Tense Brazil campaign sparks fears of violence

After a presidential campaign that has seen political violence overshadow policy debate, many Brazilians fear attacks will continue after the likely election today of toughtalking far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro’s supporters in recent weeks have threatened to harm Supreme Court justices and physically attacked journalists and opposition voters. Violence has also been attributed to backers of Bolsonaro’s opponent, Fernando Haddad of the Workers Party (PT), but to a far lesser extent.

Brazil’s tense political climate has been compared by some to divisions in the United States, where several high-profile opponents of President Donald Trump received pipe bombs in the mail this week. But the situation in Brazil is far more perilous, analysts say, as it already suffers from extreme violence, often without consequence for perpetrators.

Aggressive rhetoric

Nearly 64,000 murders were registered last year, but less than 10 per cent of homicide cases result in charges. Bolsonaro himself suffered a near-fatal stabbing during a campaign rally last month.

He is still recovering, but the episode only reinforced his aggressive rhetoric, combining verbal attacks on political foes with vows to combat crime and pursue graft cases against opponents. “You PT crew, you’ll have the civil and military police with legal support to bring the law down on your backs,” he said in a video broadcast to supporters at demonstrations last Sunday.

He says he does not condone violence by his supporters, but analysts say his daily rants on social media platforms are taking a toll.

“If people thought Brazil had extremely high levels of street violence in normal times, imagine what it will be like under a president who aggressively pushes violence among police and against political opponents?” said Rafael Alcadipani, public security expert at the Getulio Vargas Foundation university.