THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2026 17 sphere and East Asia, up sharply from the 10–15 percent USAID spent there in 2024. U.S. Pressure Campaign in Brazil In the weeks before Brazil’s October presidential election, U.S. pressure on the government of leftist incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva drew accusations of election interference from Brazilian officials and observers. Lula’s opponent, far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro, is the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a military coup after his 2022 election loss. President Trump and Secretary Rubio faced accusations of tilting the contest toward Bolsonaro through economic and diplomatic pressure on Lula’s government, according to The Guardian. That pressure included 25 percent tariffs on most Brazilian imports and, in August, the designation of two of Brazil’s largest criminal organizations as foreign terrorist groups—a move that some observers argued was timed to help Bolsonaro politically, though the designation’s defenders called it a necessary crime-fighting measure. In July, Brazil denied visas to U.S. officials it believed intended to raise doubts about its voting system, prompting Lula to allege election interference. The U.S. responded by revoking the visa of Brazil’s ambassador to Washington. The Guardian drew a parallel to covert CIA efforts to influence Brazilian politics in the early 1960s, noting that unlike that campaign, this one was waged openly. The State Department rejected the comparison as a “base- less lie.” n This issue of Talking Points was compiled by Mark Parkhomenko.
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