La recta final de la campaña electoral quedó enrarecida por una fuerte polémica alimentada por fake news y fallos judiciales cruzados que impactan en el estratégico voto religioso e involucra nada menos que a la Virgen de Aparecida, patrona de Brasil.

A cuatro días de las elecciones presidenciales de este domingo, una “broma” de un humorista brasileño que se viralizó en redes y sitios vinculados con el oficialismo provocó un terremoto político y obligó a un posicionamiento de la justicia y hasta de la Conferencia Episcopal.

El chiste fue hecho por el comediante Antonio Tabet: “La familia miliciana (en alusión a los paramilitares) odia tanto a las mujeres negras que ataca a la Virgen de Aparecida”, cuyo característico rostro mestizo la ha convertido a lo largo de los años en el mayor símbolo de los sectores marginados y de la población afrodescendiente del país.

El comentario fue asociado enseguida con Flávio Bolsonaro (derecha dura), el principal rival del presidente Luiz Lula da Silva (izquierda) y desató lo que la influyente revista Veja calificó como “una guerra de guerrillas” a pocos días de los comicios.

El voto religioso, con un crecimiento exponencial de las iglesias evangélicas más cercanas al bolsonarismo, está muy enraizado en la política brasileña.

“En el caso de esta elección, el lenguaje religioso otra vez domina el debate y el lenguaje político. Aquí no estamos hablando solo de la disputa por el voto religioso. La forma del debate político pasó a ser hecha a partir del lenguaje religioso. Eso es lo que vemos en esta disputa”, dijo a TN el antropólogo social Rodrigo Toniol, profesor del Departamento de Antropología Cultural de la Universidad Federal de Río de Janeiro y miembro de la Academia Brasileña de Ciencias.

Por qué la Virgen de Aparecida irrumpió en la campaña

El chiste de Tabet se convirtió en una bola de nieve que arrasó con todo lo que se topó en frente.

Desde sitios afines a la izquierda sirvió de excusa para agitar el fantasma de un falso respaldo bolsonarista a un proyecto para que la Virgen de Aparecida deje de ser la patrona de Brasil. El candidato e hijo de Jair Bolsonaro se vio obligado a desmentir la versión.

Lo que sucedió después escapó de las manos de ambas campañas.

Flávio Bolsonaro, un ferviente evangélico, culpó a la Conferencia Episcopal de incentivar la versión. La respuesta fue contundente: “La mentira no se combate con otra mentira”.

Bolsonaro

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito recused himself from a closely watched case over climate change liability less than a week before oral arguments were scheduled to begin.

Scott Harris, the clerk of the Supreme Court, informed the parties’ lawyers in a letter Monday that Alito had recused himself from Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County without providing an explanation.

«Justice Alito does not take his duty to sit lightly. We do not know why he recused himself, as the reason has not been made public, but I do not expect his recusal to ultimately change the outcome of Suncor v. Boulder,» Carrie Severino, president of JCN, told Digital.

LAWSUITS COST EVERY AMERICAN HOUSEHOLD THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS. SUPREME COURT CAN HELP

The justices were scheduled to kick off the 2026-27 term by hearing oral arguments in Suncor v. Boulder on Monday. The case centers on whether Boulder, Colorado, can use its state-law tort claims to sue oil and gas companies over their alleged role in contributing to climate change.

The case has drawn scrutiny from Republicans, who argue Colorado officials are weaponizing the court system to get their environmental agenda enacted.

«What they’re doing is they’re going around to these cities and these states, and using tort litigation, mass tort litigation, public nuisance lawsuits in state courts, and in a coordinated way to effectuate the same kind of a result, but just without having to go through their democratically elected officials,» Steve Cox, former Alaska attorney general and current counsel to Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy , said in a Tuesday conference call.

«It’s not a fight about climate change,» O.H. Skinner, former Arizona solicitor general and executive director of the Alliance for Consumers, said during a Tuesday conference call. «It’s not a fight about climate science.»

«It’s a fight about whether we’re going to allow this maneuver to be what reshapes American society, and that’s why I think everybody should care, irrespective of their views on climate change or their views on how to fix this problem or that problem. Do you want courts as our primary policymakers?»

Skinner acknowledged that Alito did not come to his decision lightly, but said its «never good for the court» when a justice is missing from a ruling.

CONSERVATIVE GROUPS SAY JUSTICE KAGAN CANNOT BE IMPARTIAL IN UPCOMING SUPREME COURT CLIMATE LITIGATION

«This is part of why the left constantly screaming at the justices about recusal and other things is counterproductive for the country,» Skinner said. «It doesn’t help the court when they don’t have their full complement.»

«At the same time, he made that decision knowing all of that and based on his own personal considerations, and we will never know all of the details of that. At the end of the day, it does not help the court to not have their full complement, but it is also not something that we think will be dispositive of the case, and it’s not something that we think is noteworthy, other than that he made that decision based on his own considerations and didn’t do it lightly, and he is making the right choice in his mind,» Skinner continued.

Alito’s last-minute decision to recuse himself from the high-stakes climate case follows his January recusal in Chevron USA Inc. v. Plaquemines Parish, a Louisiana coastal erosion dispute, because he owned stock in ConocoPhillips, the parent company of one of the parties in the related litigation, Burlington Resources Oil and Gas Company.

SUPREME COURT FINANCIAL DISCLOSURES REVEAL CONCERT TICKETS FROM BAD BUNNY’S LABEL, MILLIONS IN BOOK PAYMENTS

Meanwhile, Justice Elena Kagan has faced calls to recuse herself from Suncor v. Boulder because she wrote the foreword to the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, which included a climate science chapter that was later criticized by Congress and Republican attorneys general as biased and was eventually removed.

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In July, more than a dozen legal groups, in a letter spearheaded by Severino, urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to open an investigation.

«Justice Kagan’s endorsement of the partisan and now-removed climate science chapter of the judges’ reference manual continues to raise questions about her ability to impartially decide the case. I hope she is taking her own ethical obligation seriously.»

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FIRST ON FOX: House GOP lawmakers are rolling out a slew of new bills after a bombshell report found that hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars are potentially being targeted by fraudsters every year.

As people across the U.S. are battling high costs that make it hard to make ends meet, a report released Tuesday by the House Energy & Commerce Committee warns that federally subsidized healthcare programs are rife with fraud and abuse — «impacting every single American, in one way or another.»

While no estimate for Medicare and Medicaid fraud exists specifically, the report noted, a 2024 estimate by the Government Accountability Office said $233 billion to $521 billion taxpayer dollars going to federal programs are lost to fraud every year. Federal healthcare programs accounted for 24% of federal spending in 2024, according to the Center on Budget Policy and Priorities.

Medicaid specifically is rife with vulnerabilities making it susceptible to fraud, the report said, which is why House Republicans are rolling out 14 bills aimed at closing loopholes in the system, shrinking bureaucracy, and making it easier for states to recoup lost dollars while also incentivizing them to go after potential fraudsters.

«Taxpayers that fund benefit programs with federal and state taxpayer dollars are cheated by fraud, inflating healthcare costs that are passed along to everyone,» the committee’s report states. «Every dollar stolen from federal health care programs is a dollar that is not spent on high quality healthcare for those that need it most.»

WHITE HOUSE PUSHES ‘WATERSHED’ FRAUD-FIGHTING REFORM IN CONGRESS AS VANCE CONVENES TASK FORCE

«The amount of fraud that the Biden-Harris Administration allowed to go unchecked in government health programs is unacceptable. Every dollar stolen by fraudsters or wasted on improper payments is a dollar that cannot be used to support families in need who rely on these programs,» House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., told Digital.

REPUBLICANS DECLARE WAR ON ‘ORGANIZED THEFT’ WITH GOVERNMENT FRAUD CRACKDOWN

Republicans’ new bills can be lumped into three categories: legislation aimed at improving identification of fraud in state and federal health programs, legislation aimed at enforcing anti-fraud rules, and legislation to hold states that allow fraud to run rampant accountable.

One bill led by Republican Study Committee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, for example, would force states to designate a single role for internal financial controls of state Medicaid programs.

READ: DR. OZ PUTS ALL 50 GOVERNORS ON NOTICE OVER BILLIONS LOST TO MEDICAID FRAUD

A bill by Rep. Mike Rulli, R-Ohio, would force each state to annually report to the federal government on any potential Medicaid fraud vulnerabilities and their plan to fix it.

And legislation by Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., would require states to check whether someone enrolling for Medicaid was removed from another taxpayer-funded healthcare program.

The report released on Tuesday said that Medicaid spending accounts for an average 30.7% of states’ budgets, and that those outlays have increased exponentially in recent years.

States like New York and California are also projected to see costs spike, the report said.

TOP FEDERAL PROSECUTOR CALLS CALIFORNIA A ‘FRAUDSTER’S PARADISE,’ WARNS STATE OFFICIALS COULD FACE CHARGES

The Golden State is expected to see annual Medi-Cal spending, its state healthcare program, rise from $83 billion per year in 2014 to $219.7 billion by 2027, the report said, adding, «New York is projected to spend 11% more on Medicaid from all funding sources in 2027 — a total of $124 billion.»

The report noted that federal healthcare is ripe for fraud given its size and complexity, as well as the traditional enforcement model of «pay and chase,» which relies on law enforcement to investigate fraud suspicions after a false claim has already been settled.

Provider fraud is also a common area of losing tax dollars, with healthcare providers being known to submit multiple claims for a single service or bill services and equipment for patients that they have never seen at all, the report said.

Transnational criminal groups have also profited from U.S. healthcare fraud, the report said, alleging that hardworking Americans are seeing their tax dollars not only lost to fraud at home but overseas as well.

TRUMP ADMIN’S FRAUD CRACKDOWN TARGETS FOREIGNERS ACCUSED OF INFILTRATING US FEDERAL PROGRAMS

The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) «Operation Gold Rush» uncovered that Russian organized crime actors billed over $10 million in false claims made via 30 medical supply companies they purchased in a years-long scheme, the report said.

It highlighted further foreign healthcare schemes that saw malign actors in Hong Kong, Georgia, Estonia, Pakistan and elsewhere attempt to steal billions more in U.S. taxpayer dollars.

The fraud reports come at a time when millions of Americans across the country are struggling with high living costs that have made it a challenge to make ends meet.

Guthrie said the House GOP legislative package amounted to «commonsense steps» to ensure states can recoup lost fraud dollars and incentivize them to close loopholes in the future.

It comes as the Trump administration is also prioritizing healthcare fraud crackdowns. Vice President JD Vance announced last week that 760,000 enrollees under the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, would be removed over fraud claims.

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