News · International
Lula wins Brazil's runoff and Díaz-Canel congratulates him: 'Brazil can count on Cuba'
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeated Flávio Bolsonaro on Sunday, October 25, with 51.78% of the vote, according to the Superior Electoral Court as cited by CiberCuba. Díaz-Canel congratulated him on X for a 'historic victory'; the bilateral relationship carries an unpaid debt of 676 million dollars.
Lula won the October 25 runoff with 51.78% of valid votes against 48.22% for Flávio Bolsonaro, according to the Superior Electoral Court with 99.99% of ballots counted, in figures reported by CiberCuba. It is his fourth term and it will begin in January 2027.
The count was tight: Cuban state media, with 99.81% of polling sections totalled, gave Lula 64,108,864 votes and Bolsonaro 59,745,429. In the first round, on October 4, Bolsonaro had come out ahead with 47.06% against Lula's 45.13%.
Díaz-Canel posted a message on X on Sunday congratulating Lula 'on behalf of the Cuban government and people for this historic victory' and added: 'Brazil can count on Cuba in building the unity and integration of our Greater Homeland, Latin American and Caribbean.' The remarks were translated by Yamacoa.
Brazil has become an essential South American ally of the regime: in March it announced the shipment of some 20,800 tonnes of food through the World Food Programme, in May it donated medicines for close to 1,000 patients, and in July 48 tonnes of powdered milk reached Santiago de Cuba on Brazilian Air Force flights.
The congratulations leave out the tensions. Cuba owes Brazil 676 million dollars in credits for the Port of Mariel, unpaid since May 2018, and a law Lula signed in March bars new credit to countries in arrears. Nearly 17,000 Cubans applied for refuge in Brazil between January and May 2026 alone, about 3,400 a month.
Other governments in the region also welcomed the result: former Colombian president Gustavo Petro, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum and former Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. From Washington, Donald Trump said: 'I don't want to get into that, but we are watching.' Periódico Cubano places Brazil, along with Mexico, among the few allies Havana has left in the region.
Sources: CiberCuba · Periódico Cubano · Cubadebate · Periódico Cubano
Data updated: 2026-10-26T04:15:00.000Z