Lula Opens UN General Assembly With Broadside Against US Tariffs and Israel, Twelve Days Before Brazil Votes

Brazil traditionally delivers the first speech of the UN General Assembly each year, a custom dating to the earliest postwar sessions. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva used that slot on Tuesday, September 22, to deliver what amounted to a campaign speech aimed as much at Brazilian voters as at world leaders, according to Al Jazeera.

"Brazil doesn't fit in anyone's backyard," Lula said, according to Breitbart and Al Jazeera, who both quoted the line. He never named President Trump directly, but the target was obvious throughout a speech that hit US tariffs, military presence in Latin America, and pressure on the International Criminal Court.

A Campaign Speech in a UN Chamber

Lula is seeking a fourth, non-consecutive term in an election scheduled for October 4, according to ua.news and Al Jazeera. His opponent, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence under house arrest after being convicted of attempting to overturn the 2022 election, per ua.news.

The Trump administration has backed Flávio Bolsonaro publicly, according to The Conversation and ua.news. Washington imposed tariffs on Brazilian goods that Trump himself linked to the Bolsonaro prosecution, and added a second round of tariffs in July, according to ua.news and Al Jazeera. The administration also revoked visas and threatened sanctions tied to the case, per The Conversation.

Lula warned that Brazil "will not allow either domestic or foreign actors to undermine" the vote, as reported by Al Jazeera. "Brazilian democracy belongs to Brazilians," he said. "Brazil will remain a sovereign country."

In an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour that aired Monday, September 21, Lula went further, telling her flatly that "Trump doesn't have the right to govern other countries."

The Case for Calling It Interference, and the Case Against

Lula's sovereignty argument isn't just rhetoric with nothing behind it. Trump's own stated link between tariffs and Bolsonaro's trial, documented by ua.news, gives Lula's campaign a concrete grievance to point to, not a hypothetical one. Add the visa revocations and open US backing for his rival, both cited by The Conversation, and Lula has real, named US government actions to run against.

The Trump administration would argue its position rests on genuine concerns, not electoral meddling: that Bolsonaro's prosecution looked politically motivated to them, and that Brazil's recent tilt toward Beijing, including the joint Ukraine peace initiative Lula relaunched at the UN on Tuesday, per the South China Morning Post, raises legitimate US strategic concerns independent of any election.

Separately, the US recently designated Brazil's First Capital Command (PCC) and Red Command (CV) criminal organizations as foreign terrorist groups, according to ua.news. Lula rejected the designation, and ua.news reported that "some analysts and politicians" suggested it could be timed to paint Lula as soft on crime ahead of the vote. That is an allegation, not a proven fact, and no source here shows the designation was made for political reasons rather than the stated law-enforcement rationale.

Gaza, China, and the World Trade Organization

Lula devoted a substantial part of his address to the war in Gaza, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government of committing "genocide" against Palestinian women and children, according to Breitbart and brazilreports. He also condemned Hamas, saying Israeli civilians "paid the price for the radicalism and intolerance of Hamas' terrorist acts." He defended UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese and criticized what he called persecution of the International Criminal Court.

Lula called the World Trade Organization "on life support" and said the World Health Organization's weakening "makes us all more vulnerable," per Breitbart. He said climate change had vanished from G7 and G20 agendas.

He also renewed Brazil's backing for a China-brokered peace push on Ukraine, launched jointly with Beijing at the UN in September 2024 and now backed by 17 developing nations, according to the South China Morning Post. Notably, China received zero criticism anywhere in the speech, a contrast the SCMP flagged directly against the sharp language aimed at Washington.

What's Unresolved

Brazil has held off retaliating against US tariffs while trade talks continue, but Lula told CNN on Monday that Brazil could invoke its reciprocity law if negotiations collapse, according to Al Jazeera. Whether that happens likely hinges on the outcome of the October 4 election, now less than two weeks away, with Al Jazeera and The Conversation citing conflicting poll snapshots, one showing Lula with a small lead, another showing him tied with Flávio Bolsonaro.