00:00Continue with more. This Saturday, candidates across Brazil are holding their final rallies
00:06before tomorrow's national elections in Sao Paulo.
00:10Tens of thousands of people came out to see Lula.
00:14Our correspondent, Brian Meir, has more details.
00:18On October 3rd, the final campaign day before Brazil's 2026 presidential elections,
00:24tens of thousands of people came out to Augusta Avenue in Sao Paulo to see President Lula
00:29and allied candidates for governor, senator, federal and state congress.
00:34If the election is decided on October 4th, the event could go down in history as Lula da Silva's final
00:40campaign rally.
00:43I'm here because I really want to see Lula.
00:45I believe that he is a president who can make a difference, especially regarding technology here in Brazil.
00:50The big tech companies want our territory.
00:53They want to dominate our artificial intelligence and we don't have any other candidate talking about this.
00:59We have our rare earth minerals too and we have to support candidates who are worried about this.
01:07Today's rally came the day after the Trump administration closed the U.S. embassy and consulates in Brazil
01:13in a move that is being investigated by Brazil's intelligence agency, ABIN,
01:17and its federal police as a possible psychological operation to scare voters from voting for Lula
01:23or for going to the polls on Sunday.
01:24The morning of the rally, the Workers' Party formally requested the Superior Electoral Court
01:29to include the incident in its investigation of foreign interference in this year's elections.
01:36United States President Donald Trump thinks he can scare the Brazilian people by closing the U.S. embassy
01:42and this will cause Lula to lose the elections, but it's not going to work.
01:45Why not?
01:48Because Lula is going to win in the first round.
01:51This will be our response to the right-wing extremists who are trying to destroy our country.
01:56We aren't out here today to salute American imperialism.
01:59We are here to defend a nation that calls itself Brazil,
02:03a country that belongs to the Brazilian people,
02:05that has a president who is respected around the world named Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
02:10With Brazil's elections only one day off,
02:12both leading presidential candidates, Flavio Bolsonaro and Lula da Silva,
02:16are saying they believe they can muster the 50% plus one valid votes needed
02:21to win the election in the first round.
02:22Brian Muir, Telesur, São Paulo.
