Bolsonaro: Gun down the rogues
Brazil leader sees arms as answer to crime
Rio dE JAnEiRo: Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s new president on Jan 1, persuaded voters in Latin America’s biggest country to elevate him to leader on extreme-right vows to restore security that eclipsed his record of racism, misogyny and homophobia.
The 63-year-old former paratrooper and veteran lawmaker is openly nostalgic for the 1964-1985 military dictatorship that imposed calm in the streets.
But he denies being a threat to democracy, saying he will be a “slave to the constitution” who will govern “with authority but not authoritarianism”.
The man with the sharp blue gaze has vowed to ease gun laws to allow “good” people to dispense justice themselves.
“If a truck driver is armed when someone tries to steal his cargo, the robber is killed, and the driver will go unpunished,” he said the day after his election.
“That will cut violence in Brazil for sure.” Bolsonaro himself was the victim of violence. On Sept 6, as he was campaigning, he was stabbed in the stomach by a mentally unbalanced lone assailant in a crowd, nearly costing him his life.
That only burnished his image as a “legend” – the nickname his most ardent supporters have given him. A keen social media user, with nine million followers on his Facebook page, Bolsonaro shares quite a bit in common with US President Donald Trump.
Both prefer electronic messaging directly to their base without having to answer pesky journalists’ questions, and both regularly mangle syntax – yet come up with pithy sayings their fans gleefully repeat.
Bolsonaro’s political stance on issues other than crime is not entirely clear as he has changed direction and parties several times over the years.
For instance, while he has in the past hewed to a protectionist view of Brazil economy, he flipped around ahead of the election to bring in a US-trained economist with free-market views, Paulo Guedes, into his team. Guedes will be his economy minister, heading up a superministry in charge of finances, investment and labour.
Unlike Trump, Bolsonaro had a long political career behind him before his election, having held a seat in the lower-house Chamber of Deputies since 1991.
Nevertheless, he presents himself as an outsider.
“He speaks of politicians as if he isn’t part of their world. He’s managed to give off an image of a strongman who has a hard line and who will fight corruption,” explained Michael Mohallem, a law professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.
He is backed by powerful lobbies in parliament, notably those representing the interests of agribusiness and evangelicals.
Bolsonaro himself is Catholic, a fact that has earned him some scorn from the religious for having fathered five children from three relationships. After having four sons he said in 2017 he must have “weakened” because his last offspring was a daughter.
Three of his sons are politicians. But the eldest, Flavio, who was elected to the senate, has been caught up in a scandal over suspect transactions in the name of a former aide that far surpassed the aide’s salary.