Digital models modified Flávio Bolsonaro’s event photography to artificially expand audiences and simulate support from female voters.
The Brazilian presidential election has become an arena for modern, dirty digital tactics. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, representing the Liberal Party (PL), has centered his campaign strategy around coordinated digital reach and automated content production.
Rather than working as a traditional political campaign of physical rallies, the operation relies heavily on digital distribution infrastructure across social media platforms.
Flávio’s strategy operates through two main mechanisms. First, the campaign uses synthetic consensus tools, automated social media accounts, AI image generation, and digital avatars to simulate organic public backing.
Second, the campaign benefits from algorithmic distribution asymmetries on digital platforms, which amplify far-right material while placing system restrictions on competing political content.
Collected evidence by independent researchers, journalism networks, and electoral authorities indicates that systemic digital manipulation and platform-level infrastructure played a decisive role in shaping voter perception and electoral engagement in Brazil.
Industrial Bot Networks
A core component of Flávio Bolsonaro’s digital strategy involves the commercial purchase of automated networks designed to manufacture artificial public support.
An investigation by The Intercept Brazil revealed that Flávio Bolsonaro paid Elytron, a cybersecurity firm, to carry out data collection and voter identification to spread rumors and create fake accounts.
These automated tools operate primarily across WhatsApp, Instagram, and X, generating synchronized posts and artificial engagement to bypass standard organic distribution patterns.
This infrastructure uses astroturfing techniques to alter online public discourse. By deploying thousands of automated accounts programmed to post identical messaging scripts, the campaign artificially inflates engagement metrics, pushes specific political hashtags into regional trending lists, and floods comment sections on public news pages.
This creates a false impression of widespread popular momentum, designed to sway undecided voters through perceived consensus.
Technical evaluations submitted during electoral court proceedings reveal the scope of these automated operations. Data presented to electoral monitors shows coordinated account clusters posting at frequencies humanly impossible without software automation.
🚨 BREAKING: Flávio Bolsonaro paid R$600,000 to a company that offered AI to manipulate elections, according to Intercept Brasil. pic.twitter.com/eFcRp74vNw
Various social organizations and media outlets have denounced the deployment of AI image and video generation tools as another facet of Flávio Bolsonaro’s digital strategy.
A prominent example occurred during campaign launch events, where the campaign broadcast an AI-generated digital avatar of former president Jair Bolsonaro endorsing his son’s candidacy. This technique allowed the campaign to maintain the political presence of the former president Bolsonaro in public events despite judicial rulings restricting his direct participation in political activities.
In addition, the campaign used AI tools to manipulate visual documentation of campaign gatherings. Documented instances show event photography processed through image generation models to alter crowd compositions.
These AI modifications included scaling up crowd sizes to exaggerate physical attendance and digitally swapping male attendees with female faces. The primary objective of this demographic engineering was to simulate broader support among female voters, a demographic group where polling data consistently showed lower support for the candidate.
An investigation by a Brazilian media outlet identified more than 50 TikTok videos altered using AI, specifically on-the-street interviews in which subjects claimed they would vote for Flávio Bolsonaro. These videos garnered over 7 million views, yet in only 18% of them did the platform indicate that the individuals featured were AI-generated.
While Brazilian law prohibits the use of AI-generated videos in political campaigns, it is difficult to determine when such content is created by third parties with no direct affiliation to the campaigns.
Due to a lack of female supporters, Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro has resorted to using AI to transform middle-aged men into attractive young women.
Flávio Bolsonaro’s public communications strategy relies heavily on coordinated attack campaigns directed against President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the Workers’ Party (PT).
The Flávio campaign’s public messaging routinely utilizes sensationalist allegations and targeted attacks. Online networks affiliated with the campaign circulate manufactured claims regarding public safety, economic stability, and social values, framing the current administration in terms of moral crisis.
On Sunday the 18th, the public debate between the two candidates took place, and Flávio Bolsonaro spent most of his time attacking Lula during his turns to speak.
Throughout the debate, Flávio was sarcastic and mocking toward President Lula; he attempted to intimidate him physically, to which Lula responded by moving away, stating that he did not want to be near either Flávio or the Bolsonaro family.
Furthermore, when the discussion turned to public safety, Flávio claimed that Lula is the preferred candidate of organized crime, pointing out that Lula received a large number of votes from within the country’s prisons. Lula replied, “I want 100% of them to vote for me -even your father,” a reference to the fact that Jair Bolsonaro is currently incarcerated.
This aggressive messaging strategy directly impacts the broader political environment. By flooding public discourse with inflammatory claims, the campaign creates heightened polarization, distracts from substantive legislative evaluations, and systematically delegitimizes established democratic processes and electoral monitoring bodies.
Hundreds of Brazilians protested outside Meta’s São Paulo offices, accusing the technology giant of limiting President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s campaign reach while boosting far-right candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, just six days before the presidential runoff. The demonstration… pic.twitter.com/KRAxExFjMO
The Brazilian presidential race was shaped by asymmetries within Meta’s platforms, including Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook.
Filings submitted to the Superior Electoral Court (TSE, in Spanish) by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s legal team documented clear disparities in how content from both campaigns was handled by the different platforms.
A primary issue involved Meta’s generative AI features. When users requested campaign materials incorporating Lula’s official ballot number, 13, the system repeatedly rejected the prompts, citing political content restrictions. Conversely, identical requests containing Flávio Bolsonaro’s candidate number, 22, were routinely processed, generating promotional material for the far-right campaign.
In other instances, the AI tool inserted Bolsonaro’s electoral number into completely unrelated image requests. Following formal complaints, the Superior Electoral Court ordered Meta to ensure equal treatment. Meta attributed these outcomes to technical errors and implemented broad restrictions on political image generation.
Internal Meta communications revealed that technical errors caused Lula’s official Instagram profile to be excluded from platform search results and recommendation engines, while Flávio Bolsonaro’s profile remained fully discoverable and actively recommended to users. Furthermore, internal technical escalations confirmed that temporary account restrictions had hindered the reach of Lula’s messaging assets.
WHO'S THE REAL THIEF? LULA CHALLENGES BOLSONARO TO SHOW RECORDS
Ahead of Brazil’s presidential election, Brazilian President Lula da Silva publicly challenged rival Flávio Bolsonaro to open his bank accounts, release his phone records, and let the Brazilian people decide who… pic.twitter.com/U6Ge0yOV6A
The execution of Flávio Bolsonaro’s digital presidential campaign illustrates the evolving mechanics of far-right electoral operations.
By combining commercial bot procurement, generative AI deepfakes, coordinated public attacks, and platform-level algorithmic advantages, the campaign constructed a heavily synthetic media environment designed to influence voter perception.
These developments underscore the limitations of existing legal and regulatory frameworks in addressing digital campaign manipulation. While judicial interventions by the Superior Electoral Court forced technical corrections, reactive oversight remains insufficient to counteract real-time automated suppression and algorithmic imbalance.
Protecting democratic processes requires structural regulatory reform, including mandatory algorithmic transparency, strict auditing of generative AI systems, and clear accountability standards for global technology corporations operating within national borders.
Exposing the mechanics of digital manipulation through independent research and data-driven journalism remains essential to safeguarding electoral integrity against automated distortion and platform bias.
Sources: Brasil de Fato – Agência Brasil – Gov.br – O Globo – Folha de S.Paulo – O Estado de S.Paulo – El País – CNN Brasil – EFE – Instituto Tricontinental – La Base América Latina – Diario Red – The Intercept – El Salto
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva presented a constitutional amendment on Wednesday that would reserve budget funds for free public transport on weekends and holidays, tying the move to workers’ newly expanded right to rest.
The initiative would redirect 26.8% of parliamentary budget amendments to fund the program, which the government says would strengthen working-class access to leisure and urban mobility.
It envisions reallocating 11.2 billion reais (more than 2.2 billion dollars) from the budget controlled by Congress, whose concentration of resources has historically limited the federal government’s ability to carry out social policies. The proposal still needs to pass Congress.
The Brazilian government argues that this concentration of resources in parliamentary hands has historically limited the federal government’s capacity to carry out social programs. Reassigning the money, officials contend, restores room for initiatives aimed at urban mobility and access to leisure for the working class.
PESSOAL URGENTE 🚨
Lula anuncia tarifa zero para ônibus aos fins de semana em todo o país. PEC foi enviada ao Congresso e prevê que parte do orçamento das emendas parlamentares financie a medida. #FandomsComLulapic.twitter.com/cYNB8bGf9q
During the same ceremony at Planalto Palace Lula signed a separate law forgiving 16 billion reais (about $3.1 billion) in tax debts accumulated by individual microentrepreneurs, a category that covers millions of small producers and self-employed workers.
Administration officials portrayed the debt pardon as a lifeline for families whose tax obligations had outpaced their ability to pay. The two measures, they said, respond to the same pressure weighing on popular households across Brazil.
The Brazilian President described the weekend transport plan as a pilot program. Its purpose is to measure the social and operational impact of the zero fare model before any decision to extend it nationwide.
Lula’s administration said the project complements the recent reduction of the working week, helping workers make effective use of their right to rest. Days before Wednesday’s event, Lula attended the Senate promulgation of a separate constitutional amendment that abolishes the six-days-on, one-day-off schedule. The change secures two paid days of rest each week, preferably Saturday and Sunday, and shortens the maximum work week without cutting pay.
🚍 MAIS TEMPO PARA VIVER!
Hoje enviamos ao Congresso a PEC da Tarifa Zero, que propõe transporte público gratuito aos fins de semana e feriados em todo o Brasil e em cidades que possuem transporte público.
Despite criticism from far-right sectors backing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, the executive said it will deepen its commitment to restoring rights and defending popular gains. The announcements come days before the October 25 presidential runoff in which Lula faces Bolsonaro.
The weekend fare initiative arrives as Lula’s administration pushes a broader agenda of recovering social and labor protections. The Brazilian President has linked the transit measure and the shorter work week as parts of a single effort to lift the weight of daily costs from working families.
The Brazilian elections have proved fertile ground for the expression of the most common electoral stereotypes, which, by and large, are responsible for the sharp slide toward a superficial politics, barren of debate over effective solutions for our collective future, yet rich, deep down, in carnival aesthetics, more liberal or more conservative, in bitter invective, and in an exacerbated tendency toward the easy insult or even the basest personal offenses.
None of this is unfamiliar from the US, where national politics is discussed in a conservative, parochial, cramped, and backward fashion, with barricades on both sides avoiding debate on the truly divisive issues, labeled “radical”; nor is it unfamiliar from Old Europe, whose political class has lost quality to a degree that differs nothing, today, from what goes on in Brazil, Argentina, or other places marked by the submission of their leading political figures to Anglo-Zionist imperialism, to the immense power of the oligarchy, or, in the final analysis, to the need to reconcile domestic policies with the international agenda of imperialism.
As we look at a left wing caught, all too often, in individualistic, liberal identity politics — thereby diverted from the workplaces, from the factory floor, from the dramas of exploitation that underlie the deepest problems with which the majority of the population grapples — we also find a right wing that works as the other side of the coin: to the liberalism of part of the left (the liberal left) on matters of customs, the right answers with conservatism; to the left’s promises of social justice (the liberal left), the right answers with more liberalism and even “ultraliberalism.” Both end up saying very little about what really matters, focusing much of the time on side issues more closely bound to aesthetics than to essence.
Nevertheless, with a keen eye, we can always unearth what lies behind one or another piece of pamphleteering. One of the most important themes in contention today in Western societies — or Westernized ones, as is the case of Brazil, Latin America, and Latin Europe — is the tension between sovereignty and submission to Anglo-Zionist imperialism. If in Europe — in the cases of Portugal, Spain, or Italy — that tension is mediated by an already submissive EU, which tends to act as a protective layer over national tensions, then once the question of sovereignty is raised, the tendency is, one of two things: either to see it as an extension of European sovereignty, which hides the real problem, or to see it as an attempt to discuss leaving the EU, which is still regarded as taboo in broad circles of one camp or another. In Brazil, that tension lies more exposed, since there is no American Union to mediate the country’s foreign relations with the US and Israel, the great representatives of Anglo-Zionist imperialism.
And in this case, it is interesting to note that on the Bolsonaro side — from which one might expect the nationalist proposal — this does not happen, or happens only residually, because even when it does, the attempt is unmasked by the excessive support that American social networks give to Bolsonaro’s candidacy, or by the constant interference of Trump and his cronies in the Brazilian electoral process. However much the right wished to present itself as the defender of the nation and its independence, the effusive support of the US for the candidacy in question would bring the mask down, for the US — and Israel — would never support so vehemently and so openly anyone who was not subservient to them. Lula’s absence from Silicon Valley’s algorithmic command posts ends up giving away which of the two candidates is more subservient to US interests.
On Lula da Silva’s side, by contrast, the more clearly drawn proposals on the defense of sovereignty have in fact emerged — even if some of that intensity may later collide with the pragmatic dictates of realpolitik, imposed by the need to strike deals with a notoriously pro-imperialist “centrão.” Either way, this dividing line exists, and it seems scarcely credible to me that anyone in full possession of their mental faculties could choose a protégé of Trump to defend Brazil’s sovereign interests, rather than an experienced conciliator, even if not a revolutionary one.
Knowing how important this question is, afterward, for the sovereign management and use of endogenous resources and for their allocation to an independent development plan, the choice of Bolsonaro seems to me hard to defend, should the sovereign question weigh in that choice. As in the EU, the sovereignists have not found the best practices on the right either — perhaps with the exception of Viktor Orbán, who governed Hungary for sixteen years, until the April 2026 elections — but more out of a need to align with Russia and China, as a consequence of the EU’s energy and industrial choices, than out of any need to build a genuinely sovereign national project. Moreover, if further proof were needed, Orbán’s total alignment with Zionism allowed us to see that his disagreement with the EU was merely tactical, not a matter of principle or of defending national sovereignty. Orbán never for a moment renounced NATO or distanced himself from Israel and Zionism — factors he used as platforms of support against the Brussels bureaucracy. His submission to Trump, for that matter, was also explicit, and voiced with the fervor of one who saw in him “an envoy of God”!
In the case of Meloni, Babiš, and others, the question is the same: much talk, but in the end, the same alignment — which foreshadows where parties like the AfD will later turn. Faced with the fundamental questions, they too will fall in line, either with submission to Brussels or with direct submission to Zionism and US imperialism. Others, like Meloni, manage a middle path that, in the end, has the same social consequences. Where it really counts, young people keep running into unemployment, cannot find a home, watch infrastructure decay, see labor rights under relentless attack, and see their wages rapidly losing value against the brutal rise in the cost of living. There is no place where this “new right” is entrenched and seated in the halls of power where this does not happen.
Hence another important parallel persists between the Brazilian elections and what goes on in Europe and the West in general: whether in Brazil, the US, or Europe, this “new right” also uses the identity agenda as its dividing line against the left. Supposedly, the “left” — liberal, I would add — would be responsible for a decadence of customs and of cultural and religious values, for the social and moral decay of the defenders of this “woke” drift.
Now, this demarcation has served as a justification for many who once presented themselves as critics of Zionism, defenders of multipolarity, anti-imperialists, and defenders of Global South sovereignties, and who now use this supposed “wokeness” of the left to justify electing a representative of submission to imperialism like Bolsonaro. This demarcation has one problem: the only thing more “woke” than the “woke” is the one who makes wokeness the most important thing in politics, whether one is for it or against it.
On the left, many are unable to identify, in the excessively identitarian agendas, an individualistic, divisive agenda that fragments the working classes — one originating in the US itself, whose mass-manipulation services turned being “woke” (alert to social injustices) into a kind of identitarian pamphleteering. They stripped the “woke” movement of the class-based dimension and the just redistribution of wealth it once had, and gave it a panoply of identities in exchange — turning the concern with equality, social justice, and freedom, a materialist and universalist concern, into a tribalistic, individualistic concern, and, above all, one disconnected from the material dimension, that is, from the dimension of the just redistribution of the wealth produced by labor.
But on the right, when this tribalistic and individualistic drift is used as a dividing line, what genuinely distinguishes left from right is also denied. For in the historical matrix that separates left from right lies wealth: who dominates it, and how it is shared. On one side, those who hold that property and wealth must not be the measure of freedom and political initiative, and that all human beings are entitled to a life of dignity (universalism); on the other — on the right — plutocratic physiocracy: the idea that freedom and the capacity for political intervention should be measured by the wealth one has. Hence the liberal suffrages rested on a census-based — that is, identitarian — logic, in which what counted was the wealth one had, being a man, and knowing how to read and write; and were it not for the struggle, notably that of the suffragettes, to achieve what we today call “universal suffrage,” we would still be there. I suspect they, too, were accused of being “woke,” in the terms in vogue at the time!
Thus, from then on — that is, since the founding moment of the “left–right” dichotomy of the French Revolution — the right has committed itself more to the preservation of property in the hands of those who hold it, and the left more to real democracy, to economic, social, and cultural democracy, rejecting the idea that the rich must remain rich and the poor must remain poor. In a manner of speaking, this is what we call universalist progressivism, as opposed to individualist progressivism, which leans above all toward questions of individual identity.
So when this right embarks on the anti-woke logic, making this agenda the most important aspect of the political discussion — as if what really mattered were not the things that allow us to live, to sustain, feed, and enjoy our body and spirit — it does so with only one intention: to divert attention to a superficial issue, so that what is most precious to it does not enter the proposals under discussion: the just redistribution of wealth and economic, social, and cultural democracy. Thus, what matters most to it remains beyond debate, and elections turn into a carnival of little flags for and against. Whoever chooses where to vote because of someone else’s wokeness is every bit as woke as they are.
But the similarities do not end here. Another is the question of security and fighting crime: on the right, the idea is spread that crime is fought with brutal violence; on the left, it is argued that as long as there is poverty, crime cannot be eradicated. Now, it does not take much intelligence to see that the first proposal fails precisely where it is most talked about: the US. No country has more common prisoners — and few will have more political prisoners; no country spends so much on supposed crime-fighting; no developed country has so much crime. Because in the US, the breeding grounds of common crime — the Black and Latino ghettos, where desperate populations live, deprived of basic conditions of employment, education, and essential public services — remain overcrowded and ever more impoverished. But that is only the crime of the desperate, the kind that shows up on television.
Another form of crime — which also features in the right/left agenda — is the question of corruption. If this “new right” waves the banner of corruption and the left barely speaks of it, it is equally true that, once elected, this “new right” does everything except end corruption. One need look no further than Trump to find a case of incorrigible corruption. And those who remembered Bolsonarismo and expected the end of corruption were also left cursing in the desert: the Bolsonaro government was, itself, a den of corruption. Perhaps the discussion should start with the point that, to end corruption, one must end what originates it: the immense disparity in the distribution of wealth, which allows some to use their immense economic power to obtain from political power what they lack in electoral legitimacy. This crime — white-collar crime — being even more insidious and giving rise to the deep causes of the other, does not show up as often on television.
On immigration, we have perhaps the only one of the great differences between the elections in Latin America, in Brazil, and in the countries of advanced capitalism. But immigration also shows up as a form of shallow identitarianism of the right. The more the “new right” talks about “excessive immigration,” the more it forgets that those who employ these immigrants are the very same who finance and support it; that immigrants come to work in the economic sectors with the lowest wages, exploited by the most backward and conservative bosses — the social base of the radical right; and that employers only turn to immigration as a last resort, because their anti-labor agenda has left workers today unable to project a future with stability; because the young, victims of the transformation of housing into real-estate speculation, can no longer plan a future as a family; and because mothers and fathers, victims of the deregulated work schedules imposed by employers and enshrined in law by the right, have no time for their families.
Worst of all, the more they deny the necessary material conditions, the more they claim to defend the family and its values. A clear display of hypocrisy and cynicism, which denies the deep causes of the problem — a problem that affects the entire West. As they have done, it is easier to deny that the fertility crisis is intrinsically bound up with the prevailing system. Know where there was no fertility crisis? In the socialist countries of the East. Industrialized, literate, and well-fed countries, which doubled their populations in 70 years. Today, taken over by capitalism, they find themselves caught up in the same old tune of the advanced-capitalist countries. They will not get out of it until the fundamental features of an economic system change — one that not only leaves women no time to have children but also destroys family cohesion through the deregulation of work and, consequently, of life.
Now, what is most interesting about this political debate is that those who, a few years ago — those who said there was no left or right, that politicians were all the same — are now the ones telling us that salvation lies in this “new right,” and they are the ones who bristle when we tell them that this “new right” has nothing “new” about it and that, on the contrary, it reeks of classic fascism.
They are never fascists, but they submit to Zionism and the Anglo-Zionist empire; they are not fascists, but they resort to the demagogy and easy rhetoric used by classic fascism; they are not fascists, but they wave mass banners as classic fascism did; they are not fascists, but they use religion and the supposed degradation of customs to divert attention from what is essential, as classic fascism did; they are not fascists, but once in power they privatize, attack labor rights, and shut down essential public services, as classic fascism did; they are not fascists, but they attack knowledge and devalue study and individual effort, as classic fascism did; they are not fascists, but they dismiss political experience, individual and collective track records, as classic fascism did, in order to dismiss institutions; they are not fascists, but they adopt a racialist, xenophobic, supremacist, and ultra-individualist discourse, as classic fascism did; they are not fascists, but they are all anti-communist, anti-socialist, and opposed to social progress, as classic fascism was; they are not fascists, but they are backed by the oligarchy and the most backward employers, as well as by imperialism, as classic fascism was.
They are not fascists, but they smell, fly, sing, and bellow like fascists…
Call it what you will, but a “thirties” of the 21st century, armed with AI and social media? No, thank you! We can expect nothing different from those who have the same bosses and want to boss around the same employees…
Afterward, whomever you vote for, I hope you will spare me the tired old refrain of “we were fooled.”
SOURCES
Incarceration in the US — the US has the largest prison population in the world (about 2 million people) and the highest incarceration rate of any democracy; per capita (World Prison Brief / Prison Policy Initiative, 2026). https://eji.org/news/u-s-remains-world-leader-in-number-of-people-incarcerated/
Jair Bolsonaro — convicted by the Supreme Federal Court (STF) to 27 years and 3 months in prison (September 11, 2025) for attempted coup d’état, armed criminal organization, and violent abolition of the democratic rule of law; serving his sentence since November 25, 2025. https://apublica.org/especial/o-julgamento-de-jair-bolsonaro/ ; https://checamos.afp.com/doc.afp.com.A2V88ZQ
Donald Trump — convicted in May 2024 on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records; in January 2025 he received an unconditional discharge (no jail time or fine), with appeals still pending in 2026. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g3m95ykzko ; https://www.axios.com/2026/08/28/trump-hush-money-conviction-appeal
Viktor Orbán — Hungary is a NATO member, and Orbán was a close ally of Netanyahu and Israel; in the April 2026 elections, Péter Magyar put an end to Orbán’s 16 years in government. https://apnews.com/article/hungary-israel-euro-2024-soccer-1514e137b54b18a1fed8be8b6cd89b19 ; https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hjef3yqnbx
Suffrage — in Portugal, census-based suffrage was only abolished in 1968; women obtained a limited right to vote in 1931 and full equality only with the 1976 Constitution. https://www.europeana.eu/pt/stories/votes-for-women ; https://arquivomunicipal.lisboa.pt/fileadmin/arquivo_municipal/difusao/publicacoes/cadernos/Cad04.pdf
Origin of the term “woke” — African American English, with records from the 1920s–1940s, popularized from 2014 onward by the Black Lives Matter movement. https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/woke-meaning-origin ; https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2025-09-30/how-woke-went-from-an-expression-in-black-culture-to-a-conservative-criticism
Origin of the terms “left” and “right” — the seating arrangement of deputies in the French National Constituent Assembly in 1789. https://observador.pt/opiniao/a-grande-dicotomia-o-que-ainda-separa-a-esquerda-da-direita/
Crime — the US homicide rate (≈6.4 per 100,000 inhabitants) https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/gsh/2023/GSH_2023_LAC_web.pdf
Brazil spent years targeting electoral lies on the internet. Now, artificial intelligence is stumping the election authorities and reshaping a high-stakes race.
Russian diesel shipments are returning to Türkiye and Brazil after Moscow lifted its export ban and the US temporarily suspended sanctions on Russian fuel supplies, Reuters reported on 20 October, citing shipping data from Kpler and LSEG.
The resumption of exports gives Russia another source of revenue to support its war against Ukraine, allowing Moscow to profit from fuel sales despite the domestic shortages that prompted its export ban. The US sanctions relief is helping Russia restore access to international buyers while its full-scale invasion continues.
According to Reuters, at least two tankers carrying Russian diesel have departed the Baltic port of Primorsk for Türkiye and Brazil in recent days. Each vessel is carrying around 300,000 barrels, according to Kpler data cited by Reuters. Morocco has also resumed importing Russian diesel since the export ban was lifted.
Russia ended its self-imposed diesel export ban on 9 October after reaching a deal with US President Donald Trump to resume fuel supplies to global markets. Moscow had introduced the ban to address domestic shortages triggered by Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries.
Those supply problems have not been resolved, but the US temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian fuel supplies as part of the deal, allowing Moscow to prioritize export opportunities despite domestic shortages. EU and UK embargoes on Russian fuel imports remain in force.
Russian diesel exports remain below last year's levels
Russian diesel exports averaged around 345,000 barrels per day in 2026 so far, down 41% from the previous year, according to shipping data cited by Reuters. Exports had already fallen during the summer before Moscow imposed its ban.
Türkiye accounted for around 34% of Russian diesel loadings this year, followed by Brazil at 24% and Morocco at 10%, Kpler data showed.
Trump said Russia would initially export 300,000 metric tons of diesel, followed by 500,000 tons in November and 1 million tons afterward. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Moscow could raise exports to as much as 3.5 million metric tons per month by the end of the year.
US seeks to ease diesel prices
The deal comes as Trump seeks to present a picture of bringing down diesel prices ahead of the US midterm elections on 3 November. Fuel prices have risen amid disruptions to global energy supplies caused by Trump's war with Iran, which has shaken oil markets and raised concerns about supply routes.
Trump has blamed Ukraine's attacks on Russian oil infrastructure for driving up energy prices, despite the broader market disruption caused by his war with Iran. The Russian diesel deal offers a way to increase global fuel supplies, but also allows Moscow to earn revenue from exports while its war against Ukraine continues.
However, the volumes from Russia initially outlined by Trump would cover only a small share of the global supply shortfall.
Explore further
Trump says Russia agreed to supply millions of tons of diesel to US and global markets as he blames Ukraine for fuel price hikes driven by Iran war
This story originally appeared in Panamerican Dispatch on Oct. 19, 2026, and is shared here with permission.
Supporters of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva returned to the streets on Sunday, October 18, for a nationwide mobilization in defense of democracy and the president’s reelection. The second round of the presidential election is set for October 25.
Demonstrations in various regions of the country brought together students, artists, social movements, and political leaders in a show of support for the president.
Carrying Brazilian flags, wearing red t-shirts, and holding signs, people occupied streets, squares, and avenues in state capitals, including Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Salvador, São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Florianópolis, and Maceió. Many of the rallies were accompanied by musical performances.
The demonstrations also aim to engage undecided voters and encourage people to participate who did not cast a ballot in the first round.
Some of these mobilizations are part of the “Bora Virar” (“Let’s Turn It Around”) initiative, which seeks to bolster Lula’s candidacy in the final stretch of the race against Senator Flávio Bolsonaro. The movement gained momentum following the first round of voting on October 4, when the far-right candidate finished ahead of President Lula.
This Sunday’s rallies are the latest in a series of demonstrations organized primarily by students and social movements since the start of the second round campaign. On October 11, a huge demonstration took place on Avenida Paulista in São Paulo, with Lula himself in attendance.
Rio de Janeiro: Artists Gather in Support of Democracy and Lula’s Reelection
Copacabana Beach, in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro, served as the setting for a major concert and political rally in support of President Lula’s reelection this Sunday, October 18. Organized by singer Caetano Veloso and the “342 Artes” movement, the “Musical Act for Democracy” brought together artists from various generations and musical styles, alongside supporters of the president. The concert began around 2:00 PM near Posto 5, with musical performances starting at 4:15 PM, opened by singer-songwriter Edu Krieger. Artists in attendance include Caetano Veloso, Djavan, Simone, Marina Sena, Chico César, João Bosco, Frejat, Fernanda Abreu, Ivan Lins, Rubel, Duda Beat, and Xamã.
The rally transformed the Rio de Janeiro waterfront into a space for political and cultural expression, uniting music with the defense of democracy during the final stretch of the race between Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro.
The musical event in Copacabana also faced a legal challenge aimed at stopping it.
The right-wing Novo Party petitioned the Superior Electoral Court to block the demonstration, arguing that the artists’ performances could constitute “disguised campaign rallies.” Justice Ricardo Villas Bôas Cueva, however, denied the request and allowed the event to proceed. The organizers clarified that the initiative is not part of Lula’s official campaign agenda and that a portion of the expenses would be covered by their own funds.
Actor Paulo Vieira, who hosted the event, criticized the legal attempt to block it. “They tried to prevent this event from happening, but they failed. Democracy is precisely this: the ability to create art, to sing, and to express oneself,” Vieira said. “This is not a campaign rally, it is not a ‘show-rally’, and it is not a campaign act.”
Members of the crowd wore T-shirts and displaying stickers supporting Lula. They also waved flags. Several politicians are present, including congressman-elect Guilherme Cortez (PSOL-SP) and Congressman Henrique Vieira, both from the left Socialism and Liberty Party.
Supporters of Brazil’s President and presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of the Workers’ Party (PT) attend a rally in Brasilia on October 18, 2026. Photo by Igo ESTRELA / AFP via Getty Images
Rio de Janeiro: Students Occupy Candelária, Chico Buarque Defends Democracy.
Also in Rio de Janeiro, students, social movements, and supporters of the president gathered in the Candelária area, in the city center, this Sunday morning. Organized by the National Union of Students and supported by political parties such as the Workers’ Party nd the Democratic Labour Party, the demonstration focused on defending public education, the youth, and democracy.
Participants occupied a stretch of Avenida Presidente Vargas, carrying flags, signs, and slogans in support of Lula’s reelection.
A major highlight was the appearance of singer-songwriter Chico Buarque, who was greeted by the crowd. Addressing the attendees, the artist spoke in defense of democracy and underscored the pivotal role of students in political mobilization.
Chico Buarque junto a los estudiantes en Río de Janeiro.
Como a fines de los 60’s, pero con 82 años, el cantante sale a enfrentar a quienes todavía enaltecen a la dictadura militar y quieren llegar a la presidencia. pic.twitter.com/2R5MALy1X9
“We are here to stand against brutality and subservience. Long live the students, long live democracy, and long live President Lula!” Chico Buarque said, to the cheers of the participants.
In Rio de Janeiro, a demonstration also took place near the Madureira Overpass, in the city’s North Zone.
Brasília: Supporters March Along the Esplanade Toward the National Congress
In the capital, Brasilia, supporters of Lula occupied the Esplanade of Ministries from the early hours of the morning. The gathering began around 9:00 a.m. in front of the National Museum of the Republic, with protesters setting off on a march in support of the president’s reelection. The mobilization led to road closures in the central area of Brasília.
Around noon, the participants headed toward the National Congress.
En Brasilia hay una regla:
No hagas fotos aéreas de tus manifestaciones porque todo parece pequeño.
This mobilization came just days after another event held on the Esplanade last Tuesday (13), organized by the student union of the University of Brasília. Thousands of people took part in that demonstration, highlighting the role of the student movement in the reelection campaign.
Lula remained in Brasília throughout the day but did not attend the demonstration in person.
Salvador: Gilberto Gil, Daniela Mercury, and BaianaSystem in Rally for Democracy
In Salvador, music and political mobilization converged at a “Rally for Democracy” held on Sunday, featuring prominent figures from Brazilian culture.
The gathering began at 1:00 p.m. A sound truck led the rally, which marched toward the Farol da Barra lighthouse. Among the artists who made an appearance were Gilberto Gil, Daniela Mercury, BaianaSystem, Zélia Duncan, Armandinho Macêdo, O Kanalha, Rachel Reis, and Buja Ferreira, lead singer of the band Timbalada.
The lineup also included traditional groups from Afro-Bahian culture, such as Ilê Aiyê, Cortejo Afro, Filhos de Gandhy, and Banda Didá.
Conceived by Daniela Mercury, the event was presented by its organizers as an independent civil society initiative aimed at defending democracy, freedom of expression, and collective rights.
The mobilization also expressed support for Lula’s candidacy.
São Paulo: Mobilizations Hit the City’s Poor Neighborhoods
In São Paulo, supporters of Lula organized demonstrations across different parts of the city, with a special focus on low-income neighborhoods. In the morning, crowds gathered at Largo da Batata and Vale do Anhangabaú. Aadditional events were scheduled for the afternoon in areas such as Grajaú and Itaquera.
The mobilization aimed to extend the campaign’s reach beyond the central districts of São Paulo, foster direct dialogue with the public and win over new voters during the final week before the election.
This Sunday’s events followed a series of demonstrations that gained momentum in São Paulo after the first round of voting. On October 11, supporters of the candidate occupied a long stretch of Avenida Paulista in an event that included the participation of Lula himself. Reports indicate that the gathering spanned approximately 12 city blocks along the avenue.
Belo Horizonte: Supporters Return to the Streets for the Second Consecutive Day
In Belo Horizonte, protesters gathered at Praça da Estação, in the city center, starting at 11:00 a.m. Organized via social media, the event brought together supporters of Lula’s reelection bid and sought to encourage popular participation in the runoff election.
The demonstration took place one day after another large rally was held in the city. On Saturday, October 17, participants marched through the streets of the city center.
Minas Gerais is a key state in the presidential race. In the first round, Flávio Bolsonaro received 47.03% of the valid votes in the state, while Lula garnered 45.16%. In light of this result, Lula supporters intensified their efforts to increase his vote share among Minas Gerais residents.
In the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, supporters of the president began gathering around 11:00 a.m. at Largo Zumbi dos Palmares. The demonstration brought together leftist political leaders from the state, with participants dressed predominantly in red and carrying flags of the Workers’ Party and Brazil.
Florianópolis: Thousands Participate in March in Support of Lula
In Florianópolis, thousands of Lula supporters took part in a march through the city center. The rally began around 11:00 a.m. and included the presence of artists, political leaders, and representatives from movements allied with the Workers’ Party candidate.
Following the march, the demonstrators gathered in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Florianópolis.
O Corredor Vera Arruda, em Maceió (AL) tá tomado pela maré vermelha!
Maceió: March Highlights Defending Education and Sovereignty
In Maceió, supporters of Lula took to the streets of the capital of Alagoas for a march in favor of the president’s reelection. Images shared by the account “Alagoas Que Queremos” (“The Alagoas We Want”) show a large gathering of demonstrators with flags, banners, and signs.
Among the causes championed by the participants are the promotion of public education, national sovereignty, and the continuation of social investments. The demonstration is also part of efforts to secure additional votes during the final stretch of the presidential campaign.
Rapaz, nunca vi nada parecido em Curitiba! Ato GIGANTE em apoio a Lula. Repito: EM CURITIBA!
Curitiba and Other Cities Also Join the Mobilizations
In Curitiba, supporters of Lula held a demonstration starting at 1:00 p.m. at Praça 19 de Dezembro, located in the center of the capital of Paraná.
In addition to the state capitals where demonstrations have already been reported, events also took place in cities across states in more than half of the country.
The runoff vote is scheduled for next Sunday, October 25.
This article was originally published by ICL Noticias. It was translated by Panamerican Dispatch. You can read it in its original language, Portuguese, here.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Demonstrators demand algorithmic transparency as Brazil’s electoral court gives Meta 24 hours to prove equal treatment of presidential campaigns.
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.
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.
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.
Concerns over digital sovereignty
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 Belgian criminal organisation’s links with a Brazilian cocaine gang have been the focus of a major trial in Brussels, where smuggling links have been alleged between European players and the drug cartels of Latin America
In the early hours of 7 September, a convoy of heavily armed police swept through the sleeping streets of central Brussels towards the Haren district, on the city’s north-eastern outskirts. They made their way to 22 Avenue du Bourget, a militarised bunker-like complex that was the former headquarters of Nato.
The modernist complex, with its austere and functional architecture, was hastily built in 1967 and houses the Justitia courtroom, where Belgium’s federal trials are now held. It was here that the perpetrators and accomplices of the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks and the 2016 Brussels attacks were tried in 2022.
Wildfires in Brazil’s Amazon region have driven air pollution to dangerous levels in cities such as Santarém and Manaus, prompting the federal government to deploy a joint armed forces command, more water-bombing aircraft and emergency funds.
A wave of forest fires is consuming the western zone of Brazil’s Pará state, where authorities have counted 922 active outbreaks. The dense smoke has left the city of Santarém under air pollution levels described as very unhealthy for the local population.
Figures released by the Queimadas platform, which operates under the National Institute for Space Research, place Pará at the top of the national registry of environmental disasters.
The neighboring state of Amazonas reports 90 active fire points after having surpassed one thousand outbreaks in recent weeks.
Conditions grew especially dire in Santarém, where the air quality index climbed to 260 points, according to measurements from the international monitoring platform IQAir. Scientific stations detected concentrations of fine particles reaching 185 micrograms per cubic meter.
That reading exceeds the limit allowed by Brazilian environmental law by an enormous margin. The permitted daily average stands at 32 micrograms per cubic meter. Experts note that these microscopic particles penetrate deep into the respiratory tract and pose a severe threat to public health.
In Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, the picture remains critical as well. The persistent dispersion of toxic gases pushed the air quality index to 153 units during the early hours of the day, consolidating a harmful atmosphere across the urban centers of the rainforest.
The fires arrive during the dry season, when large stretches of forest are cleared by intentional burns. The flames spread through drought-stricken vegetation, and the resulting smoke drifts over populated areas with no immediate relief in sight.
Manaus respira 12 vezes mais veneno que o limite da OMS — e o pior horário ainda está por virhttps://t.co/9Gd6YlfkL3
Text reads: “Manaus breathes 12 times more poison than the W.H.O. limit – and worst time is yet to com.”
Military Response Activated
Faced with the environmental collapse, Brazil’s federal government ordered an extraordinary operational deployment. Defense Minister José Múcio Monteiro confirmed the activation of a Joint General Staff of the Armed Forces based in Manaus to coordinate ground and air containment efforts.
The response added five aircraft, raising the military fleet fighting the flames in the northern region to 16 water-bombing planes. The Ministry of Integration and Regional Development transferred 14 million reais, about 2.8 million dollars, to the Amazonas state government to mitigate the emergency.
Health authorities announced the installation of a base of the National Force of the Unified Health System. Its main task will be to provide direct medical care to the thousands of residents affected by respiratory illnesses caused by the pollution.
Environmental organizations warn that the scale of the fires exposes the structural vulnerability of the world’s largest tropical rainforest. The combination of prolonged drought, deforestation and insufficient fire control threatens the ecological stability of the Amazonia and the integrity of native communities.
The local government has declared a state of emergency in Autazes as suspected arson fires, aggravated by El Niño, rip through the Brazilian Amazon and trigger health alerts in Manaus🇧🇷🔥 #Amazonas#BrazilFirespic.twitter.com/u9I1i0Ocpd
The crisis reflects the devastating consequences of climate change and agricultural pressure on the biome. During the dry season, extensive areas of jungle are razed by intentional burns meant to open land for cattle ranching and large-scale farming.
With 922 active outbreaks in Pará and the fires still spreading, the emergency response faces a race against deteriorating air quality. The health base and the expanded air fleet mark the government’s immediate answer to a crisis that shows no sign of easing.
Brazilian socialist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in an apparent gaffe, said in Sunday's heated presidential debate that Brazil will be "finished" if he is reelected for a fourth term in the upcoming runoff election.
The Workers’ Party leader challenged the far-right candidate to disclose the origin of his wealth.
On Sunday, Brazilian President and re-election candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and far-right opposition candidate Flavio Bolsonaro faced off for the first time in a presidential debate.
Just one week before the Oct. 25 runoff election, and after skipping the first-round debates, they engaged in a tense confrontation marked by insults, corruption accusations and constant interruptions.
The friction forced the moderator to intervene repeatedly. In one of the initial exchanges, after Lula complained that Flavio was mocking him, the journalist demanded that the far-right politician show “respect” for speaking out of turn.
“The clown here is him, not me,” the Brazilian president said, accusing Flavio and Bolsonarism of lacking “ethical behavior.” Addressing public spending, Lula called his opponent a “crook” and a liar.
“Do you see that innocent-looking face of his? It belongs to a compulsive liar. He is the Rio de Janeiro crook who lies shamelessly,” the Workers’ Party leader said.
Streets of Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, are filled with people mobilizing in support of President Lula da Silva and against the return of the far-right. Citizens share their concerns about public health (SUS) and fundamental rights.
The most tense moment occurred when Lula was invited by Bolsonaro to stand beside him and calm down. The Brazilian president returned to his podium, drank some water, and responded:
“I don’t want to be near you. I want to keep my distance from the Bolsonaro family,” Lula said, later recalling the criminal clan’s low character.
The Brazilian president accused Eduardo Bolsonaro — Flavio’s brother, who is living in the United States — of fleeing and calling for the intervention of U.S. President Donald Trump.
“They are betraying the homeland and will be judged for it… Your brother is a fugitive in the U.S., conspiring against Brazil,” Lula declared, implicitly referring to calls by the Bolsonaro clan for U.S. economic, political, and even military intervention in Brazil.
In an attempt to discredit the Workers’ Party leader, Flavio demanded that Lula explain his alleged strong electoral performance among prison inmates. “Can you explain why 73% of prisoners voted for you?” the far-right candidate asked.
Flávio Bolsonaro quer seguir o modelo da Argentina, país vizinho da carne de burro, do desemprego em alta. Lula questionou o adversário sobre isso, mas, de novo, não teve resposta. Se ele não responde, Lula faz isso: o modelo do Brasil será o modelo de Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.… pic.twitter.com/27ne3ncadO
The text reads, “Flavio Bolsonaro wants to follow the model of Argentina—a neighboring country plagued by economic hardship and rising unemployment. Lula questioned his opponent about this, but, once again, received no answer. Since he offers no response, Lula provides one: Brazil’s model will be the model of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. According to the IMF, Brazil is set to climb back up and become the world’s 8th-largest economy by 2027. The last time Brazil held the 8th position was in 2017.”
Lula responded to the provocation mockingly, saying he would like to receive the votes of the entire prison population, including the vote of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving house arrest for an attempted coup.
“I want 100% of them to vote, including your father. Your father can vote for me. He will have voted for the better candidate. He knows you and knows I am better than you,” Lula asserted and issued a challenge to Flavio Bolsonaro.
“I challenge you. Tomorrow, we will open our bank accounts and phone records to the Electoral Court and the Supreme Court so that the Brazilian people can know who the real thieves in this country are.”
In the final stretch of the debate, foreign policy took center stage. Lula questioned Flavio’s close ties with Argentine President Javier Milei, asking whether he planned to apply Milei’s economic “chainsaw” model in Brazil.
The far-right candidate dodged the question and counterattacked by criticizing the left’s regional alliances.“Brazil is internationally ruined by your policies, Lula. Look at your friends,” he declared.
A Coalizão Negra por Direitos, organização que reúne centenas de entidades que se reivindicam da causa negra, comemorou a eleição de 42 candidaturas nas eleições legislativas no Brasil. Dessas, 26 são regionais e 16 federais.
Dos 16 deputados federais eleitos com a promoção da Coalizão, oito são do PT (Anielle Franco, Dandara Tontzin, Carol Dartora, Renato Freitas, Jack Rocha, Ana Elisa, Rosa Amorim e Walmir Assunção), cinco são do PSOL (Jones Manoel, Erika Hilton, Fábio Felix, Henrique Vieira e Talíria Petrone) e três são do PCdoB (Daiana Santos, Olivia Santana e Perpétua Almeida).
“Esse é o resultado da mobilização do Quilombo nos Parlamentos nas eleições de 2026”, publicou a Coalizão em suas redes sociais. “Essa conquista é fruto da organização política negra quando decide ocupar os espaços de poder. Cada candidatura eleita leva consigo o compromisso firmado no nosso Manifesto e a responsabilidade de fortalecer, dentro dos Parlamentos, as agendas construídas pelo movimento negro.”
O Quilombo nos Parlamentos é uma iniciativa da Coalizão Negra por Direitos com o objetivo explicitado em sua própria denominação: eleger candidatos negros para o Poder Legislativo. Isso fortaleceria a chamada “representatividade” dos negros brasileiros nas instituições, tornando-as mais favoráveis aos seus direitos.
Assim como todo movimento identitário, é uma iniciativa de caráter reformista rebaixado, que prega a farsa do “empoderamento” coletivo através de conquistas individuais. Um negro eleito deputado é apenas e tão somente um feito pessoal que beneficia o indivíduo em questão, não o conjunto dos negros. Beneficia, como fica claro ao ver quem são os negros eleitos pela Coalizão, uma aristocracia negra de classe média, que alcança um cargo no Estado capitalista para fazer carreira contra o restante da população negra.
Se não fosse isso, esses candidatos não seriam apoiados pelos banqueiros e grandes empresários nacionais e internacionais.
A Coalizão Negra por Direitos foi criada em 2019 e reúne centenas de ONGs, coletivos e entidades. Parte central de sua estratégia é a “incidência política”, ou seja, precisamente o lobby sobre as instituições brasileiras e os órgãos internacionais. Essa é justamente a estratégia delineada pela Open Society Foundations, do especulador multibilionário George Soros, que financia ONGs mundo afora para, como indica o próprio nome da organização, abrir as sociedades à penetração total do capital financeiro com o apoio de seus agentes dentro das instituições. Os deputados são alguns desses agentes.
E a OSF financia a Coalizão Negra por Direitos.
A entidade que recebeu a maior quantidade de fundos da OSF até 2024 havia sido a Conectas Direitos Humanos (R$ 34 milhões). O Instituto Clima e Sociedade (iCS) recebeu R$ 23,8 milhões da Open Society entre 2017 e 2023. Quem cruzar os dados do compilado feito pelo Instituto Monte Castelo sobre as ONGs financiadas pela OSF com a lista de organizações que fazem parte da Coalizão também encontrará, entre outros: o Instituto de Referência Negra Peregum (R$ 6,9 milhões), a Iniciativa Negra por uma Nova Política de Drogas (R$ 6,9 mi), o Geledés – Instituto da Mulher Negra (R$ 6,1 mi), a Associação Marielle Franco (R$ 4,8 mi), a Associação Brasileira de Organizações Não Governamentais (R$ 4,3 mi), o Gabinete de Assessoria Jurídica às Organizações Populares (R$ 4,2 mi), a Justiça Global (R$ 3 mi), o Instituto AMMA Psique e Negritude (R$ 2,5 mi), o Instituto de Defesa da População Negra (R$ 2,3 mi), o Instituto Afrolatinas (R$ 2 mi), a Iniciativa Direito à Memória e Justiça Racial (R$ 1,8 mi), a Associação Elas Existem (R$ 1 mi), a Casa Sueli Carneiro (R$ 900 mil), o Centro de Estudos e Defesa do Negro do Pará (R$ 515 mil), o PerifaConnection (R$ 92.700).
Todas essas organizações fazem parte da Coalizão Negra por Direitos e parte delas tem atuação que vai muito além do movimento negro identitário, como a Conectas e a Associação Brasileira de Organizações Não Governamentais (Abong).
A Associação Marielle Franco parece ser um erro no levantamento da própria OSF, porque não existe uma entidade com esse nome. Trata-se na verdade do Instituto Marielle Franco, criado formalmente em julho de 2018 para se beneficiar da imagem da vereadora assassinada em março daquele ano, o que gerou forte comoção e ampla divulgação nos noticiários. O instituto só foi se estruturar definitivamente em 2020. Mas no mês seguinte ao assassinato de Marielle Franco, a Open Society anunciou a criação de uma iniciativa “destinada a incentivar o protagonismo político de mulheres negras no Brasil”, inspirada em Marielle Franco.
A iniciativa contou com uma doação inicial de 10 milhões de dólares, dividida com a Fundação Ford e outras organizações.
“Marielle representava a possibilidade de uma mulher negra, da favela, bissexual chegar em espaços de poder. Seu assassinato brutal foi uma tentativa de dizer que essa possibilidade não existe. É fundamental que anunciemos para o mundo que o Brasil produzirá novas Marielles. Que mulheres negras das periferias ocuparão espaços de poder e que esse caminho não tem volta”, anunciou à época Pedro Abramovay, diretor da OSF para a América Latina.
A fundadora do Instituto Marielle Franco é sua irmã, Anielle Franco. Não por coincidência, ela trabalhou como consultora da OSF para a América Latina a partir de 2019. Em 2023, assumiu o cargo de ministra da Igualdade Racial do governo Lula e agora foi eleita deputada federal com o apoio da Coalizão Negra por Direitos.
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