Time Sep

(Jeff_L) #1

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


  1. 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
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