baseless lie’

“We had to deny visas to two young folks they were sending to Brazil to meddle in Brazil’s elections,” Lula said on Wednesday. The two officials — Riley M. Barnes, an assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor, and Samuel Samson, a deputy assistant secretary in the same bureau — had been due to arrive in late July. According to the BBC, they told Brazilian authorities the trip was intended to cover freedom of expression, religion, and election integrity, and they were also scheduled to meet Flávio Bolsonaro, the candidate challenging Lula in October.

The State Department previously said the suggestion that its officials sought to undermine Brazil’s elections was a “baseless lie.”

Brazil’s election will pit the 80-year-old Lula against Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro. The elder Bolsonaro was sentenced last year to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election. He had already been barred from running for office after Brazil’s electoral court found he had spread claims that the country’s electronic voting machines could be rigged.

After Bolsonaro’s 2022 loss, his supporters stormed Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Presidential Palace on January 8, 2023, demanding that the military overturn the results.

Flávio Bolsonaro recently told diplomats that Brazil’s voting machines have a shared origin with Venezuela’s system, citing a CIA report about fraud in that country. He later denied he was questioning the integrity of Brazil’s system, saying he instead wanted as many international observers as possible.

Following that meeting, the Brazilian government blocked visas for a U.S. delegation, citing concerns the officials would seek to cast doubts on the election. That delegation included Barnes and Samson.

Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court has refuted Flávio Bolsonaro’s claims about the electronic voting system. The country has used electronic voting machines since 1996 with no record of systemic fraud. The machines use fingerprints to verify voter identity, print a paper tally of results that is displayed publicly, and are audited independently. Experts are invited ahead of elections to attempt to hack the machines or find irregularities, according to the BBC.

Flávio Bolsonaro has received campaign endorsements from Argentine President Javier Milei and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.