Last Updated on October 31, 2022
Brazilian truckers supporting current President Jair Bolsonaro have blocked highways and roads in at least 12 states, Reuters reported. Bolsonaro was narrowly defeated by leftist challenger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the second round of Brazil’s presidential election on October 28. Continued protests or other disruptions in Brazil, a major food exporter, could further strain the world’s food supply and pricing, which has already had to cope with the war in Ukraine.
Bolsonaro has yet to concede after coming up short in Sunday’s election against left former president Lula da Silva. The Brazilian president and his allies have claimed the election has been marred by fraud.
Earlier this week, Bolsonaro’s communications minister, Fábio Faria, claimed that more than 154,000 ads for the president had not been broadcast after being submitted to radio companies this month. Faria accused the media of “a grave violation of the electoral system.”
Chief Electoral Justice Alexandre de Moraes rejected the Bolsonaro campaign’s request that the radio stations in question be investigated and “called instead for an investigation into whether the ‘unsubstantiated’ claims were designed to ‘disrupt’ the election,” the Guardian reported.
Bolsonaro is expected to address the matter soon, though it is unclear whether he will concede.
As tensions run high, the president’s supporters have called for massive protests, including trucker blockades similar to those seen in Canada and the Netherlands. Brazil’s Federal Highway Police (PRF) said on Monday that truckers have partially or fully blocked roads in 12 states, up from the six states an independent truckers group had estimated earlier on Monday, Reuters reported.
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Normando Corral, president of farm group Famato, said roadblocks in the agricultural state of Mato Grosso could impact agricultural output if they persist. “It’s too soon to say if it’s going to interfere with the flow of production, because the blockades started yesterday,” Corral said. “I don’t know how long it will last.”
Rota do Oeste, a toll road operator that administers a 530-mile stretch of the BR 163 highway that cuts through the state, said there were blockages in the regions of Nova Mutum, Sorriso, Sinop and Lucas do Rio Verde as of 10:50 a.m. local time.
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