Reader Q&A: After Lula’s sensational victory in Brazil’s presidential election, the Guardian’s Latin America correspondent answers your questions

Having lost the first round of Brazil’s presidential election to far right rival Flávio Bolsonaro, incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spectacularly triumphed in the second. What comes next for Brazil? The Guardian’s Tom Phillips is answering your questions now. Ask a question: log in or sign up here to comment, or email conversations@theguardian. com Adam Law asks: Two major issues in Brazil’s election were corruption and violence. There is plenty of discussion about corruption, but it is violence that motivates many to turn politically right politically. Is there a way that the left can deliver on this issue without becoming authoritarian? Tom: Hi Adam. That’s a really good question and, as someone who lives in Rio de Janeiro, it is one that has been on my mind a lot.

The far right has been very good at blaming “soft” left wing policies and federal government incompetence for the failure to control armed violence. It was a huge part of the campaign against Lula in the run up to this election. But public security is a state matter and Rio state has largely been governed by the right for years now. Their hard-line, shoot first ask questions later approach has not worked - in fact many believe it has made the violence even worse and led to massacres such as the one I covered in the Complexo da Penha almost exactly one year ago. It must be said that similar tactics have been used in Bahia state, which has a huge problem with violence and is governed by the Worker’s party (PT). My colleague Tiago Rogero has written about this . Clearly, though, Lula needs to do something different in his fourth term - and it won’t be joining Donald Trump’s “Shield of the Americas” crackdown on “narco-terrorists”, as Bolsonaro had planned to do. Lula has promised to create a public security…