The US has been heavily intervening on behalf of right wing challenger Flávio Bolsonaro ahead of Sunday's elections.
Page A5From§Eachthe noon edition — 3 October 2026
U.S. intervenes in Brazil's election, then suspends its own consular services for security two days before the vote
As it ran on the front
Today we are making an American intervention in somebody else's election. On Friday the United States halted consular services across Brazil, two days before Brazilians vote on Sunday. The embassy's alert, written Thursday, said services at the embassy and the consulates "will be suspended starting today, October 2 due to security concerns." A consulate is the office that issues the visa that lets you go.
You will need two known names: Lula da Silva, the sitting president, and Flávio Bolsonaro, eldest son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, whom France 24 calls less charismatic than his father but just as ideologically radical as the family patriarch. Then a secretary of state, Marco Rubio, a president, Donald Trump, three senators and a spy agency. No, you cannot substitute.…
The Poet Substitute. I am the substitute in this house. The rota swapped me out for the damp, and three of you signed it.
The Punk You were not swapped, you were outvoted. I took the rota off the door, then the door, and the hallway has been honest since.
Begin with the answer, which came before the thing it answered. On the Tuesday Lula's campaign put out an advertisement in Portuguese built on Bad Bunny's "Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii", whose lyrics decry the damage done by US imperialism across the Western Hemisphere. By the 28th of September Brazil was taking steps to shield its democracy from potential American meddling.
The Hippie Shield. That door was our shield and now we have weather indoors. It was always going to end with the boiler sulking.
Now fold in the warnings. Jeanne Shaheen, Tim Kaine and Peter Welch wrote to Rubio on the Monday against interference in the elections. On Wednesday Reuters reported Brazil's spy agency had confirmed "the existence of interference from the United States as well as Russia." Thursday the alert; Friday the windows shut. You will be looking for the rule that stops an embassy doing this in another country's election week; there is no rule in this dish, there is the senators' letter.
On top it is security concerns; underneath it is a visa office closed on the Friday before a Sunday vote. The BBC, which is what they have here, puts it to its readers as "Why has Brazil accused the US of election interference?" At home the New York Post prints Brazilian voters saying Lula is turning the country into "another Venezuela."
The Fixer Weather indoors is a through-route. A hallway with no door lets out as a passage, and the kitty is full by Thursday.
The Poet Let the hallway and I shall be composing in traffic. Put that under the damp in your next letter to the landlord.
The Punk The landlord has not answered a letter since the meter went in. They keep their address like a consulate keeps its windows.
Serves the Bolsonaro campaign, which goes into Sunday with the American government working its side of the table. Anyone in Brazil who needed a visa on Friday did not get one, and Brazil pays the rest of it in its own election.
The Fixer We pay a landlord for a door we have not got. I would sell the frame, only the Punk got there first, so it is the landing, Thursday.
“They shut the visa windows across Brazil on the Friday before a Sunday election and called it security concerns. Brazil's own spy agency says the interference is coming from us, three senators wrote to Rubio about it, and the guy Washington is working for is the ex-president's kid. That's not diplomacy, that's your landlord changing the locks the night before the tenants vote.”
“Security concerns. It says security concerns in the alert, I didn't write the alert, I'm just reading what the embassy put out. Did I say we were helping anybody win? That doesn't sound like me — look, the Post has Brazilian voters themselves saying Lula's making it another Venezuela, and that's voters talking, not the State Department.”
The receipts
Brazil’s presidential election is on a knife-edge. Right-winger Flávio Bolsonaro has powerful interests on his side but is also counting on the Trump administration’s help to push him over the line.
This election is turning into a Carnaval.
The first round of Brazil’s presidential election on Sunday pits two well-known names in the political ring: Lula vs. Bolsonaro. But it’s not former president Jair Bolsonaro facing off against the incumbent head of state – it’s his eldest son, Flavio Bolsonaro.
Brazilian officials, pro-democracy advocates, and US lawmakers are growing increasingly concerned about apparent efforts by President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to interfere in the Latin American country's upcoming election. Reuters reported Wednesday that Brazil's spy agency "confirmed the existence of interference…
The U.S. halted consular services in Brazil Friday due to rising security concerns ahead of the country’s presidential election on Sunday. “Consular Services in the U.S.
The Latin American country will vote for its next president, as Lula da Silva and Bolsonaro clash over sovereignty, security and ties with Washington.
· Senate Democrats warn Trump administration against Brazil election interference from the morgue, 29 Sep 2026
· Brazil’s Biggest Election Question?: Donald Trump’s Next Move from the morgue, 28 Sep 2026
· Lula Teams With Bad Bunny to Highlight Dangers of Trump’s Colonial Ambitions Across Latin America from the morgue, 25 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.