A very short note on Lula’s victory in Brazil: Things could have been so much worse. As I explained in a recent article, the stakes were as high as they have not been since the US-sponsored (plus ça change…) 1964 coup which started over two decades of military dictatorship. The Bolsonaro clan was standing ready to re-impose full, oligarchy-driven vassalage to the Trumpian version of US empire and its Donroe Doctrine. Flavio Bolsonaro’s refusal to accept defeat simply illustrates what was clear before: If he had won, he would not have played by any rules and destoyed not “only” Brazilian sovereignty but democracy, too. So a grateful Te Deum for Brazil! On the downside, there is more than Lula’s problems with the Brazilian Congress to worry about (although those will matter). More fundamentally, this is a victory of the defensive, a narrow escape even. It is not a trend reversal. It can, perhaps, become one, but that can only happen if Lula, his Brazil, and others around them as well recover the initiative in the ongoing struggle between the Trumpian version of US colonialism and not merely “the Left” but everyone who takes national sovereignty seriously. There is a great challenge here as well for Russia and especially China: Lula’s victory provides a breather but the key powers of multipolarity (and BRICS) will have to make pro-active use of it. Geopolitically, this is an opportunity to fight against the total US take-over of Latin America. It might be the last one.