© RICARDO RIMOLI/EPA
Far-right presidential candidate’s TV debate swipe at rival backfires as people take to social media to parody it
To Flávio Bolsonaro and his publicists, it must have seemed an ingenious idea that would expose his rival’s supposed crookedness on the eve of Brazil’s presidential election.
But the far-right politician’s decision to attend a primetime television debate against his leftwing opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, with the word “corrupto” (corrupt) written on the palm of his hand has backfired.
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© Photograph: Allison Sales/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Allison Sales/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Allison Sales/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
On Monday, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he would submit an authorization to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) on Tuesday to lift bank secrecy protections on his accounts and those of his family members.
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Brazil Protesters Accuse Meta of Election Interference
However, Lula specified that the measure was contingent on his presidential election rival, Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro, submitting similar authorization covering his own financial records, his businesses and those close to him.
The proposal follows a tense exchange between the two candidates during Sunday’s presidential debate, in which the opposition senator’s financial assets became one of the central topics of discussion.
“I will submit this tomorrow to the TSE, hoping that the opposing candidate will submit a proposal to lift the confidentiality of his records, as well as those of his businesses and family,” Lula said, explaining that he had included his five children to avoid unfounded accusations during the campaign.
The public dispute erupted when Lula questioned the source of the funds Flavio Bolsonaro used to purchase a property in Lago Sul, an exclusive neighborhood in Brasilia, valued at 5.97 million Brazilian reais ($R).
É tão lento de raciocínio que escreveu na própria mão “corrupto”. E o pior é que no final ainda correu do desafio lançado pelo Lula de abrir contas e provar que é honesto. Essa foto resume a imagem que ficou do Flávio Bolsonaro. Que surra, e implorando pra virar meme. Fraco. pic.twitter.com/MRGq7azi8e
— GugaNoblat (@GugaNoblat) October 19, 2026
The text reads, “He is so slow-witted that he wrote ‘corrupt’ on his own hand. And the worst part is that, in the end, he even backed away from the challenge issued by Lula to open up his accounts and prove his honesty. This photo sums up the impression left by Flávio Bolsonaro. What a thrashing—and he practically begged to become a meme! Pathetic.”
During the debate, Lula compared his own assets — a 190-square-meter apartment valued at 1.5 million reais — with Flavio’s wealth, pointing to the disparity between parliamentary earnings and the value of the residence.
When asked how he financed the purchase, the far-right senator replied that he had acquired the property “through work.” However, that answer appears to conflict with actual financial figures.
An analysis of salary data from the Transparency Portal shows that between February 2019 and September 2026, Flavio Bolsonaro received approximately 2.9 million reais in net salary and allowances as a senator.
Without accounting for interest, personal expenses or other income, the lawmaker would have needed to save his entire net salary for about 15 years to cover the property’s value.
When registering his presidential candidacy in 2026, the far-right politician declared total assets of 8.18 million reais, an increase of 6.44 million reais compared with the 1.74 million reais he declared in 2018.
The transaction, completed in 2021, included a down payment of 2.87 million reais and 3.1 million reais in financing through Banco de Brasilia (BRB) over 30 years. The loan was paid off in full in 2024, just three years later.
The terms of the loan are under investigation by the Federal Police as part of Operation Cumprimento Zero, which is examining alleged irregularities involving BRB and Banco Master.
In response to the questions, Flavio Bolsonaro has maintained that his funds were obtained legally, arguing that his income comes from his work as a lawmaker, his activities as a businessman and lawyer, the sale of a previous property, and his stake in a chocolate shop.
teleSUR/ J
F Sources: Brasil de Fato – EFE
By Tings Chak
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On Oct. 25, Brazilians will return to the polls to choose between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison for his role in an attempted coup.
The first round gave Flávio 47.03 percent of valid votes against Lula’s 45.16 percent, revealing the enduring strength of the far right four years after its electoral defeat.
The runoff takes place as President Donald Trump seeks to restore U.S. domination over Latin America, with Brazil emerging as a consequential battleground in Washington’s campaign to contain China’s growing relations with the region.
Over the past two decades, Brazil and China have built a political partnership that has expanded the space for independent action among countries of the Global South. Under Lula and China’s President Xi Jinping, this relationship has deepened through cooperation in industrial development, infrastructure, science and technology.
The election will determine whether this project advances or Brazil’s international orientation is subordinated to Washington’s renewed Monroe Doctrine as part of the continent’s rightward shift.
Since Lula’s return to the presidency in 2023, the two governments have connected Chinese cooperation with Brazil’s development programmes, including Nova Indústria Brasil, the Growth Acceleration Programme (PAC) and the Ecological Transformation Plan. Lula’s May 2025 visit to Beijing produced 36 agreements covering infrastructure, finance, artificial intelligence, public health and industrial cooperation.
Behind these agreements is a long-standing challenge: overcoming Brazil’s dependent position in the international division of labour, where commodity exports continue to outweigh advanced industrial and technological development.
This cooperation has also reached Brazilian popular movements. Through the International Association for Popular Cooperation (Baobab), Brazil’s Landless Rural Workers’ Movement (MST) and other organisations have worked with Chinese institutions on agricultural mechanisation, bioinputs and digital technologies for family farming.
These initiatives include the Digital Family Farming and Agroecology Laboratoryand IARAA, an artificial intelligence project for agroecology and agrarian reform developed by Brazilian popular movements using Chinese open-source models.
In a countryside marked by extreme concentrations of land, machinery and capital, such cooperation offers new tools to peasant organisations fighting for agrarian reform and the production of healthy food.
Brazil’s relationship with China also reveals the different class interests at work in the country, with contradictions particularly visible in the countryside.
Massive exports of soybeans, meat and minerals have continued under both Bolsonaro and Lula, but their governments have pursued very different political relationships with Beijing.
While Jair Bolsonaro attacked China and aligned himself with Washington, Lula has sought to deepen strategic cooperation, including in industrial development, technology and agrarian reform.
Flávio Bolsonaro now promises an “economically pragmatic” relationship with China while cultivating close ties with Trump. For sectors of Brazil’s ruling classes that profit from commodity exports, continuing to sell to China while embracing Washington’s political agenda presents little contradiction. For Brazil’s efforts to rebuild its industry and develop technological sovereignty, the consequences are far greater.
Return of the Monroe Doctrine
Bolsonaro with Trump in the White House on May 26. (White House/Donald Trump/Truth Social/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain)
Washington’s ambitions were made explicit in its December 2025 National Security Strategy, which announced a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, seeking to restore U.S. pre-eminence in the Western Hemisphere and deny outside powers control over strategic resources and infrastructure.
Five days later, China published its third Latin America policy paper, reaffirming sovereignty, non-interference, regional integration, technological cooperation and support for the region as a Zone of Peace. The two documents reveal fundamentally different approaches to the political future of the continent.
Brazil’s position is decisive. As Latin America’s largest economy, a founding BRICS member and a leading participant in Mercosur, it possesses industrial, scientific and political capacities that could strengthen independent development across Latin America and beyond.
The emergence of a new technological era makes this struggle particularly consequential. Brazil is among the few countries of the Global South capable of pursuing digital and technological sovereignty that could benefit its neighbours and parts of Africa.
Its roughly 23 percent share of global rare earth reserves is an important starting point, but control over minerals alone is insufficient. The greater challenge is developing the capacity to process them, manufacture advanced components and build the digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence systems and technologies that will shape future production.
Flávio has made his orientation clear. Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the United States in March, he offered Brazil as the “solution” to Washington’s dependence on China for critical minerals, explicitly linking rare earths to artificial intelligence and U.S. military superiority.
Chinese economic reporting has also described proposals from his team to exclude China from rare-earth supply chains. Rather than using Brazil’s resources to develop its own industrial and technological capacities, this agenda would place them at the service of U.S. technological and military power.
The same political orientation extends to digital sovereignty. In July, Flávio’s campaign submitted proposals to U.S. trade authorities that included preventing Brazil’s Pix payment system from connecting to non-Western international payment networks and loosening commitments within Mercosur.
These proposals converge with a wider U.S. campaign involving tariffs, digital regulation, strategic minerals and attempts to influence Brazil’s electoral process.
Meanwhile, Washington’s January bombing on Venezuela and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores demonstrated how far it is prepared to go to impose its will on the continent.
BRICS & the Struggle for Independent Foreign Policy
A BRICS plenary session on Strengthening Multilateralism, Economic and Financial Affairs and Artificial Intelligence in Rio de Janeiro in July 2025. (Palácio do Planalto /Flickr/ CC0/Wikimedia Commons)
Brazil, particularly under Lula, has helped build institutions through which countries of the Global South can reduce their dependence on Western-dominated structures.
At the July 2025 BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, the group advanced cooperation on development finance, local-currency transactions, and international institutional reform.
The New Development Bank, headed by former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff, is an important expression of this effort.
The BRICS cannot automatically overcome economic dependency or guarantee sovereignty for working people. Yet its expansion offers greater room for independent development, provided that participating governments have the political commitment to use these possibilities.
Brazil’s history reveals how difficult that independence has been to defend. In 1961, Vice President João Goulart became the first high-ranking representative of a Latin American government to visit the People’s Republic of China, meeting Mao Zedong when revolutionary China remained diplomatically isolated and subjected to U.S. sanctions. Three years later, Goulart was overthrown in a U.S.-backed civil-military coup that inaugurated a 21-year dictatorship.
The early history of China–Brazil friendship was inseparable from struggles over national sovereignty, agrarian reform and the forces determined to suppress them.
The international material conditions for South–South cooperation are considerably more favourable today, but political direction remains decisive.
Former President Jair Bolsonaro hosted the 2019 BRICS summit in Brasília while pursuing close alignment with Washington. A government can weaken institutions from within by abandoning the commitments that give them political substance.
Jair Bolsonaro in 2018. (Jeso Carneiro/ Flickr/ CC BY-NC 2.0)
The far right’s resurgence also reflects the enduring power of Brazil’s own ruling classes. Bolsonarismo has a domestic base among sections of agribusiness, finance, the security apparatus, militias, conservative religious networks and major media.
These forces, whose electoral and institutional advances have continued, were strengthened by the 2016 parliamentary coup against Dilma Rousseff and the judicial persecution of Lula. They possess their own organisations, material interests and sources of power, which do not disappear when an election is lost. Their economic dependence on Chinese markets has not prevented their support for Washington’s political agenda.
Beyond the Election
Beijing has followed the Brazilian election closely, reflecting the importance of the political relationship built between Lula and Xi over years of cooperation.
In July, Xi reaffirmed China’s support for Brazil against external interference during a conversation with Lula, which also covered cooperation in artificial intelligence, satellites, mineral processing and relations between China and Mercosur.
In September, Foreign Minister Wang Yi received Lula’s adviser and former foreign minister Celso Amorim in Beijing, reaffirming the bilateral strategic partnership.
China’s principle of non-interference means that the choice of Brazil’s government belongs to the Brazilian people, but Beijing’s diplomatic restraint should not be confused with an absence of political interests or an assumption that all governments would pursue the same relationship. Chinese analysts have described the possible outlook under Flávio as one of “cold politics, hot economics”: commodity trade would likely continue, but the political relationship and cooperation in strategic sectors could deteriorate. The experience of Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency has already shown the limits of commercial interests in sustaining a broader political partnership.
For the Brazilian people, the consequences extend well beyond foreign policy. The election will also shape the struggles over labour rights, public services, agrarian reform and the defence of democratic space.
Brazil’s renewed role in South–South cooperation under Lula has opened possibilities for a development project that responds to the needs of its working people, but realising those possibilities depends on the political and social forces capable of carrying it forward.
The Brazilian people have fought through dictatorship, neoliberal restructuring, parliamentary coups and the rise of the far right to defend their political and social gains.
This election is another moment in that longer struggle, now unfolding amid renewed U.S. imperial intervention and a transformation of the world’s technological foundations. The future of China–Brazil cooperation will depend on the capacity of organised popular forces to build a sovereign national project and turn international cooperation into lasting changes in people’s lives.
Original article: consortiumnews.com
O secretário Municipal de Desenvolvimento Econômico de Queimados, na Baixada Fluminense, Jefferson Dias da Silva, morreu na noite desta segunda-feira (19), baleado durante uma abordagem da Polícia Militar.
O carro onde ele estava foi alvo de tiros disparados por policiais.
A PM se limitou a dizer que os policiais militares “tentaram abordar um veículo na Avenida Brasil, na pista sentido zona oeste, na altura de Bonsucesso, na zona norte da cidade do Rio de Janeiro”.
O governador em exercício do Rio de Janeiro, desembargador Ricardo Couto, determinou o afastamento dos policiais militares envolvidos na abordagem.
Por meio de nota divulgada à imprensa, o governo estadual informou que "manifesta profunda consternação com os familiares e amigos de Jefferson. A gravidade do episódio exige uma apuração rigorosa, célere e transparente".
Em nota, a PM lamentou a morte do político, que já foi vereador de Queimados, e informou que “as circunstâncias do fato serão esclarecidas através das investigações que estão em andamento. O local foi preservado e a área, isolada para a realização da perícia”.
O Comando da PM também instaurou um procedimento apuratório, para investigar a conduta dos policiais envolvidos na ocorrência. O caso está sendo investigado pela Delegacia de Homicídios da Capital.
De acordo com a Polícia Civil, a perícia foi feita no local e os policiais militares foram ouvidos. As imagens das câmeras corporais serão analisadas e outras diligências estão em andamento para apurar todos os fatos.
A prefeitura de Queimados divulgou uma nota lamentando profundamente a morte do secretário.
Matéria ampliada às 9h55 para incluir nota do governo no estado, no quarto e quinto parágrafos.
Há algo bastante curioso na forma como muitas empresas abordam o marketing: investem tempo, dinheiro e um esforço considerável para atrair novos clientes, mas, no momento em que alguém finalmente faz uma compra, a relação parece chegar a um fim abrupto. O cliente comprou. A venda está concluída. Missão cumprida! Passemos ao próximo. Bora […]
O conteúdo O marketing não acaba quando o cliente compra! aparece primeiro em Barlavento.
Hundreds of Brazilians protested outside Meta’s São Paulo offices on Monday, accusing the technology giant of restricting the reach of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign while boosting far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, six days before the presidential runoff. The demonstration coincided with a court order giving Meta 24 hours to prove it was treating both campaigns equally.
RELATED: Brazilian Court Gives Meta 24 Hours to Prove Equal Treatment of Presidential Campaigns
The protest on Faria Lima Avenue called for an end to what demonstrators described as the suppression of progressive political content. Organizers also demanded transparency in content moderation algorithms, protections for activists and journalists, and compensation for damage to public debate.
The Superior Electoral Court (TSE) imposed the 24-hour deadline amid mounting scrutiny of Meta’s handling of the campaigns. The dispute intensified after internal messages emerged in which company employees acknowledged that Lula’s account had faced restrictions compared with Bolsonaro’s. The messages indicated that Lula’s Instagram posts could not be promoted for nearly 24 hours between Oct. 9 and 10.
“META NO SE META!”
— Nacho Lemus (@LemusteleSUR) October 19, 2026
Movimientos brasileños ocupan la sede de la plataforma de redes sociales. pic.twitter.com/wetfUpEryA
Text Reads: “META DON’T GET INVOLVED!” Brazilian movements occupy the headquarters of the social media platform.
TSE Justice Marco Aurélio Bellizze warned that appeals would not suspend the court’s orders and doubled the daily fine for noncompliance from 500,000 reais to 1 million reais, or about $180,000.
The court also ordered Meta to submit individual reports in Portuguese, explain its recommendation algorithms, provide details on electoral advertising oversight, and identify potential networks of fake accounts and AI-generated images.
“Unilaterally replacing deadlines set by the court amounts to noncompliance, particularly in a process whose effectiveness depends on time,” Bellizze said.
Meta maintains that its content moderation policies apply equally to all political actors. Bolsonaro has also sought to join the proceedings, arguing that his own content has been harmed.
Protesters argued that the dispute exposed the broader influence of social media platforms over Brazil’s electoral process. They noted that 70% of the Brazilian population uses Instagram to obtain information and accused Meta, owned by Mark Zuckerberg, of wielding opaque power over political visibility.
“We cannot say we have fair elections when a company uses its economic, technical and technological power to tilt public debate toward one side, which is what is happening,” said Dani Silva, executive director of Ctrl+Z, one of the organizations behind the demonstration.
The rally was organized by the Não se Meta coalition, which included the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), Levantamento da Juventude Popular, Brasil Popular, Article 19, Ctrl+Z, Código No Binário, Diracom, the National Forum for the Democratization of Communication and Sleeping Giants Brazil.
Under the slogan “Meta, stay out of our election,” demonstrators displayed signs featuring Zuckerberg alongside U.S. President Donald Trump and chanted for digital sovereignty and Meta’s exclusion from the electoral process.
Activist Veronyka Gimenes, known as Trava Hacker, described the company’s actions as part of what she called “digital colonialism,” alleging that technology companies seek to influence domestic politics across the Global South.
“Digital sovereignty is no joke; it is something that must be taken very seriously,” she said.
Activist Tiana Cauton urged people to take to the streets to demand the democratization of communications. She also expressed hope that a new presidential term would advance “autonomy through our own open and clean social networks.”
Demonstrators said Meta’s influence over political communication had undermined Brazil’s national sovereignty since the 2018 elections, renewing calls for greater accountability for social media platforms during the electoral process.
A presidente da União Nacional dos Estudantes (UNE) considera que a vitória de Flávio Bolsonaro na primeira volta das presidenciais brasileiras mobilizou uma geração que vê a democracia em risco e decidiu não assistir de “braços cruzados”.
Fundada em 1937, a UNE participou na resistência à ditadura militar (1964–1985), na campanha pelas eleições presidenciais diretas, conhecida como “Diretas Já” (1983–1984), e no movimento dos “caras-pintadas” (1992), que exigiu a destituição do Presidente Fernando Collor de Mello.
“Quem protagonizou essas lutas eram jovens da mesma idade de quem hoje está a entrar numa assembleia universitária pela primeira vez”, observou Bianca Borges.
Para a dirigente, essa memória traz uma responsabilidade para os estudantes de hoje, sem significar uma equivalência entre os diferentes períodos históricos.
“O ensinamento que fica não é uma comparação automática entre períodos históricos, mas a compreensão de que democracia no nosso país, infelizmente, não é uma conquista definitiva: ela demanda resistência popular”, sublinhou.
“Eu acho que essa geração começa a perceber que história não é uma coisa que acontece apenas nos livros. Ela também é feita pelas escolhas que fazemos no presente”, afirmou Bianca Borges, sublinhando que essa memória histórica não implica equiparar o momento atual à ditadura, mas reforça a responsabilidade dos estudantes na defesa da democracia.
Entre as preocupações desta geração, Bianca Borges destacou o financiamento das universidades, a assistência estudantil, a ciência e tecnologia, os direitos sociais e laborais e o próprio papel das instituições democráticas.
“E existe ainda uma preocupação com o Congresso eleito. A juventude sabe que, independentemente de quem vença a Presidência, os próximos anos continuarão a ser de muita disputa política”, frisou.
Segundo a dirigente, a resposta dos estudantes ao resultado da primeira volta começou a ganhar forma em menos de 24 horas, depois de a UNE ter orientado as suas entidades de base a convocarem assembleias em todo o país.
“Em menos de 24 horas começaram a surgir plenárias, auditórios ficaram lotados e, poucos dias depois, as mobilizações já tinham saído dos campus e ocupado as ruas”, enfatizou.
Até porque, destacou, “o que está em causa, para essa geração, não é apenas o resultado de uma eleição”.
“Os estudantes estão a olhar para o futuro muito concreto das suas vidas: universidade, emprego, renda, ciência, assistência estudantil, direitos trabalhistas, capacidade de construir um projeto de vida e de permanecer num país que ofereça perspetivas”, disse.
Na primeira volta, realizada em 4 de outubro, Flávio Bolsonaro obteve 47,03% dos votos válidos, contra 45,16% de Lula da Silva, uma vantagem de 2.224.965 votos, sendo que, desde a introdução do sistema de duas voltas nas presidenciais brasileiras, em 1989, nenhum candidato que terminou a primeira votação em segundo lugar conseguiu vencer a eleição.
Al Tribunal Superior Electoral de Brasil se le está acabando la paciencia con el gigante tecnológico Meta y los inescrutables entresijos de su funcionamiento. Un juez del TSE le ha dado 24 horas a la tecnológica propietaria de Instagram, WhatsApp y Facebook para que demuestre al tribunal que sus algoritmos y su inteligencia artificial dan un trato igual a los dos candidatos, al presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, del izquierdista Partido de los Trabajadores, y al senador Flávio Bolsonaro, del derechista Partido Liberal. La decisión judicial fue dictada el domingo por la noche cuando los presidenciables protagonizaban su primer debate.
© Andre Penner (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
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