On the day María Corina Machado returns to Venezuela after months in exile, banned from the ballot so Maduro’s regime could claim a win she and Edmundo González actually took, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice does the same job for Lula. Cristiano Zanin, Lula’s former personal lawyer, orders voting extended 2 hours nationwide after polls had already closed. The request came from Lula’s campaign. Transport excuses, rain, whatever. And the result is chaos, paused counting, and a leftist incumbent who gets extra time the rules didn’t give him. Same script on the same continent. When the left can’t win cleanly, a judge rewrites the rules. Venezuela’s courts kept Machado off the ballot and rubber stamped Maduro. Brazil’s court, staffed by the incumbent’s own lawyer, keeps the polls open after the deadline so the incumbent’s voters have one more chance. They don’t need tanks when they have robes.