00:14We go to Brazil as the second round of the presidential election approaches next Sunday
00:19October 25th. We are joined by our special envoy in Rio de Janeiro, Belen de los Santos,
00:25who will tell us more on how presidential candidates Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva and Flavio Bolsonaro
00:30will face off and face off in this new round of votes that will decide the country's future.
00:37Go ahead, Bel. We hear you.
00:41Hello, Ale. Exactly as you were saying, well, we are entering the final day.
00:45It's the beginning of the final week until this runoff of October 25th.
00:50It's going to take place next Sunday.
00:52So definitely everything that is happening right now matters to know.
00:57This is a very close race.
00:59Let's recall that in the first round, Flavio Bolsonaro ended up in the lead by about 2%.
01:06It's a little bit less.
01:08From there on the campaign on behalf of Lula da Silva for the leftist candidate,
01:15this leftist coalition that is going for its fourth mandate has been in the streets,
01:21in social networks, the campaign really has been at its highest really on both sides.
01:27We have seen a day of mass immobilization yesterday.
01:30For example, Bolsonaro isn't concentrated in Sao Paulo,
01:34and also the campaign for Lula da Silva had over or close to 500 different acts across the country,
01:43with the main one being, for example, in Rio de Janeiro.
01:47We were there in Copacabana.
01:49It was truly an important act.
01:51We've seen a lot of public relations, a lot of people on the streets,
01:55and also a lot of discussion in social networks.
01:58It's also yesterday was the presidential debate.
02:02So definitely these days are going to be about how that debate impacted in general political discourse,
02:09because everything is tipping the scale one way or the other.
02:13For example, main topics for security and how both candidates are tackling or supposed to tackle this issue.
02:22Bolsonaro is talking about doing a war on drugs.
02:25It has been a huge topic on the campaign analyst and also from the left are signaling,
02:31for example, not only that that is just aligning itself with the way that the U.S. is criminalizing
02:38and trying to tackle a very important concern of security with something that could lead into military intervention
02:45and have led in other parts of this region, but also the direct link between Bolsonaroism in general
02:53and Bolsonaro in particular with some sectors, for example, of the militias.
02:59Lula da Silva, for his part, also said, as it has been doing, doing different things,
03:03that this is a crucial topic, but it needs to have its major objective and it will continue to be
03:09so,
03:10but it needs to be with the focus of coordinating every agency so that all of them can really tackle
03:17the problem that is the different, for example, drug trafficking groups.
03:22So that has been one of the most important topics of debate,
03:26and we are still seeing the reactions online, Ale.
03:30Firstly, in yesterday's presidential debate, Lula challenged Flavio regarding alleged links
03:37between the Bolsonaro family and criminal groups.
03:39I wanted to ask you, how significant are these accusations in Rio de Janeiro's political debate?
03:48Well, it is a particularly sensitive topic in Rio de Janeiro.
03:53First of all, you know that Rio de Janeiro is sort of like the birthplace of Bolsonaroism.
03:58It's where they grew their political structure.
04:01Also, Flavio Bolsonaro, up to this moment, is the senator of Rio de Janeiro.
04:06He was also a state legislative for a long time.
04:10And just as his father of power, he himself, Flavio Bolsonaro,
04:16has been accused of direct links with some of the actions that caused the insecurity issues
04:24in Rio de Janeiro, particularly the militias.
04:27Militias are the paramilitary powers that operate in favelas.
04:33And he has had direct links, not only to some of the leaders,
04:38but, for example, he incorporated in his time when he was in the state legislature
04:44to be part of his work team, for example,
04:47but also with some of the police crimes, for example, the assassination of Marielle Franco.
04:54He has been directly linked to the cover-up strategy that followed that assassination
05:01of a key activist, feminist, black woman who had marked the politics of Rio de Janeiro,
05:08and particularly from the world's class.
05:11And Flavio Bolsonaro, in this case, has been accused of being directly linked
05:15to the cover-up of that assassination that was at the hands of these officers linked to the militias.
05:22So, as you can see, it is a very sensitive topic
05:26and directly linked to what happens in the territory in Rio de Janeiro.
05:30So, we will need, of course, to see what happens and how much this topic really impacts the election
05:38that is coming, that will define everything here and in the region of Rio de Janeiro.
05:43Thank you very much, Bel, for all of your information.
05:46We will keep in contact throughout the week ahead of the run of elections there in Brazil.
