In what’s being described as an unlikely comeback, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won reelection on Oct. 25, defeating Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro in the second round of an election that promises to hold profound implications for Latin American politics. That breaks a streak of seven straight victories for right-wing parties and candidates in Central and South America over the last year and a half, and denies President Donald Trump a key ally in Brazil.
From France to Russia, world leaders were quick to congratulate Lula, including some of those recently-elected right-wing presidents, such as Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori and Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella. But neither Trump nor Argentina’s right-wing president, Javier Milei, have joined in. Trump has claimed, without evidence, that the Brazilian result “looked like another rigged election, frankly,” telling reporters before flying to a Mississippi rally, “Elections have to be indisputable and it looked very bad to me.”
