Lula’s election in 2022 had US participation behind the scenes

the british newspaper Financial Times published a report this Wednesday (21) stating that members of the United States government would have actively participated, but behind the scenes, in a diplomatic offensive to convince former president Jair Bolsonaro and members of the Armed Forces to accept the result of the elections in 2022.

The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), the then vice-president Hamilton Mourão (Republicanos-RS) and Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicanos-SP), at the time minister of infrastructure, would have been wanted by Washington. O Financial Times says they were tasked with taking the message to Bolsonaro and members of the Armed Forces that the United States would disapprove of any attempt to interfere in the 2022 elections.

The report was published on the eve of a trial at the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) that could make Bolsonaro ineligible. The ministers must analyze a meeting that the former president had with foreign diplomats.

The newspaper claims to have based on reports of six current and former US officials involved. According to the publication, US government officials would have participated in a “pressure campaign” for more than a year for Brazilian politicians and military leaders to “respect and safeguard democracy”, in parallel with the constant questions that the former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) made to the electronic voting system.

The campaign was carried out by sending messages through interlocutors on official visits by members of the US government to Brazil, including President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, in August 2021; CIA (US intelligence agency) chief William Burns in May 2022; and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin two months later.

Michael McKinley, a former State Department official and former US ambassador to Brazil, told the Financial Times that the visit to Brazil by the US secretary of defense, the head of the CIA, and the national security adviser in an election year was at least an “unusual” practice.

According to him, it was “almost a year of strategy, being executed with one objective in mind, not supporting one Brazilian candidate over another, but strongly focused on the process [eleitoral]in making sure the process worked.”

The North American campaign, however, took place behind the scenes to, according to reports to the Financial Timesnot to bring up memories of the past, in which the US government openly supported the coup that overthrew the leftist president João Goulart and established the dictatorship for 21 years.

The action of sending messages by the North Americans to Brazilian interlocutors was carried out in common agreement between the US military, the CIA, the State Department, the Pentagon and the White House.

US campaign was also aimed at Brazilian military

The meeting with around 70 ambassadors for the presentation of a report questioning the reliability of the electronic voting system – the object of the inquiry that begins to be judged this week in the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) – made the USA intensify the campaign of messages mainly to Brazilian military officers.

A senior Brazilian official who was intimately involved, but who requested anonymity for the report, said that the commander of the Navy, Admiral Almir Garnier Santos, was the “most difficult” of the military leaders to dissuade from any coup attempt.

Bolsonaro allies joined the plan close to the elections

Reports from the sources Financial Times claim that as the election approached, senior US officials believed Bolsonaro needed to hear more voices within his own circle. It was at this moment that Lira, Freitas and Rocha entered the scene.

At the end of the election, the president of the Chamber and the then minister of infrastructure quickly recognized Lula’s victory and Bolsonaro saved himself to finish the government until he traveled to the US at the end of his term.

The North Americans’ concern had ended there until the acts of January 8, which led to the invasion and depredation of the headquarters of the Three Powers, in Brasília. Sources told the Financial Times that the US had to “give one last push in favor of respecting the election”.

President Biden was in Mexico at the time and reportedly immediately asked to speak with Lula, followed by a call from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who issued a joint statement of support for Lula and the Brazil.

US feels “resentful” with little recognition of Lula

Still according to Financial Times, the US government sees that Lula has not recognized the effort made to avoid a possible democratic rupture. Sources say there is still friction between Biden and the Brazilian president, such as criticism of military aid to Ukraine, the use of the US dollar in international transactions and US sanctions on the Chinese company Huawei.

Tom Shannon, a former senior State Department official, said Americans were taken aback by Lula’s attitude.