[Anchor]

Incumbent Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has won the presidential runoff election. Despite a strong right-wing wave, he has successfully secured a fourth term. This also puts the brakes on U.S. President Donald Trump's foreign policy, which sought to expand influence by turning Central and South America to the right.

Reporter Lee Gang has the details.

[Reporter]

The moment President Lula's victory was announced.

Supporters poured into the streets to celebrate the win.

In the presidential runoff that concluded on the morning of the 26th, Korean time, President Lula achieved a fourth term for the first time in Brazil's history.

He won 51% of the vote, defeating right-wing Liberal Party candidate Bolsonaro by a 3 percentage point margin.

His first message centered on Brazil's sovereignty and independence.

[Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva / President of Brazil: It is a choice between defending a free homeland or dying for Brazil. This shows that our country will not tolerate threats from anyone.]

Since the early 2000s, a wave of left-wing governments prioritizing economic equality, the so-called "pink tide," swept across South America.

However, as that wave rapidly receded due to slowing economic growth and security anxieties, and as U.S. President Donald Trump tightened his grip on South America following his return to power in January of last year, a right-wing wave known as the "blue tide" surged across Latin America.

Right-wing forces expanded their influence in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile, and also won the presidential election in Colombia four months ago, turning the left side of the South American continent blue, the color symbolizing the right.

Now, President Lula's victory has created a crack in this chain of right-wing regime changes.

It also deals a blow to Trump's foreign policy of exercising exclusive influence in Central and South America.

Right-wing candidate Bolsonaro faced a backlash over his pledge to pardon his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is imprisoned on charges of plotting a coup. He also suffered a political backlash after mocking Lula, who lost a finger during his days as a factory worker, and branding him with "corruption."

[Brazilian Citizen: There is no more dictatorship in Brazil. Let's send the right-wing candidate packing so he can just go flatter Trump.]

In addition, concerns over Bolsonaro's market-fundamentalist and austerity-driven economic policies influenced voters.

The Bolsonaro campaign declared it would not accept the election results and announced plans to challenge the validity of the election.

(Video Editing: Cho Mu-hwan, Design: Taeyoung Park)