International
Inconclusive vote: Brazil wakes up to four more weeks of uncertainty
AFP | Mariëtte Le Roux
After an inconclusive first round of presidential elections, Brazilians woke up Monday to another month of uncertainty in a deeply polarized political environment and with renewed fears of unrest.
Seeking to make a spectacular comeback, ex-president and frontrunner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, 76, failed to garner the 50 percent of votes plus one needed to avoid an October 30 runoff against far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, 67.
Lula got 48.4 percent of the vote in Sunday’s first round, followed by Bolsonaro with a much closer-than-expected 43.2 percent that seemed to signal a high level of enthusiasm for his conservative brand of “God, country and family” politics.
Lula had gone into Sunday’s first round with 50 percent of polled voter intention, and Bolsonaro with 36 percent.
The divisive president’s surprise performance likely spells a difficult time ahead, analysts said.
“I think it will be a very stressful campaign,” Leonardo Paz, Brazil consultant for the International Crisis Group, told AFP.
“Bolsonaro and Lula will come… for each other, and I think Bolsonaro will double down on… saying that the system was against him.”
Bolsonaro has repeatedly sought to cast doubt on Brazil’s electronic voting system and has questioned the validity of opinion polls that have consistently placed him a distant second.
Now, with real-life results seeming to bear out his claims, “more people… may believe in what Bolsonaro is saying,” said Paz.
‘Emboldened’
The incumbent president has repeatedly hinted that he would not accept a Lula victory, raising fears of a Brazilian version of the riots last year at the US Capitol after former president Donald Trump refused to accept his election loss.
Bolsonaro “will be very emboldened,” by Sunday’s electoral performance, said Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank.
“It will give him some momentum because he’s beaten the expectations… He will play on that the experts were wrong: ‘I’ve got the momentum and I’ll defy expectations again in the second round’.”
Late Sunday, Bolsonaro proclaimed to journalists: “We defeated the opinion polls’ lie.”
Passions will be high on both sides for the next four weeks.
Lula’s failure to pull off a first-round victory leaves Bolsonaro with “an extra month to cause turmoil in the streets,” political scientist Guilherme Casaroes of the Getulio Vargas Foundation’s (FGV) Sao Paulo School of Business Administration told AFP.
“Any kind of doubt that he casts upon the electoral system will work in his favor… demobilizing voters not to go vote for Lula.”
This would mean hammering on Lula’s flaws, including his controversial conviction for corruption — since overturned in court, but not necessarily in the court of public opinion — and the 18 months he spent in jail.
“Certainly he (Bolsonaro) is very capable of revving up his base and they could interpret that (as the all-clear) to go after Lula supporters… You can’t rule it out,” said Shifter.
“There’s just a lot of rancor and a lot of hate and a lot of distrust and it would not be surprising if some of that leads to some unrest,” he added.
Any violence, however, was likely to be in the form of isolated incidents and not organized, just like it has been so far, analysts said.
Headed for an upset?
Sunday’s election outcome also suggested Bolsonaro cannot be written off.
“Lula’s chances of being elected seem considerably slighter,” said Casaroes.
A ‘Bolsonarist’ wave energized by the first-round results “will boost the president’s campaign and may help demobilize the non-convinced voters of Lula.”
It also means Lula will have to “court centrists and even conservatives much more aggressively during the next four weeks,” said the FGV’s Oliver Stuenkel, possibly hurting his standing with more radical leftist supporters.
Conversely, the disappointing result for Lula supporters might also serve to fire them up ahead of the next round.
“People that perhaps did not… vote because they thought that Bolsonaro would lose… they might go” vote in the next round, said Paz.
Added Casaroes: “Those who really care for democracy in the country will have to get off the couch. Occupying the public space against a strengthened Bolsonarism may be difficult, but it is the only way to prevent Bolsonaro’s long-run authoritarian project from consolidating at all levels.”
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A man looks at Brazilian newspapers at a newsstand showing headlines about the election results of the first round of Brazil presidential election in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 3, 2022. - Brazil's bitterly divisive presidential election is headed for a runoff on October 30 as incumbent Jair Bolsonaro beat expectations to finish a closer-than-expected second to front-runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. (Photo by MAURO PIMENTEL / AFP)
International
U.S. classifies CV and PCC as terrorist groups in major policy shift
The United States government announced on Thursday that it will add the Brazilian criminal organizations Comando Vermelho (CV) and Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) to its list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO), a designation set to take effect on June 5, 2026.
The State Department justified the decision by stating that both groups are among the most powerful criminal organizations in Brazil and accused them of coordinating violent attacks against police officers, public officials, and civilians.
The designation comes just days after Brazilian senator and presidential hopeful Flávio Bolsonaro directly asked U.S. President Donald Trump to classify these groups as “narco-terrorist” organizations during a visit to the White House.
Bolsonaro, who is running in Brazil’s upcoming presidential election in October, has made tougher action against organized crime and prison-based gangs a central part of his campaign platform.
He is part of a political dispute with current Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has opposed the U.S. classification, warning it could open the door to potential foreign military intervention in Brazilian territory.
The Comando Vermelho and Primeiro Comando da Capital emerged in Brazilian prisons during the 1970s and have since expanded their influence, now controlling extensive criminal activities including drug trafficking, extortion, smuggling, and other illicit operations.
According to security experts and Brazilian authorities, both organizations have tens of thousands of members and support networks spread across multiple states in the country.
The U.S. measure aims to increase financial and operational pressure on these groups by restricting funding sources, limiting international mobility, and expanding cooperation in security enforcement efforts.
International
U.S.–Iran pre-agreement aims to de-escalate tensions and secure key trade route
The United States confirmed on Thursday that its negotiators have reached a preliminary agreement with Iran aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz and extending the current ceasefire, though the understanding still requires final approval from U.S. President Donald Trump.
U.S. government sources confirmed information first reported exclusively by Axios, stating that the deal now only awaits the president’s endorsement.
According to Axios, citing two senior U.S. officials, the draft agreement stipulates that navigation through the Strait of Hormuz—previously blocked by Iran in response to U.S. and Israeli military actions—would be “unrestricted.”
The agreement reportedly includes provisions under which Iran would not impose transit fees in the strategic waterway, a critical route for global oil shipments. In parallel, the United States would lift maritime restrictions on vessels entering and leaving Iranian ports.
The memorandum of understanding also contains a commitment from Iran not to develop nuclear weapons, a key red line for President Trump. However, discussions on limiting Iran’s uranium enrichment would be postponed to later negotiations.
These issues are expected to be addressed during a 60-day extension of the ceasefire, which has been in place since April.
In addition, the United States would consider easing sanctions on Iran and releasing frozen Iranian assets as part of the broader diplomatic framework.
Negotiations between Washington and Tehran have intensified over the past week with mediation from Pakistan, as both sides seek to formally end the conflict that began on February 28 involving the United States and Israel.
The White House has recently stated that a deal was “a matter of days away,” while Tehran has tempered expectations, suggesting that an agreement is not yet imminent.
International
Interpol Operation Leads to 8,700 Arrests and Massive Drug Seizures Across Latin America
Interpol and the Organization of American States (OAS) announced the arrest of more than 8,700 people and the seizure of over 3,300 firearms and 56 tons of illegal drugs across 20 countries in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean following a six-week multinational security operation.
According to a statement released by the OAS, the operation — known as Operation Orca XI — was carried out between October 15 and November 30, 2025, under the coordination of Interpol, with support from the OAS and funding from the European Union.
The operation resulted in 8,701 arrests linked to illegal firearm possession, drug trafficking, and other criminal activities. Authorities also confiscated nearly 200,000 rounds of ammunition, $256,025 in cash, and 210 vehicles connected to criminal operations.
Participating countries additionally reported the seizure of 6.9 tons of cocaine, 659,403 coca plants, 9.3 tons of coca paste, 38.5 tons of marijuana, two tons of methamphetamine, and 11 kilograms of ketamine.
In its statement, the OAS emphasized that illegal arms trafficking in the region is closely tied to other forms of organized crime, including drug trafficking, human trafficking, migrant smuggling, and cybercrime.
“Criminal organizations behind these crimes often use the same routes for multiple illicit goods,” the organization stated, adding that Operation Orca XI exposed the strong links between these criminal networks.
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