Time Sep

60 TIME September 3–10 2018

With Bolsonaro threatening to greatly

increase the military role in civilian gov-

ernment and radically remake the Su-

preme Court former Chief Justice Joaquim

Barbosa has warned of a potential military

coup. Is that risk real? “Yes of course”

says the center-left Ciro Gomes a presi-

dential rival. “We are in Latin America.”

THE BLOODY U.S.-BACKED dictator-

ships that lourished across Latin Amer-

ica in the late 20th century have faded

into history. Until Venezuela’s recent

slide toward autocracy all the coun-

tries bordering Brazil were clearly—if

imperfectly—democratic.

But when Jair Bolsonaro was a young

man Brazil was governed by a military

dictatorship which overthrew the elected

left-wing government of João Goulart in

1964. Bolsonaro served as an army captain
      under a regime whose 21 years in power
      were marked by human-rights abuses and
      suppression of freedom of speech.
      Brazil began the process of returning
      to a civilian government in 1985 but
      against the backdrop of economic
      contraction and soaring inlation. After
      Bolsonaro was elected to Congress in
      1991 he called for the return of military
      rule. In 1999 he followed up by calling
      for a “civil war” in Brazil that would
      kill “about 30000” starting with then
      President Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
      He also pledged to close down Congress
      if elected President. “There would be a
      coup the same day” he said.
      Asked about those statements now
      Bolsonaro says he has moved on. “People
      evolve. I am not a troglodyte” he says.
      “It’s been a long time since I touched the
      subject.”
      In the early years of the 21st century
      Brazil began to beneit from democratic
      rule. Under the eight-year presidency
      of Lula—once dubbed the world’s most
      popular politician by President Obama—
      the economy boomed and millions were
      lifted out of poverty. But the country began
      to fall apart soon after the re-election of
      Lula’s chosen successor Dilma Roussef
      to a second term in 2014. Operation Car
      Wash a federal investigation into the
      state-controlled conglomerate Petrobras
      grew into possibly the world’s largest
      corruption probe and exposed billions
      of dollars in breathtaking graft igniting
      public anger. Scores of politicians

a strongman outsider rallying against
corruption violence and the media.
Newspapers have nicknamed him the
Trump of the Tropics for his perceived
similarities to the populist U.S. President.
Like Donald Trump he has struggled to
ind a running mate with his irst three
choices turning him down. He also
intends to withdraw Brazil from the Paris
Agreement and weaken environmental
regulations. His plans on tax trade and
debureaucratization might as well have
been copied from Trump. In an interview
with TIME in his Brasília oice the
63-year-old welcomes the comparison.
“I’m not richer than him. That’s all I do
not admire” he says.
Trump may be politically incorrect
but Bolsonaro goes way way further. In
this interview alone he advocated the
possibility of unbridled state violence;
equated homosexuality with pedophilia;
and defended Chilean dictator Augusto
Pinochet whose henchmen raped
women with dogs as well as Philippine
President Rodrigo Duterte who has
boasted of personally killing criminal
suspects.
He has a long history of invective
against gays racial minorities and women.
In 2014 he told a Congresswoman “I
wouldn’t rape you because you do not
deserve it.” Yet after spending decades
in the political wilderness the candidate
for the right-wing Social Liberal Party
is now being courted as a serious player
in Brasília and is feted by crowds of
thousands on the road.
The pollsters’ front runner in Brazil’s
election former President Luiz Inácio
Lula da Silva launched his campaign
from a prison cell where he is serving
a 12-year sentence for corruption and
money laundering. He is highly unlikely
to be allowed to run. Bolsonaro is in
second place. In an election where 1 in 5
voters said they would spoil their ballots
that makes him a more-than plausible
contender.
“It is one thing for the U.S. to have
a pariah President but it would be
another thing for Brazil” says Anthony
Pereira director of the Brazil Institute at
King’s College London. The costs to its
economy and world standing would be
signiicant he adds. “This is probably one
of the biggest tests Brazil’s democracy has
faced.”

oicials and businessmen were caught

up in allegations of bribery involving cash

payouts sports cars private jets and high-

class prostitutes.

The efects of that corruption com-

bined with Brazil’s worst-ever recession

crippled many public services. In Rio de

Janeiro where Bolsonaro is the most pop-

ular of 46 federal deputies police had no

fuel for patrol cars hospitals lacked basic

medication and street crime soared. Pub-

lic anger was enough to sweep Roussef

to impeachment in 2016 on the suspicion

that she must have been complicit.

Her successor Michel Temer reined

in the police pursuing Car Wash while

twice dodging a corruption trial himself.

His approval rating stands at 4%. Lula

meanwhile was jailed in April after a

prolonged televised standof. He says his

prosecution is intended to stop him from

becoming President.

World

DANIEL MARENCO FOR TIME