US Technical Assistance and Diplomatic Pressure Around Brazil’s 2022 Election
Based in the Financial times Article- “The discreet US campaign to defend Brazil’s election,
By Hotspotnews
In May 2021 the TSE publicly launched a “Guia de Combate à Desinformação” prepared by the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS). CEPPS is a cooperative agreement supervised by USAID and includes the International Republican Institute, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems and the National Democratic Institute. The guide and related workshops were presented as tools to identify and counter false claims about the electronic voting system. In December 2021 then-TSE president Luís Roberto Barroso took part in a CEPPS/USAID event titled “Elections and Digital Transformation.”
These technical contacts occurred at the same time the Biden administration began a quieter, year-long diplomatic campaign documented by the Financial Times in June 2023. U.S. officials, including National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan during an August 2021 visit, privately warned Brazilian military and political figures that Washington would not accept any attempt to question the voting process. The State Department issued an unusually strong public endorsement of Brazil’s “time-tested electoral system.” Barroso later confirmed he had personally asked U.S. diplomats for such statements. The United States also helped ease semiconductor shortages needed to manufacture additional voting machines.
USAID’s published disbursement records for fiscal years 2022 and 2023 show tens of millions of dollars going to health, education and social projects in Brazil; they do not list direct grants to the TSE or to election-administration activities. The CEPPS work therefore operated through consortium partners rather than as a line-item transfer to the court itself.
The two tracks—technical definition of “disinformation” and high-level political pressure to lock in acceptance of the result—overlapped in timing, personnel and stated concern for “electoral integrity.” Brazilian law bars foreign donations to campaigns but contains no equivalent restriction on foreign technical or diplomatic engagement with the electoral court. That gap left the 2022 process open to the charge that external actors helped shape both the information environment and the political costs of contesting the outcome.
#Brazil2022 #TSE #USAID #CEPPS #ElectoralIntegrity #Disinformation #USBrazilRelations
Sources: TSE public announcement of the 2021 disinformation guide; CEPPS consortium description; Financial Times, “The discreet US campaign to defend Brazil’s election,” 21 June 2023; U.S. ForeignAssistance.gov disbursement data for Brazil, FY2022–2023.