When Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 22, 2026, the Brazilian president posed a question to both an international and domestic audience: Who is to decide Brazil’s future?
It is an unusually pressing question this year. Voters in Latin America’s largest nation head to the polls on Oct. 4, marking the culmination of a campaign defined by a greater degree of U.S. interference than any election in recent memory. Although President Donald Trump has established a surprising personal rapport with the left-wing elder statesman, the U.S. administration doesn’t hide its preference for Flávio Bolsonaro. He is the son of the disgraced former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently serving a lengthy sentence after being convicted of attempting to overturn the results of the 2022 election.
