Time Sep

62 TIMESeptember 3–10 2018

had to be done” Bolsonaro says. “Chile
went forward. So much so that Pinochet
has always been respected there.”

DESPITE BOLSONARO’Sprior support
for military rule analysts agree that
a coup is unlikely in Brazil. But few
believe the country would be unafected
by a Bolsonaro presidency. “[It] would be
revolutionary for contemporary Brazilian
society” says Jefrey Lesser director of the
Halle Institute for Global Research and
Learning at Emory University. “There is
little doubt that if elected he would seek
to diminish checks and balances.”
Bolsonaro has pledged to aggres-
sively strengthen law and order in a
country where a record 63880 people
were murdered last year a rate some
six times as high as in the U.S. He says
he wants to loosen gun-control laws and
give police more power to kill suspects in
“self-defense.” He adds “Nobody wants
to let a cop kill but I want to give him
carte blanche not to die.” Some might
say Brazilian police already kill with
impunity: they were responsible for

5144 deaths in 2017; most were young

black males. 367 police were also killed.

The high murder rate in Brazil has

been driven by drug crime an area

where Bolsonaro favors a heavy-handed

approach. He says Philippine President

Duterte responsible for thousands of ex-

trajudicial executions in his war on drugs

“did the right thing for his country.” If

Brazil reached a similar level of violence

he says “you’d have to take action.”

He would also govern as a social

conservative and LGBT groups fear a

repressive environment. Bolsonaro has

stated that he would rather his son die

in an accident than be gay and would

punch two men if he saw them kissing in

the street. It’s a position he defends in his

interview with TIME. “I do not kiss my

wife on the street. Why face society? Why

take that into the school? Little children

of 6 or 7 watching two men kiss as the

government wanted them to do. Is this

democracy?”

Visibly struggling to contain his tem-

per he asserts angrily that most gays will

vote for him and then pivots to pedo-

philia. “So let’s respect the pedophile’s

right to have sex with a 2-year-old? Would

that unite [Brazil]?” But he adds “if any-

one interferes into the private life of two

people I will defend the right of those

two people between their four walls. That

is no problem.” So he would be the Presi-

dent for all Brazilians? “Yes.”

Gomes the left-wing candidate cur-

rently in fourth place in the polls says

Bolsonaro’s candidacy is drawing intol-

erance and bigotry out into the open—

much as the Nazi Party in Germany did

in the 1930s. Brazil must beware the “egg

of the serpent of Nazism of fascism that

we must treat as a serious threat” he says.

“Of course it is an exaggerated compari-

son but the values of intolerance hate

misogyny discrimination against gays

and women militarism all this is very

powerfully there galvanizing around this

caricature [of Bolsonaro]” he adds.

It’s hard to predict what will happen

on Oct. 7 when Brazilians go to the polls

in a irst round of voting. Although the

U.N. Human Rights Committee has

asked for Lula to be allowed to run most

expect he will be banned. His center-

left supporters may lock to his running

mate Fernando Haddad or Gomes or

environmental candidate Marina Silva

currently in third place. But one poll

suggests that half of all Brazilians are

undecided. Bolsonaro currently polling

at 21% has a shot of reaching at least the

Oct. 28 runof vote. The presidency is

within striking range.

As President Bolsonaro would strug-

gle to ind support in Brasília. His party

has only 9 of 513 seats in the lower house

of parliament and none in the upper

house. In 27 years in Congress he has au-

thored few successful bills and has barely

any allies. The pressure to form alliances

might draw him closer to the center.

But the available evidence suggests

that Bolsonaro is resistant to change. His

opinions and his outrage tactics have

sustained him for over three decades and

are now carrying him toward the highest

oice in the land. He wears them like a

badge of honor. Along with the portraits

of the former generals his congressional

quarters are decorated with military

memorabilia. “I am a captain of the army”

he told journalists in 2017. “My specialty

is to kill.”

Did he mean that literally? No he says

he did not see combat. “If I had partici-

pated I would have killed someone” he

adds. “I would like to have had that expe-

rience of combat. I would have liked to.” □

A supporter celebrates Bolsonaro’s
endorsement at the Social Liberal Party’s
convention on July 22

World

ERBS JR.—AGIF/AP