Brazil’s elite flee violence, chaos
TV stars, bankers, lawyers have all called it quits
Brazil is being hammered with a new crisis more profound than the daily bloodshed, political corruption and a spiralling economy.
The South American country’s best and brightest are voting with their feet — and cash — and getting out of this tropical Dodge City.
Thousands have moved to Portugal, Miami and Orlando in recent years.
Soap opera star Thiago Lacerda, a father of three young children mulling a move to Europe, is one of them.
“I’m totally freaked out by what’s been happening, especially here in Rio,” Lacerda, 40, told The Wall Street
Journal. “In several years, they’re going to want to go out, to start dating, without worrying about getting shot.”
Lacerda isn’t alone. Thousands of TV stars, bankers, lawyers and a potpourri of other wealthy Brazilians have also quit the country.
Even the government has no idea exactly how many of its citizens have left. But one indication is that 41% more Brazilians registered to vote from abroad in October’s presidential election than in 2014.
The best guesstimate is that the number of Brazilians calling it quits has tripled.
And those leaving are its wealthiest.
“The hope that Brazilians once had in their country has gone out the window and many people are now reaching the conclusion that things are unlikely to change in the next few years,” Brazilian Menezes Filho told the Journal.
Most pressing is the relentless bloodshed and violence plaguing Rio and other cities. Even in wealthy enclaves with gates and guards, nowhere is safe.
With unemployment at 12%, one recent study found 62% of young people between the ages of 16 to 24 would leave the country if they could. The young are also handcuffed by high taxes used to pay for pensions.
One man moving to Portugal said he is looking forward to an easier life in the European country. Like being able to answer his cellphone on the street. He can no longer do that in Brazil where it likely would be stolen and potentially put him in the morgue.