A supporter of Brazil’s president used a knife and an axe to kill a backer of the main opposition leader after an argument about politics, weeks ahead of presidential elections, according to police.
Africa Daily News, New York reports that the killing occurred on Wednesday, the day of Brazil’s independence bicentennial, near the town of Confresa, Mato Grosso state, in Brazil’s central-west region, a stronghold of President Jair Bolsonaro.
The 24-year-old suspect, who was not identified, killed Benedito Cardoso dos Santos, a 42-year-old farm worker who supports presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, police said. Da Silva, a former president, is the main challenger to Bolsonaro ahead of a first round of voting on Oct. 2.
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The two men in Mato Grosso worked together and got into a fight over the candidates they supported, according to the suspect’s account. He alleged that dos Santos attacked him first and tried to stab him.
In July, a Bolsonaro supporter allegedly shot and killed a local official of da Silva’s political party in the city of Foz do Iguaçu.
Former Brazillian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has come out to blast the Brazillian president, Jair Bolsonaro for being a ‘cheap copy’ of his former United States counterpart Donald Trump for his constant criticism of Brazil’s election and electoral system.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the leftist who had been the President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010 had openly accused the far-right incumbent of taking a page from controversial Donald Trump’s script and attacking the South American giant’s electronic voting system.
It has been reported that Bolsonaro is fond of critisising with scant evidence that the Brazillian electoral system is plagued by fraud while he had also raised fears that he would be rejecting the outcome of Brazil’s October election if he loses.
