So to begin, I guess, uh, Alexander, I would ask you, um, to discuss, uh, your view on how and why, uh, Brazilian voters apparently favored right-wing candidate Flávio Bolsonaro over, uh, Lula da Silva in this first round.

Well, thanks, Scott.

It is a confounding question, um, [chuckles] that, uh, I've been asking myself, um, over the last few, uh, Latin American elections, where we've seen, um, a pretty consistent trend of, uh, you know, very far-right candidates, uh, that are, uh, very Trump-aligned, uh, that have been w-winning elections against progressives.

We saw this, uh, in Honduras, of course, at the end of last year, um, where Xiomara Castro lost to a Trump-endorsed candidate, uh, Sfura.

And then we saw it again in Colombia just a few months ago, where, um, Petro, the first left-wing, uh, president that Colombia has ever had, uh, well, he wasn't the incumbent in that election.

But, um, the senator, Iván Cepeda, the left-wing senator who's part of Petro's camp, um, who many thought would be a shoo-in, uh, given that Petro had a pretty strong record, particularly in terms of, uh, the economy and, and its benefits to the majority of, uh, Colombians.

Um, that candidate also lost against the Trump-endorsed, um, far-right, uh, candidate, Eduardo de, de la Espriella.

Uh, Alexander, what is Lula and his Workers' Party strategy to win over voters who either cast votes for Flávio Bolsonaro or didn't vote at all in this second round of elections coming up later in October?

So to begin, I guess, Alexander, I would ask you to discuss your view on how and why Brazilian voters apparently favored right-wing candidate Flavio Bolsonaro over Lula da Silva in this first round.

Well, thanks, Scott.

It is a confounding question that I've been asking myself over the last few Latin American elections, where we've seen a pretty consistent trend of very far-right candidates that are very Trump-aligned that have been winning elections against progressives.

We saw this in Honduras, of course, at the end of last year, where Xiomara Castro lost to a Trump-endorsed candidate, Asfura.

And then we saw it again in Columbia just a few months ago, where Petro, the first left-wing president that Columbia has ever had, well, he wasn't the incumbent in that election, but the senator, Ivan Cepeda, the left-wing senator who was part of Petro's camp, who many thought would be a shoo-in, given that Petro had a pretty strong record, particularly in in terms of the economy and its benefits to the majority of Colombians.

That candidate also lost against the Trump-endorsed far-right candidate, Abdelardo de la Espraya.

And, well, in this case, Lula has not lost yet.

Alexander, what is Lula and his Workers' Party strategy to win over voters who either cast votes for Flavio Bolsonaro or didn't vote at all in this second round of elections coming up later in October?

[pensive music]

The upcoming election in Brazil is really going to be extremely consequential for the entire region.

Alexander Main is the Director of International Policy at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Research.Brazil is the country with the, you know, largest economy, uh, biggest population in Latin America, and it's also one of the few countries that is still holding out, um, against, you know, US pressure, pressure to align with the Trump administration's agenda in the region.

But there are a few holdouts, and Brazil is one of the most important.

The upcoming election in Brazil is really going to be extremely consequential for the entire region.

Alexander Main is the director of international policy at the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Brazil is the country with the largest economy, biggest population in Latin America.

And it's also one of the few countries that is still holding out against U.S. pressure, pressure to align with the Trump administration's agenda in the region.

Thank you.

Alex Main said the meeting went a long way in helping to build solidarity between progressive leaders from across the region and leftist leaders in the United States.

For instance, in Ecuador, and we're beginning to see this in Colombia and also in Honduras.

Both those countries, of course, are now governed by right-wing governments since quite recently.

So, yeah, I think it was important for the U.S. delegates to... be hearing from these other countries in the region, they're all impacted in different ways by the Trump administration's policy, by the so-called Donro doctrine, which is really very heavily interventionist.

And, you know, they heard about U.S. electoral interference, they heard about the U.S. support for You know, the expansion of militarization in the region and this pretext of a war on so-called narco-terrorism to, you know, in a lot of places, bend the laws or, you know, declare sort of states of emergency.

and, you know, deploy the military and engage in egregious violations of human rights.

So, you know, there was a lot to take away for these U.S. delegates.

Alex says there were meetings about the impact of artificial intelligence on these countries, a session about green industrial development, multilateralism and, of course, democracy, peace and security.

Alex Main said the meeting went a long way in helping to build solidarity between progressive leaders from across the region and leftist leaders in the United States.

for instance, in Ecuador, and we're beginning to see this in Colombia and also in Honduras.

Both those countries, of course, are now governed by right-wing governments since quite recently.

So, yeah, I think it was important for the U.S. delegates to be hearing from these other countries in the region, they're all impacted in different ways by the Trump administration's policy, by the so-called Donro doctrine, which is really very heavily interventionist.

And, you know, they heard about U.S. electoral interference.

They heard about the U.S. support for You know, the expansion of militarization in the region and this pretext of a war on so-called narco-terrorism to, you know, in a lot of places, bend the laws or, you know, declare sort of states of emergency.

and, you know, deploy the military and engage in egregious violations of human rights.

Alex says there were meetings about the impact of artificial intelligence on these countries, a session about green industrial development, multilateralism and, of course, democracy, peace and security.