Right-Wing Nationalist Wins Brazilian Presidency

Right-wing politician Jair Bolsonaro was recently elected President of Brazil in a political dynamic very similar to that which produced a victory for Trump just two years ago.

Bolsonaro’s climb to power has been marked by divisive rhetoric and offensive speech that has thrilled followers and appalled critics in equal measure.  Bolsonaro served seven consecutive terms in the Brazilian Congress, with little to show for his time there-- very few of his bills were approved.

Bolsonaro believes that having a female child is a “weakness,” and has said he would not treat or pay women the same as men in the workplace.

In 2013, he said that he would “rather have a son who is an addict than a son who is gay,” and that he was “proud to be homophobic.”  In June 2011, he said he would “rather his son die in a car accident than be gay,” adding:   “If a gay couple came to live in my building, my property will lose value. If they walk around holding hands, kissing, it will lose value.”

In April 2017, Bolsonaro spoke about visiting traditional Afro-Brazilian communities. He described the weight of the residents using the Portuguese word “arrobas,” an outdated unit  of measure for weighing cattle and agricultural products.  He said, “The lightest Afro-descendant there weighed seven ‘arrobas’. They don’t do anything. They are not even good for procreation.”

Bolsonaro is an enthusiastic advocate of torture.  When he voted for Dima Rousseff's impeachment two years ago, he dedicated his vote to a colonel who ran a torture center during the country’s military dictatorship in which Rousseff herself was tortured.

Criticizing Brazil’s government during a 1999 interview, Bolsonaro said:

    “The Congress today is useless … lets do the coup already. Let’s go straight to the dictatorship. . .Elections won’t change anything in this country. Unfortunately, it will only change on the day that we break out in civil war here and do the job that the military regime didn’t do: killing 30,000.”

Bolsonaro has also said he would curtail efforts to protect the environment and indigenous land:

    “We need to put a stop to the demarcation of indigenous land … indigenous people want to rent out the land, they want to be able to do business, they want electricity, a dentist to remove the stumps of teeth from their mouths … indigenous people are human beings like us. They don’t want to be used for political purposes.”

He is also very dismissive of indigenous people, saying:

    “Our Amazon is like a child with chickenpox, every dot you see is an indigenous reservation … and the Brazilian people applaud [demarcation of indigenous land]. Look at these people, no political strategy!”