President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won a fourth term on Oct. 25, defeating Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro in a runoff election that has exposed sharp divisions over Indigenous rights and the future of Brazil's left-wing politics .
The margin of victory was roughly twice as large as Lula's 2022 win over Flávio's father, former President Jair Bolsonaro. Indigenous voters were decisive in the result. But in the days since the vote, Indigenous communities have reported a wave of violence, including threats from local officials to poison their water supply .
Two officials in Tacuru, a municipality in Mato Grosso do Sul state, allegedly sent WhatsApp audio messages shortly after Lula's win was announced. The messages claimed that only Indigenous people had voted for the president and called for putting "poison in the water" to "kill those pests," according to the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil. The case is being investigated by the Federal Police and the Federal Public Ministry. The Tacuru city government suspended the two employees for 20 days. Activists said the punishment was insufficient to curb ongoing violence. "Talking about poisoning the water in Mato Grosso do Sul is not just verbal racism," said Matias Benno Rempel, coordinator of the state's Indigenous Missionary Council. "It is grounded in concrete reality." The home of Ñandesy Roberta, a 90-year-old Guarani and Kaiowá spiritual leader, was set on fire after the election. Funai, Brazil's federal Indigenous rights agency, called the reports "extremely concerning" and established a task force to investigate political violence against Indigenous peoples. The Ministry of Indigenous Peoples set up a hotline at +55 (11) 98202.5433. Minister Eloy Terena said, "We will continue to combat all forms of violence against Indigenous communities here" .
Flávio Bolsonaro, who is under criminal investigation for alleged corruption and money laundering, fled to the United States after his defeat. He arrived in Miami on Wednesday after a flight from Argentina with a stop in Guayaquil, and declared himself the "leader of Brazil." He attended mass on Sunday at the Celeiro House of Prayer church in Coral Springs, Florida. More than 60 percent of Brazilian voters in Florida, a community estimated at 500,000 people, had voted for him in the election. Jason Miller, a White House strategist who helped rent the Gulfstream plane Flávio used to fly to Miami, watched the election results with Eduardo Bolsonaro and other Bolsonaro supporters at Miami's Freedom Tower .
Lula turned 81 on Oct. 27. Since Brazil's redemocratization in the 1980s, no other politician has been elected president more than twice. He will need to start cultivating viable successors immediately, a task he has struggled with in the past . During the campaign, Flávio had joked that Lula gives with one hand and takes with nine fingers, referring to the finger Lula lost in a factory accident at age 19 . Lula's digital campaign has drawn international attention, with activists in France, Spain and Argentina trying to copy the social media strategy that helped turn the vote around .
