When Donald Trump declared that Brazil had just been subjected to "the Joe Biden playbook", he was talking about more than one election. He offered no evidence of irregularities in Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's re-election. Instead, he said Jair Bolsonaro had led heavily in the first round and was the clear favourite in the second, and he added that "communists don't give up power once they get it". Mr Trump has never accepted his own defeat in 2020, and the comparison seems designed to frame Brazil's result as a repeat of it.

The White House has not formally commented. The reaction in Latin America looked very different. Uruguay's Yamandú Orsi, a friend of Lula's, praised the "democratic celebration" of the vote, as might be expected. More striking were the congratulations from the right.

Chile's José Antonio Kast, an ally of the Bolsonaros, spoke of a shared future. Paraguay's Santiago Peña welcomed a "great democratic day", and Ecuador's Daniel Noboa and Panama's José Raúl Mulino also reached out. Mexico's Claudia Sheinbaum put it most simply: "the people of Brazil won." Two figures stood apart.

Senator Flávio Bolsonaro refuses to recognise the result and says he will seek to annul it.