The Biden-appointed director of the Central Intelligence Agency told Brazilian officials last year that the country’s president must refrain from undermining confidence in the nation’s electoral system, Reuters reported.
CIA Director William Burns delivered the warning to Brazilian officials in July during a closed-door meeting between a U.S. delegation led by Burns and Brazilian officials, sources familiar with the event told Reuters.
A third source in Washington confirmed to the news agency that the meeting wherein the comments were made did indeed occur. However, according to Reuters, the third source was unsure whether Burns himself delivered the message.
“Burns was making it clear that elections were not an issue that they should mess with,” one of the sources said, according to Reuters. “It wasn’t a lecture, it was a conversation.”
Neither the CIA nor Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s office responded to Reuters’ request for comment on Burns’ supposed warning to Brazilian officials.
Burns is the highest-ranking U.S. official from the Biden administration to have visited Brazil thus far. The CIA director’s alleged comments stand as an anomaly, for CIA directors generally refrain from making political statements, according to Reuters.
Brazil’s October 2022 elections pose a significant challenge for Bolsonaro, the country’s right-wing president, who is seeking a second term as the head of South America’s largest country.
Facing criticism for his policies on the Amazon rainforest, his poor handling of COVID-19, and coronavirus-induced economic woes, the road to a second term remains challenging for the incumbent, who had a great friendship with and admiration for former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Recent polling by PoderData showed that Bolsonaro lags behind his left-wing progressive opponent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ahead of the elections.
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