Any Attempt By Bolsonaro To Undermine Elections In Brazil Should Be Punished Says Former Us Diplomat

Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register RIO DE JANEIRO, April 30 (Reuters) – Washington should make it clear to Brazilian “messianic” President Zaire Bolsonaro that any attempt to undermine his country’s election would lead to multilateral sanctions, . An opinion article in The Globo by Scott Hamilton, the US consul in Rio de Janeiro from 2018 to 2021, who retired from the State Department this week, is likely to annoy Bolsonaro. The far-right populist has made baseless allegations of electoral fraud in Brazil, which Hamilton described as part of a plan to reject any defeat in the October election. The article could complicate the relationship between Brazil and Washington at a time when US officials have been pushing to improve ties with the Bolsonaro government in a bid to bridge differences over the Ukraine war. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Bolsonaro’s office and the US embassy in Brasilia did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Hamilton wrote that during his time in Rio he “witnessed the ways in which Bolsonaro and his supporters tried to undermine the integrity of Brazil’s democratic process.” “The Brazilian president’s intention is clear and dangerous: to undermine public confidence (in the electoral system) and to lay the groundwork for trying to refuse to accept his result,” Hamilton wrote. Bolsonaro follows former left-wing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in opinion polls ahead of the October 2 election. Hamilton wrote that Bolsonaro “sees himself as an envoy of God to save Brazil from” communism. ” It is a messianic vision impenetrable to logic. “ As a result, Hamilton wrote, “the United States must make it clear to President Bolsonaro that an attempt to intervene in the integrity of the Brazilian electoral process will be subject to … sanctions on all those involved, which will be imposed simultaneously by a wide range of countries.” ». Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by Gabriel Stargardter Editing by Brad Haynes and Chris Reese Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.