'Trump wants to colonise Brazil': President Lula claims US will gain natural resources if he loses polls

Brazilian President Lula da Silva has accused US President Donald Trump of trying to “colonise” Brazil and gain access to its natural resources by interfering in next month's presidential election.The accusation was made in a campaign advertisement aired by Lula's team on Thursday, as concerns grow in Brazil over alleged US attempts to influence the vote.The one-minute advert claims Trump is backing Lula's far-right rival, Flávio Bolsonaro, because it would help advance US interests in Brazil.“Flávio Bolsonaro is Trump’s candidate and what Trump wants is to colonise Brazil, take our riches, steal our future and leave us in the dust,” the female narrator says in the video.The US State Department has rejected allegations of interference. “Any insinuation of a ‘ploy’ to undermine a democratic nation’s election is a baseless lie,” it said last month.Lula also accused Bolsonaro of seeking to transfer Brazil's natural resources to the US.“If it’s up to him, Brazil will become a colony again,” the incumbent leftwing president wrote on X.Election enters final stretchThe first round of voting is due on October 4, with Lula and Bolsonaro running close in the polls. A second round will take place on October 25 if no candidate wins more than half of the vote.The allegations come amid growing concerns in Brazil and abroad about Washington's actions towards the country. The Trump administration has applied 25% tariffs on Brazilian imports, adding to diplomatic and economic pressure between the two countries.Lula also addressed the issue at the UN General Assembly in New York this week, warning against attempts to interfere with Brazil's democratic process.“We will not allow the enemies of democracy – internal or external – to attack the will of the people. Brazilian democracy belongs to the Brazilians,” he told delegates.Earlier this week, dozens of Democratic members of Congress also accused the Trump administration of attempting to interfere in Brazil's election. In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, they referred to an “apparent effort to interfere with, and potentially undermine” the vote through what they described as a “sustained, multifaceted campaign of interference and destabilisation in Brazil”.Claims of US pressureLula's campaign advert points to several recent reports to support its allegations. These include claims involving Big Tech companies and a confidential warning from Brazil's intelligence agency to electoral authorities about a “critical level” of risk of US interference.The advert also refers to reported links between Bolsonaro's campaign and Rockbridge, a conservative donor network co-founded by US Vice President JD Vance.Éden Valadares, communications secretary of Lula's Workers' Party, said the campaign was intended to warn Brazilians about what he called an ideologically driven US campaign.“We don’t believe it will work but nor will we sit back and do nothing,” Valadares said.“President Lula has instructed us … to mobilise Brazilian society … [and] to react in the streets,” he added, saying nationwide events were being planned for Sunday.Concerns about US influence have also been raised outside Lula's political camp. Renan Santos, another right-wing presidential candidate, criticised Trump's actions and said he did not want Brazil to become a US vassal state.“They want to interfere in Brazil’s elections to secure satisfactory contracts involving rare earths,” Santos claimed in a social media video.Recalling the US invasion of Venezuela in January, Santos added: “I don’t want to see Latin America become an American protectorate.”In their letter to Rubio, the Democratic lawmakers also accused Washington of using diplomatic, economic and political pressure in ways they said could weaken Brazil's democratic institutions and public confidence in its electoral system, while damaging ties with a major US ally and trading partner.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.