On Monday, the Brazilian Supreme Court allowed right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the leader in the presidential race, to visit his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is under house arrest after his ban expired.
Flavio is considered the most likely to win in the run-off scheduled for October 25 against current President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, after he received 47 percent of the votes in the first round, compared to 45 percent for Lula.
The court's decision was conditional on the senator not including his father in the election campaign, knowing that he was prevented from visiting him in July after he read a message from him on the YouTube platform, despite the ban on Jair Bolsonaro's use of social media, whether directly or through a third party.
Judge Alexandre de Moraes considered at the time that Bolsonaro Sr. had violated the terms of the sentence imposed on him following his conviction for attempting a coup following his defeat to Lula in the 2022 elections.
The 90-day period of suspension of Flavio Bolsonaro's right to visitation expired on Sunday.
While the judge allowed the resumption of visits, he prohibited them from having a “political or electoral purpose,” according to the decision seen by Agence France-Presse.
Flavio Bolsonaro told reporters in Brasilia that he would visit his father on Tuesday morning. He added: “I am excited.” “It has been more than three months since I last saw him,” describing the ban as “lacks standards, humanity, and a legal basis.”
Jair Bolsonaro is seen as the leader of the far-right movement in Brazil. He chose his son as a presidential candidate in his place, after he was banned from political activity until 2030.
On Saturday, the election campaign of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva accused the “Meta” group of interfering in the elections, after blocking its content on its platforms.
The leftist president is seeking to win a fourth, non-consecutive term in the runoff scheduled for October 25, during which he will face Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of the far-right former president, Jair Bolsonaro.
According to Agence France-Presse, Lula’s campaign reported in a statement that there were cases in which the platforms affiliated with Meta: Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram restricted the publication of his content.
The campaign claimed that, in recent days, Meta had “prevented President Lula’s personal profile from promoting posts on his Instagram Feed,” while a post issued by his official account had witnessed “a drop in the number of views, which affected the extent of its spread.”
She also mentioned that before the first round of voting, which took place last Sunday, in which Bolsonaro came in first place, the accounts of Lula and other left-wing leaders suddenly disappeared from the search feature on Instagram.
The statement added, "A series of technical problems... raise strong suspicions that Meta's practices constitute an attempt to interfere in the Brazilian electoral process on behalf of Flavio Bolsonaro."
Meta's office in Brazil denied the accusations, describing them as "incorrect... and not based on facts."
Meta told Agence France-Presse in an email: “Many of the technical problems mentioned were not limited to Brazil or specific accounts,” adding: “We adhere to the electoral rules, and are keen to provide equal opportunities regarding the use of our platforms.”
A strong earthquake struck Panama on Friday, with the US Geological Survey estimating its magnitude at 7.6 on the Richter scale, sparking a state of panic in the capital, coinciding with the issuance of a warning of the danger of a tsunami.
The earthquake's magnitude was initially estimated at 8 magnitude, before the estimate was revised.
The US Geological Survey said that the earthquake was detected at 17:56 GMT, and that its epicenter was located ten kilometers from the small town of Petalosa Arriba in central and southern Panama, according to what was reported by Agence France-Presse.
The Panama Canal Authority reported that the waterway is operating normally.
The earthquake prompted the American tsunami warning system to warn of the possibility of dangerous tsunami waves reaching parts of the coasts of Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico during the next three hours.
The system also said that there was a potential threat of a tsunami in Hawaii, according to Reuters.
