Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a vocal critic Donald Trump, was reelected Sunday in a result that provides relief to critics of widening U.S. influence in Latin America.

With 100% of the vote counted, Brazil’s electoral court announced that the soon to be 81-year-old Lula had a lead of nearly 4.4 million votes over opponent Flávio Bolsonaro, giving him 51.8% of the total vote. Bolsonaro quickly refused to concede defeat and asked for the election results to be annulled after an evening of chaos at some polling places that followed a last-minute decision to extend voting by two hours.

Bolsonaro is the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, whom Lula defeated to take the presidency in 2022.

Lula’s triumph bucks a regional trend of victories for right-of-center presidential candidates allied with Trump. It also means Latin America’s largest economy, with a GDP of $2.6 trillion per year, will likely continue defying Trump’s demands, despite the pressure of increased tariffs.

    • teslekova@lemmy.ml
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      21 hours ago

      Here is an example of how a political propagandist uses a simple troll to steer a conversation away from useful topics. Pay attention.

      Notice how nobody is replying to Maeve’s observations? About some plausible pretexts that the neocons might use to convince Trump to authorise a US invasion of Brazil, even if it would be politically disastrous for him?

      Ooo yes, Mr President, look at all the shiny yttrium! It will all be yours! China wants it, are you gonna let em have it?

      Instead, all the conversational energy was used to correct an intentionally absurd statement.

    • Captain_Buddha@lemmy.world
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      24 hours ago

      Ferrite mat’l for circuit components… YAG lasers… Those are off the top of my head… Yes, there are uses.