US Suspends Consular Services in Brazil Two Days Before the Vote
The United States has suspended consular services in Brazil and Australia has closed its embassy in Brasília, two days before Sunday’s presidential election. The American embassy cited security concerns without giving detail, advising citizens seeking assistance not to visit its diplomatic facilities. The State Department says it is working with Brazilian counterparts to address the threat.
Closing consular doors in a G20 capital on the eve of a national vote is unusual enough to be a story in itself, and the absence of any stated threat is the part that invites speculation rather than settling it. Datafolha has Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is eighty, on 42% against Flávio Bolsonaro’s 38% in the first round, and 48% to 45% in a simulated runoff on 25 October — a technical tie on a two-point margin of error. The campaign has already produced a cancelled televised debate and a bomb scare outside the Supreme Court that police put down to a man throwing a backpack of personal belongings onto a bus stop. Brazilian federal police executed search warrants in São Paulo and the Federal District after working with foreign intelligence agencies, but say they found no evidence corroborating the reported threat and identified no suspects. The State Department notes that embassies routinely issue local alerts, which is true and is also not an explanation. Watch whether the services reopen on Monday, because a brief closure reads as caution and a longer one reads as intelligence.