The October election between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, running for a fourth term, and Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, running as a proxy for his father, who was convicted and imprisoned for organizing a coup, is not simply a contest between left and right. It is a contest over whether Brazil controls the terms on which the world accesses its resources or whether those terms are set by others. The outcome matters well beyond Brazil’s borders. It will shape critical mineral supply chains, climate governance, and the balance of power in the Americas for a generation.
For decades,…