Brazil’s election tests a growing pro-Trump bloc in Latin America

Brazil’s election is being presented as a test of a growing pro-Trump bloc in Latin America. The poll pits leftist incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva against the son of former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted of staging a coup.

The contest is unfolding amid concern over Brazil’s political direction and the role of the country’s patron saint in the campaign period. Reports have described fears surrounding Brazil’s patron saint ahead of the election, including a warning that “no one disrespects Our Lady.”

Donald Trump has promoted the regional trend toward right-wing politics. Shortly after a controversial speech to the United Nations General Assembly in September, Trump gathered a dozen like-minded Latin American leaders in New York.

Trump told most of the leaders of the Shield of the Americas, an anti-drug-cartel coalition of 15 countries governed by the right or far right, that right-wing candidates had won all seven presidential elections held in the region since he began his second term. “Everybody I’ve endorsed has won,” he said.