Brazil presidential campaign kicks off amid fears of violence

JUIZ DE FORA, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s presidential election campaign officially kicked off Tuesday with former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva leading all polls against incumbent Jair Bolsonaro amid growing concerns about political violence and threats to democracy.

Da Silva, whose two-term presidency ran from 2003 to 2010, has already made a habit of wearing a bulletproof vest for public appearances. He was scheduled to speak at an engine factory Tuesday morning, but federal police officers asked him to cancel the event for security reasons, according to his campaign. Instead, the leftist will launch his seventh presidential bid at a Volkswagen plant in Sao Bernardo do Campo, a manufacturing city outside Sao Paulo where he rose to fame as a union leader in the 1970s.

Bolsonaro revisits the intersection in the city of Juiz de Fora where he was stabbed by a mental patient in the 2018 election campaign. This time, though, he’ll be standing on top of a sound truck instead of plunging into the crowd.

Creomar de Souza, founder of the political risk consultancy Dharma Politics, said da Silva’s visit to a carmaker’s facility is typical of Brazilian symbolism.

“Lula is evoking some nostalgia, elements of his first candidacy in 1989, hinting at a legacy that his presidency left behind,” de Souza told The Associated Press.

And Bolsonaro’s return to the scene of his stabbing is an attempt to invoke the same external profile he projected in the wake of corruption revelations that rocked the nation and allowed the seven-term lawmaker to victory in 2018, Maurício Santoro said. , A politician. science professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro.

“For Bolsonaro, this is the image of himself as a rebellious and anti-establishment candidate, and the attack on his life is central to that narrative,” Santoro said. “For him and his supporters, the man who stabbed him was not a ‘lone wolf,’ but part of a political elite conspiracy against Bolsonaro.”

The contest in Latin America’s largest democracy is a clash of titans, with all other candidates far behind. The two main candidates are known quantities, since practically all Brazilians are familiar with them, according to the most recent survey by pollster Datafolha last month. Both have been publicly mobilizing supporters for months, although the electoral authority had not allowed them to solicit votes or run advertisements. So far, no debates between da Silva and Bolsonaro have yet been scheduled.

Despite the attempt on Bolsonaro’s life in 2018, recent events have caused further concern that his supporters are more likely to engage in attacks. Bolsonaro supporters surrounded da Silva’s car to hurl insults earlier this year, and in July, one of them killed a local official from da Silva’s Workers’ Party in the city of Foz de Iguaçu.

Da Silva’s supporters have also come under attack; at one rally in June, a drone sprayed a crowd with a foul-smelling liquid, and at another last month, a man detonated a homemade explosive containing feces. The assailants in both cases were Bolsonaro supporters, according to social media posts reviewed by the AP.

“Lula canceled his first event due to security risks, and that kind of thing has taken over all the camps. I don’t think Bolsonaro is at the same risk, but he was stabbed last time,” said Carlos Melo, a political science professor at Insper University in Sao Paulo. “These terrible events are now part of the Brazilian elections, and that matters.”

Bolsonaro is a staunch supporter of guns and has loosened restrictions during his tenure, allowing his supporters to stock up on firearms and ammunition. He has repeatedly characterized the race as a battle of good versus evil and, at the launch of his candidacy on July 24, he asked his supporters to swear that they would give their lives for freedom.

His supporters frequently cite da Silva’s 580 days incarceration after he was convicted of corruption and money laundering. Those convictions kicked da Silva out of the 2018 race and cleared the way for Bolsonaro; they were the first canceled for procedural reasons by the Supreme Court, which later ruled the judge had been biased and colluded with prosecutors.

Trailing in the polls again, the former army captain has raised concerns that he could reject the results if he loses the October vote. The far-right leader has raised unfounded doubts about the nation’s electronic voting system in use since 1996, especially in a meeting he convened with foreign diplomats. your insistence provoked a reaction last week from hundreds of companies and more than a million Brazilians who signed a couple of letters demanding that the nation’s democratic institutions be respected.

When Confirmed candidacy of Bolsonaro, called on his supporters to flood the streets for the September 7 independence day celebrations. On that date last year, he told tens of thousands of supporters that only God can remove him from power. Analysts have repeatedly expressed concern that he is setting the stage for him to follow the lead of former US President Donald Trump and try to cling to power.

For this year’s Independence Day, Bolsonaro announced his plan for the military to parade on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach, where his staunchest supporters often flock. Experts have worried about the signal that could be sent before the election, and it is unclear whether the military is willing to accept it.

Human Rights Watch said Monday that the campaign “is likely to be a critical test for democracy and the rule of law in the country and in Latin America.” The nonprofit organization accused Bolsonaro of seeking to “undermine confidence in the electoral system, claiming, without providing any evidence, that it is unreliable.”

“Candidates must condemn political violence and call on their supporters to respect the right of Brazilians to peacefully elect their representatives and run for public office without fear,” he said. ___

Savarese reported from Sao Bernardo do Campo. AP reporter David Biller contributed from Rio de Janeiro.

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