State Department denies meddling; Democrats press Rubio for October 1 response
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s re-election campaign released a televised advertisement on Thursday accusing US President Donald Trump of seeking to “colonise” Brazil to seize its natural resources by meddling in next month’s presidential vote. The minute-long spot alleges that Trump is trying to tilt the October 4 first-round election in favor of Lula’s far-right challenger, Flávio Bolsonaro, advancing the US president’s interests in the South American nation.
“Flávio Bolsonaro is Trump’s candidate and what Trump wants is to colonise Brazil, take our riches, steal our future and leave us in the dust,” a female narrator tells viewers in the ad, according to a translation published by the Guardian. The campaign released the video amid warnings from Brazilian and international observers that alleged US interference could affect the vote’s outcome.
Writing on X, Lula accused Bolsonaro of wanting to “hand our natural resources over to the United States.” “If it’s up to him, Brazil will become a colony again,” the incumbent leftwing president added.
The US State Department has rejected the meddling allegations. “Any insinuation of a ‘ploy’ to undermine a democratic nation’s election is a baseless lie,” the department said in a statement last month. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment on a separate letter from US Democratic lawmakers.
With the first round scheduled for October 4 and a runoff on October 25 if no candidate secures more than half of votes, Lula and Bolsonaro are running neck and neck in the polls. Concerns about US pressure on the election have grown in recent weeks alongside a diplomatic and economic campaign that includes 25 percent tariffs on Brazilian imports.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York this week, Lula indirectly criticized the US posture, 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.”
Dozens of Democratic members of the US Congress wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday denouncing the Trump administration’s “apparent effort to interfere with, and potentially undermine” Brazil’s elections through what they characterized as “a sustained, multifaceted campaign of interference and destabilisation.” The lawmakers asked Rubio whether the administration would commit to respecting Brazil’s electoral process and requested a response by October 1.
The letter argued that “rather than helping defend Brazilian democracy,” the US was “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.”
Lula’s campaign ad cited several recent media reports as evidence, including coverage of alleged interference by Big Tech companies and a confidential document sent to Brazilian electoral authorities by Brazil’s intelligence agency warning of a “critical level” of risk of US interference. The campaign video also referenced claims about links between Bolsonaro’s campaign and the conservative donor network Rockbridge, co-founded by US Vice President J.D. Vance.
Éden Valadares, communications secretary for Lula’s Workers’ Party (PT), said the ad was part of efforts to “alert the Brazilian people” to what he called an “ideologically-driven US campaign.” “We don’t believe it will work but nor will we sit back and do nothing,” Valadares said. “President Lula has instructed us … to mobilise Brazilian society … [and] to react in the streets.” Valadares said nationwide events were planned for Sunday.
Concern about alleged US meddling is not confined to Brazil’s left. Another right-wing presidential candidate, Renan Santos, also denounced Trump’s behavior this week, saying he did not want Brazil to become a US “vassal state.” “They want to interfere in Brazil’s elections to secure satisfactory contracts involving rare earths,” Santos claimed in a social media video. Recalling the US invasion of Venezuela in January, Santos added: “I don’t want to see Latin America become an American protectorate.”
The State Department has not responded to a request for comment on the Democratic lawmakers’ letter. The October 1 deadline set by the letter falls three days before the first round of Brazil’s presidential vote.