Brazil

Steve Ellner - What has Washington most worried is the reemergence of a powerful non-aligned movement and the prospect that a progressive like Lula be situated at its helm.

Israel Dutra & Thiago Aguiar - The final stretch of the electoral process, marked by polarization, many fake news stories, and the fight against Bolsonarism, is undefined. The polls are divergent and, of course, there is a dispute about who is ahead.

Socialist Left Movement/PSOL - The left candidate Lula da Silva won the first round with 48.4% of the vote (57,259,504 votes) against 43.2% for his right-wing opponent Jair Bolsonaro (51,072,345 votes): an advantage of about 6 million votes. However, what marked the result - contrary to the expectation created by all the opinion polls - was that Bolsonaro did much better than predicted.