The United States government plans to organize a visit to Brazil by a senior White House official to defend before Brazilian authorities the realization of a transition within normality in the event of ex-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) victory over Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro (PL).
The Joe Biden administration even scheduled a trip to the country, the week after the runoff, of National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
The agenda, however, was canceled and must be rescheduled if Lula emerges victorious this Sunday (30). According to a person with knowledge of the preparations, who spoke to Sheet On condition of anonymity, the Americans’ goal is to highlight with Bolsonaro government officials the White House’s confidence in a transition of power within normality.
If confirmed, Sullivan’s trip to Brazil will be the advisor’s second to the country. In August of last year, he led a delegation to Brasília to discuss security issues, military cooperation and also the Brazilian electoral system. In a meeting with Bolsonaro at the time, he conveyed the message that the Biden administration saw Brazilian institutions as capable of conducting free and fair elections – the president was already leading a crusade against the ballot box and the voting system, launching unfounded accusations of fraud.
The escalation of statements with a coup content since then has generated apprehension in Washington. The Americans believe that the Brazilian leader adopts a Trumpist prescription, preparing to question the results in the event of defeat. In the US, then-President Donald Trump did not accept Biden’s victory in 2020 and, in January 2021, he inflated supporters who later invaded Congress in an attempt to prevent the certification of the election.
Another concern of Democrats is that a movement to question the polls could generate a chaotic transition process, along the lines of what Biden’s own team faced. Without recognizing defeat, the republican opponent only authorized the formal start of the transition process 16 days after the result of the election.
The perception that Bolsonaro uses a strategy mirrored that of Trump increased this week, when the PL campaign presented a complaint to the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) about alleged fraud in the broadcasting of electoral insertions by the coalition on radio stations in the Northeast.
The fragile argument presented, however, was contested by the aforementioned broadcasters. The president of the TSE, Alexandre de Moraes, then rejected the action and ordered the case to be sent to the investigation of the digital militias, reported by him in the STF (Supreme Federal Court). Later, Communications Minister Fábio Faria said he regretted an interview he had given on the matter, acknowledging that “the fault was with the party, which realized the problem belatedly, not with the court”.
A senior Biden administration official told Sheet privately that the view in Washington is that Bolsonaro’s rhetoric against the electoral system and the fairness of the elections aims to reduce the population’s confidence in the election result.
With the elections approaching, the US government sent different messages to Brazilian authorities to try to counter the Brazilian leader’s strategy of undermining trust in electronic voting machines.
In the strongest of them, after Bolsonaro called dozens of ambassadors for a presentation full of lies and attacks against the TSE, the US diplomatic mission in Brasília released a note guaranteeing its support for the institutions. “Elections in Brazil are for Brazilians to decide. The US relies on the strength of Brazilian democratic institutions. The country has a strong history of free and fair elections, with transparency and high levels of participation”, said the representation at the time.
In another message, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, on a visit to the country, told Minister Paulo Sérgio Nogueira (Defense) that the White House expected Brazil to maintain the tradition of holding a fair and transparent election this year.
Reuters reported that US diplomats also informed Lula, at a meeting in September, that the US plans to quickly recognize the winner of the elections in Brazil. Days later, the embassy issued a statement saying that “eventual US recognition will come to the candidate who wins the election as a result of our determination on the integrity of the electoral process led by the Superior Electoral Court, not a negotiation with any candidate or party.” .
Biden has come under internal pressure for the US to counter what his party’s most left wing sees as a possible coup attempt. Before the first round, congressmen wrote more than once to the American president asking him to make it clear that Brazil would lose support for joining the OECD and the status of a non-NATO ally if Bolsonaro insisted on acts of a coup tone.
Afterwards, the Senate still approved a motion by Senator Bernie Sanders in favor of democracy in Brazil. Similar moves were made in the European Parliament and, this Friday (28), they were repeated in Washington on the eve of the second round, with a letter from congressmen and a statement from the chancellery.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price reiterated that the US is confident that the final vote will be conducted by Brazilian authorities with “the same professionalism and the same peaceful spirit and civic duty” as the first round of the claim.
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