Brasil: Thousands Protest Against Bolsonaro Ahead of Presidential Runoff

Thousands Protest in Brazil Against Bolsonaro Ahead of Presidential Runoff BRAZIL Brazil Thousands of people took to the streets of Rio de Janeiro this week to protest against conservative presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, who beat left-wing incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the first round of the presidential election. Protesters marched between historic squares in central Rio, carrying signs supporting democracy and Brazil’s sovereignty. Many wore red and chanted “Never Again Bolsonaro” while calling for support for Lula. Flávio Bolsonaro received about 47 percent of the vote while Lula garnered about 45 percent. The two candidates will face each other in a runoff vote Oct. 25. Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, is the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who governed Brazil from 2019 to 2022. Jair Bolsonaro is currently serving a 27-year sentence after being convicted of attempting a coup after he lost the 2022 election to Lula. Protesters criticized Flávio Bolsonaro over corruption allegations and the political legacy of his father, including his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Flávio Bolsonaro is currently under investigation for corruption, money laundering and tax evasion, charges he denies and says are politically motivated. With less than three weeks before the runoff, both candidates face an uphill battle in attracting voters who either did not participate in Sunday’s vote or backed other candidates such as Augusto Cury, who came in third in the election with 2.89 percent of the vote, and Renan Santos, who garnered 2.18 percent and came in fourth place. Still, Flávio Bolsonaro, analysts say, holds a strong advantage in the runoff: Cury and Santos are both right-leaning, increasing chances that their combined 6 million voters will choose Flávio Bolsonaro. They add that the first round underscored how many voters in Brazil are concerned about crime and inflation, and believe Lula has done little to address either of those.

Cubana Flight 455: An Act of Aviation Terrorism 50 Years Later

Cubana Flight 455: An Act of Aviation Terrorism 50 Years Later Barbados Monument On the 50th Anniversary of Plane Bombing, National Security Archive Posts Most Revealing U.S. Intelligence Records on Atrocity Anti-Castro Terrorism Took Lives of all Men, Women, and Children on Board FBI Report on Terrorist Message: “a bus with 73 dogs went off a cliff and all got killed” Published: Oct 8, 2026 Briefing Book # 932 Edited by Peter Kornbluh For more information, contact: 202-994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu Subjects Human Rights and Genocide Regions Cuba and Caribbean Project Cuba RELATED LINKS Luis Posada Carriles, CIA-created "Frankenstein", Dies at 90 Bombing of Cuban Jetliner 40 Years Later: Colgate Toothpaste Disguised Plastic Explosives in 1976 Terrorist Attack The CIA File on Luis Posada Carriles: A Former Agency Asset Goes on Trial in the U.S. Posada Carriles Built Bombs for, and Informed on, Jorge Mas Canosa, CIA Records Reveal Terrorism Case of Luis Posada Debated on Capitol Hill: Archive Analyst Peter Kornbluh Shares Declassified CIA and FBI Intelligence Reports with House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee Documents Linked to Cuban Exile Luis Posada Highlighted Targets for Terrorism: Bomber's Confessions Point to Explosives Hidden in Toothpaste Tube that Brought Down Civilian Airliner in 1976 The Posada File: Part II - Posada Boasted of Plans to "Hit" Cuban Plane, CIA Document States Luis Posada Carriles: The Declassified Record Washington, D.C., October 8, 2026 - Fifty years ago this week, a small bomb of plastic explosives hidden inside a tube of Colgate toothpaste destroyed a civilian Cuban airliner off the coast of Barbados. The mid-air terrorist attack on Cubana flight 455 killed everyone on board, including the entire Cuban national fencing team returning with gold medals from a Panamerican competition. CIA and FBI intelligence reports soon identified the masterminds of the atrocity as Luis Posada Carriles, a longtime CIA asset/informant, and Orlando Bosch, considered to be the godfathers of terrorist violence against Cuba. After the airliner plunged into the ocean, according to one FBI informant, a Posada employee who had planted the bomb on the plane telephoned Bosch with this chilling message: “a bus with 73 dogs went off a cliff and all got killed.” In commemoration of the victims of the Cubana 455 bombing, the National Security Archive today is posting ten of the most revealing intelligence records on this atrocity and those who perpetrated it. Since the mid-1990s, the Archive’s Cuba Documentation Project has been pursuing and disseminating declassified records on the case. “This infamous act of aviation terrorism, the worst in the Western Hemisphere before 9/11, must never be forgotten,” noted Peter Kornbluh, who directs the Cuba project. “The declassified record reminds us of what happened and who did it.” Orlando and Posada Orlando Bosch Avila Luis Posada Carriles Only days after the October 6, 1976, plane bombing, both Posada and Bosch were arrested in Venezuela, which had become a base for violent operations against Cuba. Bosch was released in 1987 and came to Florida the next year, illegally entering the country. He was detained by immigration authorities for almost two years. But in 1990, President George H.W. Bush—ignoring the objections of his own Attorney General, who labeled Bosch a “terrorist” and a threat to U.S. security—made a political decision to protect Bosch from further legal accountability and granted him permanent residency in the United States. Posada bribed his way out of a Venezuelan prison in 1985 using funds secretly supplied by wealthy Cuban American benefactors and escaped to Central America. He then joined the Reagan administration’s covert operations, run by Oliver North out of El Salvador’s Ilopango airbase, to overthrow the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. (Today’s posting includes Posada’s interrogation by Iran-Contra special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh.) Posada stayed in Central America working in Guatemala and Honduras but continued his terrorist operations targeting Cuba. To deter tourism to Cuba, in the mid-1990s, he orchestrated a series of bombings in prominent Havana hotels that killed one Italian businessman and wounded numerous others. “That Italian was sitting in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Posada proudly confessed in an interview with the New York Times, “but I sleep like a baby.” document2 The first FBI report on the Cubana 455 bombing In November 2000, Posada was detained in Panama as Fidel Castro arrived to attend the Ibero-American summit in Panama City. Posada was charged with plotting to assassinate the Cuban leader with a 200-pound bomb planted in the auditorium where the Latin American leaders were meeting. In 2004, he was convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison. But Panama’s president, Mireya Moscoso, inexplicably pardoned him in August 2004, and he was freed. With the assistance of a network of Cuban American supporters in Florida, in early 2005, Posada illegally entered the United States and openly took up residence in Miami. Despite a post-9/11 policy of penalizing nations that harbored international terrorists, the George W. Bush administration allowed Posada to live freely in Florida and even to apply to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. Only after the New York Times and the Miami Herald ran front page articles on Posada’s responsibility for the plane bombing—based on CIA and FBI intelligence reports provided by the National Security Archive (and posted today)—did authorities move to arrest him on May 17, 2005. He was eventually charged not with committing acts of terrorism but rather of committing perjury and immigration fraud when applying to become a citizen. For his trial in El Paso, the CIA submitted a short summary of his longstanding ties to the agency, dating back to the early 1960s and ending in the early 1990s when CIA officials warned Posada in Honduras that they had uncovered a plot to assassinate him. The three-month-long trial ended when the jury found Posada, by then 83 years old, innocent of all charges after just three hours of deliberations. Document Hand-drawn diagram of bomb detonator Both Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada lived out their lives as free men in Florida. Bosch died at age 84 on April 27, 2011, in a Miami hospital; Posada died at age 90 in May 2018. “Given the travesty of justice for the 73 victims of Cubana flight 455 over the last half century,” according to Kornbluh, “the declassified documents on Posada’s and Bosch’s role provide the only possible verdict—the verdict of history.” This history remains relevant to the current crisis in U.S.-Cuba relations, Kornbluh noted. “At a time when the Trump administration has sought to justify its regime change operations by accusing Cuba of terrorist efforts against the United States, the documents demonstrate that Cuba has for decades been the target of terrorism committed by violent individuals long associated with the United States.” The Documents d1 Document 1 FBI, Intelligence Cable, “Suspected Bombing of Cubana Airlines DC-8 Near Barbados,” Secret, October 7, 1976 Oct 7, 1976 Only one day after the bombing of Cubana flight 455, sources in Caracas are already sharing intelligence that Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch masterminded the terrorist attack and were getting ready to flee Venezuela. “The confidential source further advised,” the FBI reported, that “[deleted reference to DISIP, Venezuela’s intelligence service] was arranging for Luis Posada and Orlando Bosch Avila to leave Venezuela as soon as possible. The source all but admitted that Posada and Bosch had engineered the bombing of the airplane.” d2 Document 2 CIA, Secret Intelligence Report, “Activities of Cuban Exile Leader Orlando Bosch During his Stay in Venezuela,” Secret, October 14, 1976 Oct 14, 1976 A source in Venezuela supplied the CIA with detailed intelligence on a fundraiser held for Orlando Bosch and his organization CORU after he arrived in Caracas in September 1976. The source described the dinner at the house of a Cuban exile doctor, Hildo Folgar, which included Venezuelan government officials. Bosch was said to have demanded a bribe to refrain from acts of violence during the United Nations meeting in November 1976, which would be attended by Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez. He was also quoted as saying that his group had done a “great job” in assassinating former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C., on September 21 and now was going to “try something else.” A few days later, according to this intelligence report, Luis Posada Carriles was overheard to say that “we are going to hit a Cuban airplane” and “Orlando has the details.” d3 Document 3 State Department, Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Memorandum, “Castro’s Allegations,” October 18, 1976 Oct 18, 1976 The first report to Secretary of State Kissinger from the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research on the bombing of Cubana Airlines Flight 455 details Cuba’s allegation that the CIA was involved in the bombing and provides an outline of the suspects’ relationship to the U.S. The report notes that a CIA source had overheard Posada prior to the bombing in late September 1976 stating that, “We are going to hit a Cuban airliner.” This information was apparently not passed to the CIA until after the plane went down. d4 Document 4 FBI, Letter to Kissinger, [Regarding Special Agent Leo], October 20, 1976 Oct 20, 1976 This report to Secretary of State Kissinger from Clarence M. Kelly, director of the FBI, explains the association between Joseph S. Leo, Special Agent and Legal Attaché in Caracas, to the suspects in the Cubana Airlines Flight 455 bombing. Investigators found Leo’s name among the possessions of Hernan Ricardo Lozano, one of the two Posada employees who planted the explosive device on the plane. The report notes that there were at least two contacts between Lozano and Leo in the weeks leading up to the bombing. d5 Document 5 FBI, Letter to Kissinger, [Regarding Contact with Bombing Suspects], October 29, 1976 Oct 29, 1976 The second report to Secretary of State Kissinger from FBI director Clarence M. Kelly provides additional information regarding the relationship between Special Agent Leo and the Cubana Airlines bombing suspects. The report details Leo’s contacts with Lozano and Posada going back to the summer of 1975 and notes that Leo suspected Posada and Hernan Ricardo Lozano of acts of terrorism but still granted Ricardo’s request for a visa to the United States. d6 Document 6 FBI, Letter to Kissinger, [Regarding Ricardo Morales Navarette], November 5, 1976 Nov 5, 1976 A third report to Secretary of State Kissinger from Clarence M. Kelly, director of the FBI, relays information from a confidential FBI source that the bombing of the Cubana Airlines flight was planned in Caracas, Venezuela, by Luis Posada Carriles, Frank Castro, and Ricardo Morales Navarrete. The source states that the group had made previous unsuccessful attempts to bomb Cuban aircraft in Jamaica and Panama. Shortly after the plane crashed, bombing suspect Hernan Ricardo Lozano telephoned Bosch stating, “a bus with 73 dogs went off a cliff and all got killed.” The source also states that anti-Castro Cuban exiles working with the Chilean National Directorate for Intelligence (DINA) carried out the assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C., on September 21, 1976. d7 Document 7 Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of National Security, October 26, 1976, [Dennis Elliott Ramdwar deposition regarding Hernan Ricardo Lozano and Freddy Lugo] Oct 26, 1976 Trinidad and Tobago Deputy Commissioner of Police Dennis Ramdwar led the inquiries regarding the crash of Cubana Airline flight 455. In his written statement, he notes that Freddy Lugo initially denied knowledge of the crash. Eight days later, Lugo tells Ramdwar that he is convinced that Lozano placed the bomb on the aircraft. He states that Ricardo told him twice that he was going to blow up a Cubana aircraft as the two were headed to the airport prior to the bombing. In a separate interview, Lozano gives Ramdwar details of how a “certain chemical is filled in a tube of Colgate toothpaste after the toothpaste is extracted” to construct the bomb. d8 Document 8 CIA, Memorandum, "AMCLEVE /15," July 21, 1966 Jul 21, 1966 This document identifies early CIA ties to Luis Posada Carriles. It includes two parts: a cover letter written by Grover T. Lythcott, Posada’s CIA handler, and an attached request written by Posada to accept a position on a new coordinating Junta composed of several anti-Castro organizations. In the cover letter, Lythcott refers to Posada by his then-codename, AMCLEVE/I5, and discusses his previous involvement with the Agency. He lionizes Posada, writing that his “performance in all assigned tasks has been excellent” and urging that he be permitted to work with the combined anti-Castro exile groups. According to the document, Lythcott suggests that Posada be taken off the CIA payroll to facilitate his joining the anti-Castro militant junta, which will be led by RECE. Lythcott insists that Posada will function as an effective moderating force considering he is “acutely aware of the international implications of ill planned or over enthusiastic activities against Cuba.” In an attached memo, Posada, using the name “Pete,” writes that if he is on the Junta, “they will never do anything to endanger the security of this Country (like blow up Russian ships)” and volunteers to “give the Company all the intelligence that I can collect.” d9 Document 9 CIA, summary, “Unclassified Summary of the CIA’s Relationship With Luis Clemente Posada Carriles,” ca January 2011 Jan 2011 This short, unclassified summary of the relationship between Luis Posada Carriles and the CIA was drafted for Posada’s 2011 El Paso trial on perjury charges related to immigration and naturalization proceedings after he illegally entered the U.S. in 2005. It was provided to the court by the U.S. Justice Department. The summary admits that the CIA first had contact with Posada in connection with planning the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. He remained a paid agent of the CIA from 1965-1967 and again from 1968-1974. From 1974-76, Posada provided unsolicited threat reporting on his and other violent exile operations, including an attempt to blow up a Cuban airliner in June 1976. According to this document, the CIA last had contact with Posada in 1993 when they anonymously contacted him in Honduras by telephone to warn him of a threat to his life. d10 Document 10 Office of the Independent Counsel, Lawrence Walsh, “Record of Interview with Luis Posada Carriles,” Secret, February 7, 1992 Feb 7, 1992 Two FBI agents interviewed Posada at the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in February 1992. He provided a detailed account of his work for the contra war, which included descriptions of escaping from Venezuela in a private aircraft and being flown to Aruba and then on to El Salvador. The 31-page interview transcript also provides extensive details on his operations in El Salvador and Guatemala after the Iran Contra scandal broke in November 1986 and the contra resupply operation was shut down. Although Posada accumulated $40,000 from the contra work—he and others were paid from profits from the sale of armaments to Iran—he eventually ran out of funds. At one point, Richard Secord sent him $1,000 for one of his paintings.

A Decades Old Dispute Over the Falkans Islands Is Heating Up Again

A Decades-Old Dispute Over the Falkland Islands Is Heating Up Again FALKLAND ISLANDS After the British government announced sanctions against Israel over the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, Israeli officials accused the United Kingdom of “occupying” a territory in the South Atlantic, the Falkland Islands. The spat arose during a recent gathering of world leaders at the United Nations when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called British and French critics of Israeli policies hypocrites. “They accuse Israel, tiny Israel, of colonialism – some colonialism,” said Netanyahu. “And who’s accusing us? Among them are people in Britain and in France. For God’s sakes, they invented the term.” Argentine President Javier Milei jumped in soon afterward, saying the international community was “looking the other way” as Argentina's claim to the islands has been ignored. He added that the islanders do not have a right to self-determination, while calling for negotiations with the UK to find a peaceful solution to the conflict. Beyond the contretemps at the United Nations, a very real dispute over the Falkland Islands has been heating up lately, more than 44 years after Britain and Argentina went to war over the British overseas territory. In early September, Milei, seizing on statements by US President Donald Trump that the US may reconsider its neutral stance on the islands’ sovereignty, blasted an oil drilling project just north of the islands, which lie about 300 miles from the Argentine mainland. “Argentina will not stand idly by,” Milei said in a televised address to the nation in September. “Any further advance on the [Falkland] Islands will be considered a violation of our national security.” The project, Sea Lion, promises to transform the Falklands’ economy, which has long been dependent on fishing. However, Argentina opposes the project that would allow foreign companies to extract oil deposits it regards as its own. Argentina has sought to impose sanctions on the companies involved in the project and has filed three criminal complaints against Tel Aviv-listed Navitas, the UK’s Rockhopper Exploration and eight other companies and their executives for allegedly violating Argentine law by pursuing oil operations without the country’s authorization. An Argentine judge has ordered it to halt. Meanwhile, the dispute escalated further this week, with Argentina vowing to use legal and diplomatic means to stop the project as Navitas said it was replacing two contractors that would no longer work on it amid the sanctions campaign. Rockhopper Exploration and Navitas Petroleum have said they would continue with the project under licenses granted by the Falkland Islands government and backed by the UK. Meanwhile, Argentina has also pledged to expand a military base in Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of the country, making it easier to deploy ships to the Falkland Islands – which Argentines call Islas Malvinas – in case of war. The UK has more than a thousand troops, jets and Royal Navy patrols in and around the Falklands. The history of the islands plays into the dispute. The Falkland Islands are a self-governing British territory, but Argentina has claimed them since 1833. In 1982, Argentina invaded but lost the subsequent 10-week war, helping bring an end to the military junta then running the country. In 2013, the islands’ roughly 4,000 inhabitants voted overwhelmingly to remain British. Argentina dismissed that referendum, however, saying Britain placed settlers on the islands when their status was disputed. Milei won’t deport those inhabitants, he says, if Britain gives up control of the islands. Meanwhile, the UK has repeatedly insisted it would not relinquish control over the Falklands. “The UK’s position on the Falkland Islands is unwavering,” Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said on X. “The Islands are British and will remain so because that is the overwhelming position of the Islanders.” The US has long formally recognized the UK’s de facto administration of the islands but has not taken a formal position on sovereignty. However, in April, the Trump administration floated the possibility of reversing its position to punish NATO allies such as the UK for declining direct involvement in the US-Israeli war on Iran. “Your country was not there to help me,” Trump said in early September. “We didn’t need help, but I did ask NATO, and I asked your former leader [Keir Starmer], ‘Why don’t you send a couple of ships?’ He said, ‘We don’t have any.’ It was pretty sad, the whole thing.” Meanwhile, Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the Falklands is enshrined in Argentina’s constitution and frequently invoked as an expression of national pride – it is also one of the few issues that cuts across the country’s partisan divides. Still, some believe Milei, who is up for reelection next year, is seizing on the issue because of a decline in his approval ratings. “When you have political troubles, this is a tried and true way to try to get out of them and boost support,” Michael Shifter of Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank, told the Wall Street Journal. “So it’s not surprising that Milei is trying to take full advantage of it for political reasons, because he is in trouble.”

Argentina Bonds Are Still A Good Investment

Emerging Markets International Trader Argentina’s Economy Stumbles. Its Bonds Are Still Attractive. By Craig Mellow Follow Oct 01, 2026, 3:00 am EDT Gift Article Listen (4 min) President of Argentina Javier Milei addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images) Key Points About This Summary Argentine President Javier Milei is losing momentum a year before his re-election bid, with his approval rating dropping. Argentina’s annual inflation rate is stuck around 30%, poverty is increasing, real wages are stagnant and unemployment is rising. Despite the economic challenges, some investment managers view Argentine bonds as potentially attractive due to the country’s fiscal situation. Argentine President Javier Milei is losing momentum a year before his bid for re-election. Luckily for him and bondholders, his Peronist opponents are stuck in reverse. The libertarian firebrand, in office since December 2023, achieved global celebrity as his shock therapy whipped near-hyperinflation and doubled currency reserves in the world’s most-defaulting nation. But he has largely squandered a political boost he got from successful 2025 midterm elections. Advertisement - Scroll to Continue At home, Milei’s drawn-out defense of cabinet chief Manuel Adorni against corruption allegations left vital structural reforms of taxation and pensions to languish. “The Adorni scandal consumed way too much oxygen,” says Bruno Binetti, a fellow at Chatham House. Adorni stepped down in late June. Abroad, Milei’s administration whiffed on a chance to re-enter bond markets before the summer surge in global yields. “If they didn’t want to issue at 9%, they won’t come to market now at 11%,” says Jeff Grills, head of emerging markets debt at Aegon Asset Management. That has left the economy to drift in the wrong direction for most of Argentina’s 46 million citizens. Inflation is stuck around a still-punishing 30% annual rate. Poverty is increasing again after a sharp contraction in Milei’s first two years. This year’s 2% to 3% economic growth is concentrated where jobs aren’t, in oil and mining exploration and agriculture. “Real wages are stagnant and unemployment is rising,” summarizes Thierry Larose, portfolio manager for emerging markets local debt at Vontobel Asset Management. Milei’s poll numbers have dropped accordingly, with voters disapproving of his stewardship by a 60-to-40 margin, according to pollster AtlasIntel. So have bond prices. Benchmark paper maturing in 2038 has fallen from 83 cents on the dollar to 74 cents over the past two months. Advertisement - Scroll to Continue Argentines may well see the alternative as worse when they cast ballots in October 2027, though. Peronism’s leading lights, former President Cristina Kirchner and Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof, have feuded with each other and rehashed the disastrous policy prescriptions that ushered Milei into power. “The Peronists are very nostalgic about a golden age that disappeared more than 15 years ago,” Binetti says. “With the information we have today, continuity is more likely than change” next year, says Alejo Czerwonko, chief investment officer for emerging markets at UBS Global Wealth Management. On that assumption, Argentine bonds are a buy. “They are trading at a steep premium over other B-rated credits despite one of healthiest fiscal situations on the planet,” Czerwonko argues. Aegon’s Grills is a tad more cautious, seeing Argentine credit as “not too far from an entry point.” Yields are near, if not at the top of, the emerging market charts, paying a percentage point more than neighboring Ecuador and nearly as much as Gabon, he notes. Vontobel’s Larose considers “the outlook for Argentine bonds as challenging but potentially attractive.” Advertisement - Scroll to Continue Stagnation might get incumbents thrown out in other countries. In Argentina, it is something of an achievement compared with past chaos and contraction. “Milei is delivering a modicum of stability in the ultimate boom-and-bust economy,” Czerwonko says. He has powerful friends to buttress that stability if necessary, at the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Treasury, which opened a $20 billion credit line to Buenos Aires to fortify the peso before last year’s midterms. Milei’s reforms could still fail, like those of Mauricio Macri before him. But investors may be getting paid adequately for that risk. Write to editors@barrons.com

Bolivia Arrests Attorney General Over Alleged Drug Ties

Bolivia Arrests Attorney General Over Alleged Drug Ties After US Pressure BOLIVIA Bolivia Bolivian police arrested Attorney General Roger Mariaca this week, days after the United States blacklisted him and more than a dozen other officials over alleged ties to drug trafficking cartels. He was arrested Wednesday, with local media reporting that police detained him at Viru Viru International Airport in Santa Cruz. Police also arrested Santa Cruz prosecutor Alberto Zeballos. He and Mariaca were among nearly 20 people from Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador whom the US State Department accused this week of corruption, links to drug trafficking or conspiring against their governments. The State Department said Monday that Mariaca received “bribes to facilitate drug trafficking” and help violent criminals evade justice. Washington revoked the visas of 12 Bolivian officials and made nine other Bolivian nationals who did not have visas ineligible to receive them. Mariaca denied the accusations Monday, describing Washington’s decision as an act of “interference” and “political pressure” in response to his investigations. The Office of the Attorney General also denounced Wednesday’s police action as illegal. The crackdown comes months after notorious Latin American drug trafficker Sebastián Marset, who had eluded police for years, was arrested in Bolivia and handed over to US authorities earlier this year.

Banking Scandal and US Pressure Campaign Roil Brasil's Tight Presidential Race

Banking Scandal and US Pressure Campaign Roil Brazil’s Tight Presidential Race BRAZIL Brazil A month ago, crime and cost of living – along with foreign interference – were the top issues for Brazilian voters ahead of the presidential election on Oct. 4. But that was before the eruption of a sprawling banking scandal implicating the son of the last president, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, who is vying to unseat incumbent President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) in an extremely tight race. Now, corruption has become a major issue in the vote. “Brazil’s voters hate it,” wrote the Economist. “As the scandal unfurls, corruption has become their primary concern.” On Sept. 11, court documents were unsealed that showed Flávio Bolsonaro is ​under investigation for alleged corruption and money laundering tied to now-defunct lender Banco Master. The case has also implicated other politicians and a justice from the country’s highest court. The allegations against Flávio Bolsonaro center on his role in securing at least $12 million from banker Daniel Vorcaro to finance “Dark Horse,” a sympathetic film about his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who has faced multiple corruption allegations and is serving a 27-year prison sentence for plotting to remain in power after losing the 2022 election to Lula. Vorcaro is the former owner of Banco Master, which was shut down last year over a multibillion-dollar fraud case involving fake loans that cost Brazil’s deposit insurance system billions. Meanwhile, Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes is accused of feeding Vorcaro information about the investigation. Flávio Bolsonaro and Moraes deny wrongdoing. The turmoil comes as Lula and Flávio Bolsonaro are locked in an exceptionally tight race, with the 11 other candidates trailing far behind. Lula, 80, is seeking a fourth nonconsecutive term. A poll released Sept. 23 put Lula’s share of the vote at 45.8 percent and Flávio Bolsonaro at 43.4 percent in the first round, while they were statistically tied in a hypothetical Oct. 25 runoff, required if no candidate wins a majority. Flávio Bolsonaro’s share of the vote has not dropped since the banking scandal unfurled, polls show. However, some voters like Laiza Sousa, a 22-year-old grocery store worker from the northeastern state of Bahia, say corruption has now become their main issue and see little to like in either candidate. “Neither of them brings anything to Brazil. Flávio … he's from [Jair] Bolsonaro's inner circle,” she told Brazil’s Folha de S.Paulo newspaper. “I haven't seen them improve Brazil, things only get worse.” The case has shaken the race even as voters also worry about violent crime and foreign involvement in the election: US tariffs and sanctions have intensified scrutiny of Washington’s role in an already volatile campaign. Despite a declining national homicide rate, violence remains a top concern for Brazilians, while powerful criminal organizations increasingly control territory and economic activity. In May, Flávio Bolsonaro urged the Trump administration to designate Brazil’s two largest criminal groups as terrorist organizations, a step Washington later took, which Lula opposed as foreign interference. “The main driver of this decision was politics, to pressure Lula and help Flávio prior to the October election,” Latin America analyst Brian Winter, editor-in-chief of US publication Americas Quarterly, told the Washington Post. US tariffs have further drawn Washington into the campaign since Trump imposed new duties on Brazilian goods in July. Flávio Bolsonaro, whose family has close ties to US President Donald Trump, lobbied Washington to postpone them until after the election, arguing the timing could benefit his rival. Lula’s approval rose to its highest level last year after an earlier Trump tariff hike raised duties on Brazilian goods to 50 percent and sanctioned de Moraes at the urging of another Bolsonaro son, Eduardo, a former lawmaker convicted of coercion and sentenced to four years in prison who was granted asylum in the US last year. “What is certain is that the issue of sovereignty and tariffs will be in the campaign,” Cila Schulman, CEO of Brazilian pollster Ideia, told Brazilian business publication Exame. “Foreign policy is (usually) never an issue in Brazilian elections. This time, we will see the relationship with the United States in the debate through the economy.” Lula has increasingly presented US pressure as a challenge to Brazilian sovereignty, while Flávio Bolsonaro’s ties to Trump have become part of broader public concern about foreign involvement, New York University political scientist Patricio Navia told Al Jazeera: “Even right-wing Brazilians, when they see President Trump trying to meddle with Brazilian elections, are not very pleased, because they think that Brazilian problems should be solved in Brazil, not in Washington, DC.”

Hidden Paths In Peru

Hidden Paths Polish and Peruvian archaeologists recently discovered more than 1.5 miles of previously unknown roads beneath the dense forests surrounding Machu Picchu, providing new clues as to how people may have moved through the mountainous landscape around the famous Inca citadel. The archaeological team uncovered the pre-Hispanic routes on the slopes of Mount Yanantin, at altitudes of around 6,500 to 8,860 feet, an area thick with tropical vegetation that has made conventional archaeological surveys difficult. The findings follow preliminary reconnaissance carried out in July 2023 around the Mandor wall, east of Machu Picchu, within the Machu Picchu National Archaeological Park. To see through the dense canopy, researchers turned to Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). The technology fires laser pulses from a drone toward the ground, allowing scientists to digitally strip away vegetation and build a detailed 3D model of the terrain underneath. The scans exposed narrow, zigzagging paths hidden by the cloud forest, alongside possible agricultural terraces, platforms and circular structures. The longest clearly identified stretch of road runs for at least 0.7 miles and displays features associated with Inca construction techniques, according to Heritage Daily. Although archaeologists have not yet conclusively determined the age of the roads, the discovery could reshape researchers' understanding of the wider landscape surrounding Machu Picchu. More than 60 archaeological sites around the citadel are already linked by roads, but most known sites are located on the same side of the Urubamba River. The newly detected routes suggest substantial activity also took place across the river. “The roads we have discovered alter this picture – it turns out that the other side of the river also underwent significant cultural transformations during the Inca period,” Mariusz Ziółkowski, director of the Center for Andean Studies at the University of Warsaw, said in a statement. Machu Picchu – built high in the Peruvian Andes and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site – has undergone more than a century of archaeological investigation. Yet its surrounding forests continue to conceal evidence of a much broader network of human activity. Ziółkowski and his colleagues are planning additional LiDAR surveys and possible excavations to determine when the roads were built and whether they formed part of the wider Inca Road system. “This discovery complements and significantly revises hypotheses regarding the functioning of the entire complex,” he said.