The United States government plans to send two senior State Department officials to Brasília in the coming weeks, in a mission that, according to The Washington Post, aims to raise suspicions about the integrity and transparency of the Brazilian electoral system, just weeks before the presidential election scheduled for October 4th.
Trump should send representatives to Brasilia to investigate Brazilian electoral system
The United States government plans to send two senior State Department officials to Brasília in the coming weeks, in a mission that, according to The Washington Post, aims to raise suspicions about the integrity and...
The delegation would be composed of Riley M. Barnes, assistant secretary, and Samuel Samson, deputy assistant secretary, both appointed by Trump, according to American and Brazilian sources reported to the newspaper.
Behind the scenes, the initiative provoked a reaction from Brazilian diplomats, who classified the visit as interference and said they were evaluating measures to prevent the envoys from proceeding with meetings and actions related to the electoral process. "It is a maneuver that is completely incompatible with Brazilian democracy," a diplomat told the Washington Post, speaking on condition of anonymity.
According to the newspaper, the suspicion is that Barnes and Samson seek dialogue with critics of electronic voting machines to produce reports that can be used to delegitimize the voting system. The State Department confirmed the trip, but did not detail the purpose. Among employees interviewed by the Post, there was criticism of the strategy. "It is extremely harmful to see this secretary use American power to undermine credible elections in other nations for ideological reasons," said a member of the body, also on condition of anonymity.
The move occurs amid an environment of bilateral friction, which includes disputes over freedom of expression, trade measures and the legal process involving former president Jair Bolsonaro, in addition to being interpreted, according to the Post, as part of a broader stance by the Trump administration in support of conservative agendas in Latin America.
On a domestic level, the issue of the polls returned to the debate after Flávio Bolsonaro defended the expansion of international observers and repeated allegations associating, without any proof, the Brazilian system with the company Smartmatic, a thesis already repeatedly refuted by the TSE.
Read Also: US government is sued by 24 states: "It will not go unpunished"
Source: Noticias ao Minuto - Mundo
This story was originally published by Noticias ao Minuto - Mundo. Visit the original publication for further details.
Open original publication
