Lula campaign accuses Trump of seeking to ‘colonise’ Brazil before election

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign accused Donald Trump of seeking to “colonise” Brazil and take its natural resources by interfering in the election. The campaign published an advert on social media on Thursday night, with the television version due to air on Friday.

The advert alleges that the US president is backing far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro to advance American interests in Brazil. Lula also wrote on X that Bolsonaro wanted to hand Brazil’s natural resources to the United States.

The first round is scheduled for 4 October, with a runoff on 25 October if no candidate wins more than half the vote. With just over a week to go, Lula and Bolsonaro are neck and neck in polls.

Washington rejects interference claims

The US State Department said last month that allegations of a plot to undermine a democratic election were baseless. Concern has nevertheless grown in Brazil and abroad over alleged diplomatic and economic pressure from Washington, including 25% tariffs on Brazilian imports.

Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York this week, Lula said Brazil would not allow internal or external enemies of democracy to attack the will of its people.

Campaign cites alleged pressure

Lula’s advert referred to reports of possible interference by technology companies, a Brazilian intelligence warning that the risk of US interference had reached a “critical level”, and alleged links between Bolsonaro’s campaign and Rockbridge, a conservative donor network co-founded by US Vice-President JD Vance.

Éden Valadares, communications secretary of Lula’s Workers’ Party, said the advert was intended to alert Brazilians to what he called an ideologically driven US campaign. He said nationwide events were being planned for Sunday.

Criticism also comes from the right

Right-wing candidate Renan Santos separately accused Trump of interfering and said he did not want Brazil to become a US vassal state. Santos claimed the goal was to secure favourable contracts involving rare-earth resources.

Dozens of Democratic members of Congress wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, calling the administration’s actions an apparent campaign of interference and destabilisation. They asked whether the administration would respect Brazil’s electoral process and requested a reply by 1 October; the State Department has not responded.