NewzBUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Brazilian voters have denied Latin America’s resurgent right its ultimate prize, snapping a streak of seven straight conservative presidential victories in 18 months. The stunning triumph of leftist incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva over Flávio Bolsonaro on Sunday, with 51.8% of the vote to 48.2%, limits U.S. President Donald Trump’s drive to tighten his grip on the Western Hemisphere and cements Latin America’s most populous country and largest economy as a counterweight to Washington.
A Bolsonaro victory would have left Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum as the only progressive president among the region’s powerhouses. For the Trump administration, which has wielded punishing tariffs, severe sanctions and military force to reassert its dominance in the region, Lula’s victory complicates its campaign to enlist Brazil in its military coalition against cartels and to gain preferential access to the country’s critical minerals, analysts say. Yet both sides see reasons to cooperate.
Washington wants access to Brazil’s vast trove of rare earths to reduce its defense industry’s reliance on China. Lula wants foreign investment and tariff relief for Brazilian exporters. “Lula is pragmatic enough to work out some kind of modus operandi with the Trump administration,” said Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, adding that the Bolsonaros’ allies in Washington would likely lose sway after the family’s second electoral defeat.
Flávio’s father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, lost to Lula in 2022. “I’m not sure anyone in the Trump administration, beyond a few individuals, will want to keep making the Bolsonaros the central issue in the U.S.-Brazil relationship,” he said. Trump’s missing piece Across much of Latin America, voters fed up with organized crime and economic insecurity have rewarded presidential candidates promising to restore order.
From Peru’s Keiko Fujimori to Colombia’s Abelardo de la Espriella and Chile’s José Antonio Kast, newly elected conservatives have courted Trump while taking their cues from El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, whose sweeping gang crackdown has sharply reduced homicides at the cost of mass arrests and suspended civil liberties. Trump has reinforced that shift with electoral endorsements, financial bailouts and millions of dollars in military aid. Flávio’s father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, lost to Lula in 2022.“I’m not sure anyone in the Trump administration, beyond a few individuals, will want to keep making the Bolsonaros the central issue in the U.S.-Brazil relationship,” he said.Trump's missing pieceAcross much of Latin America, voters fed up with organized crime and economic insecurity have rewarded presidential candidates promising to restore order.
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