INTERNACIONAL
Brazil becomes next test for Latin America’s surging conservative movement
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Brazil’s estimated 158 million voters could advance Latin America’s conservative wave in Sunday’s election as the continent’s most populous nation could elect conservative Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro as its next president.
The first round election three weeks ago saw a strong performance by Bolsonaro, proving the polls wrong. While incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Lula) had been predicted to take the first round by single digits, Bolsonaro ended up winning 47% to Lula’s 45%. As neither candidate won a majority, the election went to a second round.
Brazil’s election follows a long string of victories for the Latin American right across Central and South America that started with the election of Libertarian outsider Javier Milei in Argentina in 2023.
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, left, and Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, right, face off in a presidential election runoff. (Getty Images)
BOLSONARO WINS FIRST ROUND OF BRAZILIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, AS TRUMP-BACKED CANDIDATES CONTINUE RED WAVE
2025 saw a right-wing sweep across the region, as Ecuador, Bolivia, Honduras and Chile all voted for conservative heads of state.
In 2026, Keiko Fujimori narrowly defeated a left-wing candidate to win the Peruvian presidency, while most recently, in Colombia, conservative attorney Abelardo de la Espriella bested left-wing Senator Ivan Cepeda.
Bolsonaro’s slate of congressional candidates also fared well, ensuring that Brazil will have one of the most conservative congresses in years, and a legislative branch aligned with Bolsonaro’s goals, or ready to thwart Lula’s agenda.
The two candidates met Friday night for the final debate in Rio de Janeiro, which featured a series of questions organized around Brazil’s five geographic regions. While the debate featured some heated personal exchanges, it appears unlikely to have moved the needle in either direction heading into a close race.
Colombian President Abelardo De la Espriella holds a press conference with the mayor of Bogota and newly appointed city manager Clara Lucia Sandoval in Bogota, on Aug. 25, 2026. (Sebastian Barros/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
TRUMP’S WAR ON DRUG CARTELS COULD GAIN POWERFUL NEW ALLY AFTER PIVOTAL ELECTION
President Donald Trump has heralded these electoral results as vindication for his hardline approach to security, crime, and migration policies, as well as a stamp of approval for the new Shield of the Americas initiative.
The Trump administration counts on considerably more close allies now than it did at the beginning of Trump’s second term.
Yet, the question remains: why is the region resoundingly rejecting the left and progressivism?
Argentina’s President Javier Milei arrives for the inauguration of Colombia’s President Abelardo de la Espriella in Cali, Colombia, Friday, Aug. 7, 2026. (Matias Delacroix/AP Photo)
Many of the elections have been won by narrow margins, with Brazil being a case in point: Lula bested Jair Bolsonaro in 2022 by just 1.8%. While many Latin American nations remain deeply polarized, there is no denying a right-wing resurgence.
Commentators appear to be expressing a rejection of progressive movements amid growing concerns over safety and security, giving approval to proposals to dramatically ramp up police and military presence to combat crime and drug trafficking.
Meanwhile, leftist parties seem unable to capitalize on recurring concerns over inflation and kitchen table economics, which have played into the hands of the Latin American right, as working class and middle class voters have felt the pinch of rising food, housing and energy costs.
In addition to social and economic concerns, the specter of Jair Bolsonaro also looms over the election. Flavio Bolsonaro has pledged to free his father, who is currently serving a 27-year sentence on house arrest for allegedly plotting a coup in the wake of the 2022 election.
Lula was also sentenced to a 12-year prison sentence on corruption charges stemming from the infamous Operation Car Wash, until he was freed on a technicality by the Brazilian Supreme Court, and rose from the ashes to win the 2022 presidential election.
Brazil’s right-wing senator and presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party (PL) gestures next to federal deputy and candidate for governor of Rio de Janeiro, Douglas Ruas (L) during a campaign rally on the eve of the general election, in Campo Grande neighborhood, in the western zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on October 3, 2026. Brazilians go to the polls on Oct.r 4, 2026 (Douglas SHINEIDR / AFP via Getty Images)
BRAZIL’S RAPID ELECTION COUNT PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON VOTING SECURITY AHEAD OF US MIDTERMS
Bolsonaro has narrowly led in recent polls, and enters the second round with some structural advantages. Most importantly, he enjoys the backing of three of the four other major candidates in the race, who failed to advance to the second round.
Self-help author Augusto Cury, former Goias Governor Ronaldo Caiado, and former Minas Gerais Governor Romeu Zema all officially backed Bolsonaro in the second round.
Entrepreneur Renan Santos, candidate for the Mission Party, declined to endorse either candidate. However, as his political movement is characterized as free-market and libertarian, these voters are also more likely to trend to Bolsonaro.
Thus, Lula needs to win a significant majority of first round voters who backed right-wing or center-right candidates. It’s a daunting, but not impossible, proposition.
The entire election may hinge on voters who are voting against a candidate, as much as for a candidate.
Brazil’s President and presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (C) waves next to Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin (L) and to his candidate for Sao Paulo’s governor, Fernando Haddad during a campaign rally on the eve of the general election, in Sao Paulo, Brazil on October 3, 2026. Brazilians go to the polls on October 4, 2026, in a tight race led by leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and right-wing senator Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving house arrest. (Luis Robayo/AFP Via Getty Images)
Another question looming over the election: has Lula finally worn out his welcome with the Brazilian electorate?
This will be Lula’s seventh time in 40 years appearing on a presidential ballot: he lost elections in 1989, 1994, 1998, won in 2002, 2006, and 2022.
Lula famously promised to serve only one term when he ran to oust Jair Bolsonaro in 2022.
President Trump sent a letter to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro calling for an immediate end to the ‘unjust’ trial against him for allegedly starting a coup. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci and Evaristo Sa/AFP via Getty Images)
On October 25, 2022, just five days before the last second round presidential election, he posted on his official X account: «If elected, I will be a single-term president.»
It was a promise that he did not keep.
Various polls have shown that voters are not happy with the course of Lula’s third term, and even a sizable percentage of Lula backers in 2022 responded with pessimism on the prospect of an unprecedented fourth term.
However, a large percentage of the Brazilian electorate also consistently rejects the prospect of voting for another Bolsonaro for president.
Lula is unquestionably the dominant figure in Brazilian politics over the past half-century. But will his magnetism and charisma be enough to overcome the right-wing resurgence sweeping the continent?
world elections, brazil, south america, donald trump, jair bolsonaro
Three years ago today marked the end of one of the most chaotic periods in American political history.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., took control of the House of Representatives after a unanimous vote by his fellow Republicans, ending three weeks of paralysis in the federal government. His predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, had been ousted by GOP rebels in the first such rebellion against a sitting House speaker in U.S. history.
The Louisiana Republican, having served in Congress only since 2017, surprised his peers and the country with his rapid ascent to power. And since then, Johnson — who has been dubbed the «accidental speaker» by multiple parties — has made a name for himself as one of the most effective speakers the House has seen, given his razor-thin majority.
But the third anniversary of his speakership comes just over a week before an election that could see Johnson lose it all — despite his best efforts to defy history and keep the House GOP in power.
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«Over the last three years — in spite of the constant challenges governing with one of the smallest majorities in history — House Republicans have delivered landmark victories for the American people,» Johnson told Digital.
«We enacted the largest tax cuts for hardworking families in U.S. history, added 1 million private sector jobs, cut $1.6 trillion in wasteful spending, secured the border, reversed outrageous Biden-era regulations, achieved the lowest violent crime rate in 126 years and the largest decline in prescription drug prices in 60 years,» he said. «We created Trump accounts for every child and the first nationwide school choice program, voted to ban stock trading in Congress, passed landmark housing legislation, and so much more.»
JOHNSON TURNS DEMOCRATS’ SOCIALIST CIVIL WAR INTO NEW WEAPON FOR MIDTERMS
He’s done much of that with a majority fluctuating between one and four seats, a remarkably tight margin during a tenure that Newt Gingrich called «the most challenging speakership since the Civil War.»
Johnson also touted breaking fundraising records and his work «endlessly» traveling the country campaigning for other GOP candidates.
MIKE JOHNSON TAUNTS HAKEEM JEFFRIES FOR LOSING DEMS’ CIVIL WAR ‘IN HIS OWN BACKYARD’
«I remain grateful every day to my colleagues for their continued confidence as we fight together to protect our House majority. Serving as their 56th Speaker of the House is the honor of my life,» he said.
In his three years, Johnson has already become one of the GOP’s most prolific fundraisers in history. He’s raised $526 million for Republicans during this election cycle alone.
The month before Election Day, Johnson campaigned in more than 40 districts across 22 states, and of his 55 endorsed candidates, 97% won their respective primaries.
But the million-dollar question is: Is it enough come Nov. 3?
House Republicans are facing significant headwinds in their quest to keep the majority. Political convention dictates that the president’s party traditionally loses control of Congress during the midterms, and President Donald Trump’s low approval numbers are expected to complicate matters for Republicans in tight races across the country.
Johnson, for his part, has remained optimistic but has tried not to give any hints about what he would do if the GOP lost.
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: CONGRESS BRACES FOR POST-ELECTION GAME OF MUSICAL CHAIRS AS LEADERSHIP BATTLES LOOM
«Heaven forbid, if we lose this majority or whatever, I don’t know what my next chapter of life is,» Johnson told Fox News’ Aishah Hasnie this month. «If God moves on our hearts and says we should, you know, go back to my hometown of Shreveport and start a lawn business, I’ll do that with equal fervor.»
Days later he told CBS News, «I don’t think it’s going to happen, so I don’t spend any time thinking about it … But in the unlikely scenario where we lost the majority, I would expect my colleagues would ask me to continue leading this conference, even if we have divided government.»
Whether Johnson’s fellow House Republicans even want him to stay will come down to how well Republicans do, and if they lose, how bad that loss will be.
Multiple GOP lawmakers who spoke with Digital earlier this month said they anticipated Johnson would step aside if Republicans lost the House.
If they win, however, Johnson is all but assured of keeping his job — and with Trump’s blessing.
«Speaker Mike Johnson is an example of the American Dream. As Speaker, he’s continued to defy the odds with a slim House majority and pass America First bills,» Trump’s campaign posted on X. «After Republicans win in November, they should re-elect Mike as Speaker quickly!»
politics, mike johnson, house of representatives, midterm elections, congress
La arquitectura romana fuera de Italia permite seguir la expansión imperial a través de edificios públicos, infraestructuras y templos que adquirieron formas locales. Seis países conservan ejemplos que muestran esa adaptación.
La selección difundida por Architectural Digest reúne monumentos de un arco geográfico amplio. Esta guía contrasta cada caso con fuentes patrimoniales especializadas.
1. Grecia conserva una estación meteorológica y reloj de la Antigüedad
En la Ágora romana de Atenas, la Torre de los Vientos es una estructura octogonal de mármol pentélico, construida en la primera mitad del siglo I a. C. por el astrónomo Andrónico de Cirro.
Sus relojes solares exteriores y su reloj hidráulico interior permitían medir el tiempo; los relieves de sus ocho caras representaban los vientos.
El conjunto urbano también expresa la intervención romana en la ciudad griega. La Ágora fue levantada entre 19 y 11 a. C. con financiación de Julio César y Augusto. Funcionó como centro comercial y administrativo, indica la ficha de la Ágora romana de Visit Greece.
2. Armenia preserva en Garni un templo de forma grecorromana
El Templo de Garni, de basalto gris y 24 columnas, se sitúa dentro de una fortaleza que incluyó residencia, iglesia y baños. El museo-reserva del sitio lo fecha en el año 77 y lo asocia con el rey Tiridates I. Sus termas conservaron un mosaico elaborado con piedras naturales de 15 colores, de acuerdo con el Museo-Reserva Histórico y Cultural de Garni.
La función original del edificio sigue en discusión. El Armenian Studies Program de Fresno State señala que hay debate entre su identificación como templo o residencia estival, aunque su diseño responde al modelo de un templo grecorromano. Las termas cercanas siguen la disposición romana de salas frías, templadas y calientes.
3. Turquía reúne una biblioteca urbana y la ingeniería de Aspendos
En Éfeso, la Biblioteca de Celso fue dedicada en 110 d. C. y forma parte de un tejido de edificios públicos que incluye teatro, ágora, baños y gimnasios. Britannica la ubica entre los monumentos romanos que permanecen visibles cerca de la actual Selçuk.
Más al sur, el acueducto de Aspendos llevaba agua desde fuentes situadas a unos 19 kilómetros. La documentación de Unesco registra sifones de cerca de 30 metros de altura y atribuye el teatro, construido entre 160 y 180 d. C., al arquitecto Zenón, hijo de Teodoro.
4. España mantiene la huella de una capital provincial romana
Mérida fue fundada como Augusta Emerita en 25 a. C. y se convirtió en capital de Lusitania. Su conjunto arqueológico integra teatro, anfiteatro, circo, puentes y redes de abastecimiento de agua. La ciudad contemporánea se levantó sobre la antigua colonia, pero numerosos vestigios siguen integrados en su trazado.
El anfiteatro fue inaugurado en 8 a. C. y tenía capacidad para unos 15.000 espectadores. El teatro, fechado en 16 o 15 a. C. por una inscripción dedicada a Marco Agripa, podía albergar cerca de 5.500 personas.
5. Siria muestra en Palmira urbanismo romano con elementos locales
Palmira articuló su espacio público alrededor de una gran calle porticada de 1.100 metros. La vía conectaba templos, ágora, teatro y barrios urbanos, en una ciudad que fue relevante para las rutas entre Persia, India, China y el Imperio romano, explica Unesco.
Entre los siglos I y II, sus constructores combinaron técnicas grecorromanas con tradiciones locales e influencias persas. Ese cruce también definió la decoración arquitectónica y funeraria del yacimiento, inscrito como Patrimonio Mundial en 1980.
6. Egipto incorporó aportes romanos a santuarios de larga duración
En Filé, el Kiosco de Trajano se vincula al templo de Isis y conserva escenas del emperador realizando ofrendas a Isis, Osiris y Horus. El Ministerio de Turismo y Antigüedades de Egipto indica que los edificios del complejo son principalmente ptolemaicos y romanos, y que el santuario de Isis continuó activo hasta el reinado de Justiniano I, en el siglo VI.
El conjunto fue trasladado a la isla de Agilkia durante la campaña de rescate de Nubia de Unesco en la década de 1960. En Dendera, el templo de Hathor, cuya obra comenzó en 54 a. C., recibió inscripciones de emperadores romanos. Tiberio completó el edificio 185 años después, según Unesco.
Templo de Diana,Mérida,Extremadura,España,arquitectura romana
INTERNACIONAL
Histórico balotaje: Brasil decide entre Lula o Flávio Bolsonaro en unas elecciones de enorme impacto regional
Brasil decide este domingo entre la continuidad de la izquierda o un giro brusco a la derecha en unas elecciones de alto impacto en la región.
Más de 158 millones de brasileños están habilitados para votar este domingo entre dos extremos ideológicos opuestos: por un lado, el actual presidente progresista que busca la reelección, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, y por el otro el senador ultraderechista y gran favorito Flávio Bolsonaro, primogénito del exmandatario Jair Bolsonaro.
Quien gane gobernará el país por los próximos cuatro años.
En la primera vuelta, celebrada el 4 de octubre, Bolsonaro venció en forma sorpresiva con dos puntos de ventaja sobre Lula (47% a 45%), cuando todos los sondeos vaticinaban un triunfo del líder histórico del Partido de los Trabajadores (PT).
Ahora las previsiones cambiaron. El postulante del derechista Partido Liberal (PL) es el favorito, aunque en las últimas dos semanas el mandatario redujo la ventaja de su rival. Varias encuestas sostienen que el senador derechista tiene un margen a su favor de entre dos a cuatro puntos.
“Flávio tiene un poco de ventaja”, aseguró a TN el analista brasileño Marco Teixeira, de la Fundación Getúlio Vargas.
Además de elegir presidente, habrá balotaje en siete estados que no lograron elegir gobernador en primera vuelta, entre ellos en Río de Janeiro y Brasilia.
El mapa regional
A los 80 años, Lula resiste como último bastión de la izquierda sudamericana, más allá del gobierno de Yamandú Orsi, en Uruguay, que presenta un perfil más moderado y sin el peso político y económico de su vecino.
Un triunfo de Bolsonaro, de 45, no solo jubilaría al histórico líder obrero brasileño. Además, teñiría de azul el mapa regional y tendría fuertes repercusiones políticas en Buenos Aires, donde Javier Milei hizo campaña a favor del postulante opositor y lanzó acusaciones y descalificaciones contra el presidente de izquierda.
La derecha dura o centroderecha gobierna hoy no solo en la Argentina. También en Chile (José Antonio Kast), Bolivia (Rodrigo Paz), Paraguay (Santiago Peña), Perú (Keiko Fujimori), Ecuador (Daniel Noboa) y Colombia (Abelardo De la Espriella).
La salida de Lula significaría además el alineamiento inmediato de Brasil con el presidente estadounidense Donald Trump y la incorporación del país al Escudo de las Américas, el plan lanzado por la Casa Blanca para coordinar la lucha contra el narcotráfico y el crimen organizado en la región.
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