Trump accused of wanting to ‘colonise' Brazil by meddling in election
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva accused the US President of attempting to sway the election in favour of his far-right adversary
Donald Trump has been accused of wanting to "colonise" Brazil and capture the country's resources by interfering with next month's election.
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Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva accused the US President of attempting to sway the election in favour of his far-right adversary, Flávio Bolsonaro, to advance Trump's interests in the South American country.
The accusation was contained in a minute-long televised campaign ad on Thursday, in which a female narrator claimed the US President was trying to "colonise Brazil, take our riches, steal our future and leave us in the dust".
A spokesperson for the US state department described claims of interference last month as a "baseless lie".
In a post on X, Lula said Bolsonaro was "Trump's candidate" and accused him of wanting to "and over our country and our wealth to the United States."
He added:"If it depends on him, Brazil will become a colony again.
"But Brazil has only one owner: the Brazilian people."
Read more: Stephen Bear jailed for breach after taunting police from Brazil
The first round of Brazil's presidential election is scheduled to take place in a little over a week on 4 October.
Lula and Bolsonaro, the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, are neck and neck in the polls. If no candidate obtains an overall majority, a run-off will be held on 25 October.
It comes after dozens of Democrats sent a letter to the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressing concern about “an apparent effort to interfere with, and potentially undermine” Brazil’s elections."
The letter, signed by 30 Democrat members of the House of Representatives and the senator Bernie Sanders, listed measures they believed amounted to attempts to secure a victory for Flávio Bolsonaro through what they called a “sustained, multifaceted campaign of interference and destabilisation in Brazil”.
It's not the first time that accusations of election interference have been levelled against the US President.
In July, 11 Democratic members of congress sent a similar letter accusing Mr Trump of attempting to interfere with Colombia's election in support of right-wing millionaire and former lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, who proceeded to win the second round of voting.
Lula's campaign ad referenced recent media reports of alleged US meddling, including claims about links between Bolsonaro’s campaign and a conservative donor network co-founded by JD Vance and a confidential report by Brazil’s intelligence agency warning of a “critical level” of risk of US interference.
In the letter sent to Rubio on Friday, the Democratic politicians wrote that “rather than helping defend Brazilian democracy”, the US is “acting as an agent of interference and destabilization".
They claimed the nation was using "diplomatic, economic and political pressure in ways that risk weakening the country’s democratic institutions, undermining confidence in Brazil’s electoral process, and inflicting further damage on our relationship with a strategic US ally and trading partner”.
The US state department has been approached for comment.