Brazil – AND Editorial: Fight the Far Right and Yankee Interference with Action!

We hereby share an unofficial translation of an editorial published by A Nova Democracia (AND) on October 16.

Regardless of the outcome of the October 25 election, the country finds itself in a critical situation where its national sovereignty (what remains of it), and the meager democratic rights and fundamental freedoms, hard-won through numerous struggles of the Brazilian people over decades, are threatened.

There are two fundamental reasons for this.

First: because the country is facing increasing intervention by Yankee imperialism, as outlined in its New National Security Strategy of November 2025, including in this round of general elections. The Yankees want control of strategic mineral reserves, energy sources, and access to strategic territories for their conflict and rivalry with their imperialist rivals, Russia and China – which implies seeking to deploy their troops in Brazil and even attempting to establish bases here. This, incidentally, is not limited to Brazil: the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro in January of this year; direct interference in the elections in Argentina and Colombia to install far-right puppet governments; military operations violating the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Cuba, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Panama; as well as treasonous agreements to station troops and establish military bases in Argentina and Paraguay. Now, it is Brazil’s turn. Trump, just as he has done in all these cases, is showing himself willing to cross every line to ensure the most absolute semicolonial control possible over Brazil as well – and as quickly as possible – which he hopes to achieve through a far-right puppet government. Therefore, the first conclusion we must reach is this: these are not normal elections, but rather a process of interference and severe restriction of the country’s national sovereignty, which is being carried out through blackmail, threats, economic sanctions, various forms of “hybrid” aggression that no election can contain. Rather, they would only legitimize as the work of “popular will” what the Yankees had already imposed on the “battlefield.”

Second: because this direct interference by the Yankees goes hand in hand with a counterrevolutionary offensive carried out by internal reaction and even by the military high command over the past 12 years, with this same far right, a lackey of the US, serving as its most rabid spearhead. In November 2022, when they lost the elections, Bolsonaro’s supporters stopped just short of a full-blown military coup, as investigations later revealed, for several reasons, but mainly because the Biden administration, wanting to focus on Ukraine, did not want unrest in “its own backyard,” and expressly ordered the Armed Forces High Command (ACFA) to contain any movement aimed at openly subverting the constitutional order. This is clearly explained in the aforementioned speech by the current commander-in-chief of the Army, Tomás Ribeiro, in February 2024, when he said that January 8 was a mistake by the far right because the “conditions” for a coup were not in place, and among those conditions, he emphatically cited the lack of international support, that is, a US veto. Now, however, the situation is different. The US is suffering from severe demoralization, mired in wars, suffering defeats, amidst a stagnant economy and the deepening of the global imperialist crisis. Its sole hegemony in the world is being called into question. The US is confronted by growing movements from its imperialist rivals, Russia and China, on a scale not seen since the collapse of the social-imperialist USSR. Thus, alarm bells have gone off at the Pentagon, which is using the megalomaniacal and reckless Trump to raise international tensions to a high level, in order to meet the crucial need to ensure by all means its absolute dominance in what it calls the “Western Hemisphere,” particularly Latin America. This means intensifying the struggles to a certain degree of relative disorder, which will serve, if not to restore the previous conditions, at least to bring about a new situation of its most absolute control possible in the region. Aligned with this ongoing strategy, the far-right Bolsonaro supporters, with the Yankee far right, are plotting to unleash a new wave of armed, counterrevolutionary, and anticommunist uprisings should the elections not go according to their plans, leading to the completion of a counter-revolutionary military coup. Therefore, it follows that the real conflict between democratic and anti-imperialist forces, and the fascist and far-right forces will, in any case, take place in mass combat, in the class struggle, whatever the electoral outcome.

The following scenarios have been outlined. If Flávio Bolsonaro wins, the US and the Trump administration will recognize the Brazilian electoral system and the election results, guarantee support for the next government, and quickly proceed with all sorts of treasonous agreements – including agreements that allow for military operations by US troops in Brazil and even the establishment of US military bases under the pretext of “combating narco-terrorism,” but, in reality, to gain ever greater control over the country’s strategic resources and to directly combat all armed popular resistance, especially in the struggle for land and against the theft of land and national wealth. And, if Flávio Bolsonaro is defeated, in turn, the US government will not recognize the result; it will claim that the elections were conducted fraudulently, and it will not matter to it that it has no proof; it will say that the country’s judicial system interfered in the result by “persecuting” Jair Bolsonaro, and it will give carte blanche to the far-right lackeys to promote all manner of lawlessness, scheming behind the scenes to incite – via the reactionary Armed Forces – a change in the political regime through a coup d’état that guarantees their most absolute control possible; or, faced with all these threats, to make the elected government, seeing itself cornered and “democracy threatened,” capitulate, as Delcy Rodrigues did in Venezuela, and be willing to carry out a government program as servile and subservient as the Bolsonaros promised to do.

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As is clear, the election result is one factor. It is not the only one. Nor is it even the most important factor in the current situation. The most dynamic element, one that is not being factored into any calculations by the imperialists or by the anti-Trump forces deluded by “democracy,” is the mobilization of the popular masses. But not the opportunistic and unscrupulous mobilization, like that of bourgeois politicians, where the masses only serve to applaud them (a limit beyond which they become inconvenient), masses that are totally dependent on them and thank them with votes for what is the minimum obligation of anyone who considers themselves to represent them in this old democracy (even more so for those who call themselves “left,” even if they are not). The fact is that the opportunistic government of Luiz Inácio and the PT, cowering in the chaos of the far-right Bolsonarista riots of January 8, 2023, did not lift a finger to warn the Brazilian people, much less to convince them in the only way possible, of the great threat the country faced. Instead of intensifying the political struggle with the people, tirelessly mobilizing them against the far-right’s plans, it dedicated itself to appeasing the coup-plotting generals, sowing the illusion that it would pacify Brazilian society with the cackling of dialogue, even as the reactionary forces made it abundantly clear they would not give up their objectives and would return to the fray. And there you have the electoral scenario.

To blame the first-round results primarily on the antics of the far-right is the height of arrogance and self-importance, as the outcome was more than predictable after what happened in the country and Trump’s return to the US government. This was enough for any minimally open-minded politician to understand what was coming. However, in his arrogance as the most popular president in Brazilian history – and it should be said that this is not a difficult task, one only needs to reach the Presidency and be even minimally honest – and in his belief that he’s the smartest one around, he was certain that he would win over Trump with his smooth talk and offers regarding Brazil. Of course, it is in his bourgeois ideological nature not to understand the nature of imperialism; he was quickly discarded by the orange orangutan in the White House. Then, he “felt the drama,” but even so, he learned nothing about the nature of the country’s official political history. He continued to believe in his own manipulations. Four years flew by, and by the time he and his cronies realized the problem, time was running out. And yet he still refused to accept the reality that playing games with the people might work out for his plans and even last for years – but not forever. That’s also asking the impossible of opportunism. Oh well!

Regardless of the election results, the country will be dragged into a situation that poses a severe threat to democratic values and guarantees, and to what remains of our formal national sovereignty. It will be the masses, mobilized and determined to fight to the end and confront all the unrest orchestrated by imperialism, who will be able to resist the plans of Yankee imperialism.

The tactics of the revolutionary movement must be to broadly mobilize the masses, in tactical unity with all forces in the popular movement that are committed to increasing popular protest to combat imperialist interference in the current situation and the offensive of the far right (which has even manifested itself in threats of attacks and the incitement of political violence against activists and militants). However, for consistent proletarian and revolutionary forces, such unity must always be integrated with the struggle within the popular movement, a struggle against all opportunistic ideology and politics of the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois left, which, with its tendency towards capitulation and class conciliation in the face of disorder and danger, ends up tending to reach agreements harmful to the masses, if not complete collaboration with reaction. It is necessary to raise popular protest around the concrete issues of the interests of the popular masses, aiming to resist the offensive of the counterrevolution and to free the mass movement from all social-democratic and opportunistic illusions. Elections, no! Revolution, yes! Down with US interference! Death to Yankee imperialism and fascism!