Brazil’s Sovereignty Is on the Ballot
Foreign Policy · Alexander Main, Guillaume Long ·
A far-right win in the country’s presidential election would open the door to U.S. military activity on Brazilian soil.
A far-right win in the country’s presidential election would open the door to U.S. military activity on Brazilian soil.
At the time of writing, prediction markets favor Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro to win Brazil’s Oct. 25 presidential runoff. But only a few months ago, his candidacy appeared to be coming off the rails. In mid-May, the far-right senator became embroiled in a major corruption scandal following the publication of leaked messages that showed he had asked for roughly $27 million from a now-jailed former banker at the center of the biggest banking fraud in Brazilian history.
The funds—around $12 million of which were transferred to a Texas account linked to the candidate’s brother Eduardo—were purportedly to help finance a hagiographic biopic about their father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who remains under house arrest for plotting a coup to overturn Brazil’s 2022 election. Soon after the scandal broke, Flávio’s poll numbers began to plummet. He urgently needed to change the subject.
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