CPI(ML) Liberation congratulates Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT) and the people of Brazil on Lula’s victory in the presidential runoff on October 25, defeating far-right challenger Flávio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro. The victory is an important setback for the far right and the imperialist designs of US President Donald Trump in Latin America.
Lula’s political journey is rooted in the struggles of Brazil’s working class. Born into a poor family of agricultural workers in Pernambuco, he migrated to São Paulo as a child and worked as a metalworker before emerging as a trade union leader. He rose to prominence through major workers’ strikes against Brazil’s military dictatorship in the late 1970s and was among the founders of the Workers’ Party in 1980. First elected president in 2002 and re-elected in 2006, Lula returned to the presidency in 2023 after winning the 2022 election. His victory in the 2026 runoff marks his fourth presidential election victory, completing an extraordinary political journey from the factory floor to the presidency, shaped by Brazil’s working-class struggles for democracy and social justice.
Lula’s victory is a significant setback to Trump’s imperialist designs to bring Latin America under US domination and turn the region into Washington’s backyard. Through the so-called “Donroe Doctrine”, the Trump administration seeks to consolidate a US sphere of influence across the Americas, using military intervention, economic coercion and political pressure to subordinate governments that assert an independent course. The US invasion in Venezuela and the escalating threats against Cuba expose the aggressive character of this agenda. Brazil was a crucial prize in this regional power game, with the Bolsonaro camp aligned with Trump’s vision of a US-dominated hemisphere. Lula’s emphatic response at his victory rally captured the spirit of resistance: “We are no one’s backyard!”
Trump’s support for the Bolsonaro camp, including punitive tariffs imposed on Brazil amid the prosecution of Jair Bolsonaro, exposed the use of economic pressure to influence the country’s political direction. The US imperialism also deployed the power of Big Tech and social media manipulation to influence Brazil’s electoral process and tilt the playing field in favour of Bolsonaro’s far-right camp. Elon Musk, a major financier of the US and the global far right and owner of X, has helped advance a political environment in which far-right forces exploit digital platforms to shape public opinion.
The attempt to bring Flávio Bolsonaro to power was part of a broader right-wing offensive against the assertion of working people and the forces defending Brazil’s democratic and national sovereignty. Yet, despite these formidable odds and trailing in the first round, Lula succeeded in consolidating support and securing victory in the runoff, demonstrating the resilience of popular mobilisation and the collective strength of forces ranged against an aggressive far-right offensive.
Lula’s victory is also a reaffirmation of the Brazilian people’s solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and their opposition to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. As the Trump-Netanyahu criminal axis sought to bring Latin American countries into submission to its agenda and silence opposition to Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people, Brazil had taken a firm stand in support of Palestinian rights. It was among the Global South countries that stood with South Africa in taking Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over its genocidal war on Gaza and crimes against the Palestinian people.
CPI(ML) Liberation extends its revolutionary solidarity to the Brazilian people, the Workers’ Party and all progressive, democratic and working-class forces that stood against the far right and the imperialist threats.
