Democrats ask Rubio to address alleged US interference in Brazil election

Letter lists tariff hikes, visa refusal, and voting-system delegation as what it calls pressure

A group of 31 Democratic members of the US Congress sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday accusing the Trump administration of an apparent effort to interfere in Brazil’s October 4 first-round presidential election.

The letter was signed by 30 members of the House of Representatives and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. In it, the lawmakers listed a series of US actions that they interpret as attempts to secure a victory for the far-right Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro Sr. was convicted for his role in an attempted coup after his 2022 loss to Lula and is under house arrest, which bars him from running for office himself; he has named his son to take his place in the race.

The lawmakers pointed to three specific US measures. When Trump imposed his first tariffs on Brazil last year, he made clear that one reason was Bolsonaro’s trial over his attempt to stage a coup after losing the 2022 election to Lula, according to the letter. Trump then imposed additional tariffs on Brazil in July under Section 301 of US trade law. And the Trump administration planned to send two US officials to Brazil “to cast doubt on the integrity of the country’s voting system, considered by many experts to be among the most reliable in the world,” the letter said. The Lula administration denied the US delegation visas before the trip could proceed.

The signatories wrote that these actions “reflect a broader and deeply troubling pattern of interference by the Trump administration in recent electoral processes across Latin America,” citing recent midterm elections in Argentina and presidential elections in Honduras and Colombia. In July, a separate group of 11 Democratic members of Congress sent a similar letter about Trump’s alleged interference in Colombia’s election in favor of the far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella, who went on to win the second round.

The lawmakers said US officials under Trump have engaged in a “sustained, multifaceted campaign of interference and destabilization in Brazil.” They wrote that, “rather than helping defend Brazilian democracy,” the United States is “acting as an agent of interference and destabilization – 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 whether the Trump administration would commit to respecting Brazil’s electoral process and requested a response by October 1, three days before the first round. The State Department had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

Lula, who has repeatedly accused Trump of trying to interfere in Brazil’s election, used his address opening the UN General Assembly this week to say, without naming any country: “We will not allow the enemies of democracy, internal or external, to act against the will of the people.”

Brazilian polling shows a technical tie between Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro heading into the first round.