Brazil's Tight Election Race Seen as Test for Region's Pro-Trump Right

Brazil heads into a closely contested presidential election on Sunday that is being viewed as a bellwether for a growing bloc of right-leaning governments across Latin America aligned with US President Donald Trump, according to the Guardian.

The race pits leftist incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva against a candidate who is the son of a former far-right president convicted of staging a coup, the report said.

Trump has taken a direct interest in the region's politics, according to the Guardian, saying after a September speech to the United Nations General Assembly that right-wing candidates he had endorsed had won all seven presidential elections held in Latin America since the start of his second term.

The US president made the comments to leaders of what the report describes as the "Shield of the Americas," a 15-country, anti-drug-cartel coalition made up largely of governments from the right or far right.

The outcome in Brazil, Latin America's largest economy, is expected to be seen as a significant indicator of whether that political trend continues to expand or meets resistance from the region's remaining left-leaning governments.