By Lisandra Paraguassu
BRASILIA, July 25 (Reuters) – Brazil has denied visa requests for two Trump administration officials who planned to travel to the country to cast doubt on the integrity of its electoral system, two Brazilian officials with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Saturday.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, said the U.S. plan represented an attempt to shape Brazil’s October presidential election, in which leftist incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will face Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, a Trump ally.
Brazil denied the request for visas on Friday to the U.S. delegation, which would have included Assistant Secretary Riley M. Barnes from the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, and also Samuel Samson, a deputy assistant secretary, the Brazilian officials said.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. plan was first reported by the Washington Post and then confirmed by Reuters.
(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia, Jonathan Landay contributed reporting from Washington, editing by Manuela Andreoni and Gareth Jones)
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