Local Brazilians back ‘Trump of the Tropics’
Dubbed the “Trump of the Tropics,” Brazil’s brash new president-elect Jair Bolsonaro has the right stuff to turn the country around, say expatriates living in South Florida.
Bolsonaro, a former army captain and far-right congressman known for his pro-gun stance and divisive discourse, won 55 percent of the vote Sunday, defeating his Workers’ Party opponent.
“Just like [Trump] wants to make America great, I want to make Brazil great,” Bolsonaro said in July.
Like Trump, Bolsonaro is not known for mincing words.
His critics accuse him of racism, sexism and homophobia.
His defenders say he’s just what the country needs to spark an economic boom and clean up corruption and crime in Latin America’s largest nation.
“It’s a new era starting in Brazil,” said Pedro Paulo De Andrade Silva, a Portuguese teacher in Miami Beach who moved here from Rio de Janeiro in 1988. “Bolsonaro is the one who’s going to help Brazil improve. The economy will boom. It will resurge from the ashes.”
Many Bolsonaro defenders live in South Florida, home to an estimated 200,000 Brazilians, according to U.S. Census data. Another 100,000 Brazilians live throughout the state, with a cluster around Orlando.
“Most, if not all, Brazilians living outside of Brazil
voted for him,” said Miami’s Jacqueline Rebelo de Andrade. “They are aware of his reputation and who he is, but it’s simply a matter of picking the lesser evil. They are beyond desperate for change.”
One of Brazil’s presidents was impeached in 2016. Another — Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – served two terms and left office in 2011, only to receive a 12-year sentence six years later on a corruption conviction.
Francis Dos Santos, a Coral Springs resident and hair salon owner, said he backed Bolsonaro “100 percent,” despite his provocative rhetoric.
“I don’t agree with everything Trump says,” Dos Santos said. “And I don’t agree with everything Bolsonaro says. But for me, this is the best option for Brazil right now. He’s going to help the economy. He’s going to crack down on crime.”
Dos Santos and other South Florida fans dismissed criticism of Bolsonaro as “fake news.”
Dos Santos moved to South Florida six years ago and one day hopes to return to Brazil.
“Hopefully, my country will do well [under Bolsonaro], so I can move back,” he said.
Not everyone, though, is thrilled.
Carolin Lusby, an assistant professor in hospitality and tourism management at Florida International University, leads group trips to Brazil and worries about Bolsonaro loosening environmental restrictions.
On Monday, Lusby was in contact with a native of the Kayapo tribe in Brazil.
“He is worried about his life and the forest,” Lusby said. “Bolsonaro is opening up the rest of the Amazon for development, which will impact us directly. More climate change.”
Rosanna Cardoso, a business consultant from Fort Lauderdale who moved here 36 years ago, has mixed feelings about Brazil’s new leader.
“A lot of people are calling him the Brazilian Trump,” she said. “He’s very straightforward. He doesn’t have any filters, just like Trump. He’s just like Trump, talking about cleaning up the swamp.”
Cardoso says she worries about civil rights taking a hit in Brazil under Bolsonaro’s leadership. But on the other hand, she likes the idea of cleaning up political corruption.
“There has to be change — and he represents change,” she said. “Hopefully, it’s change in the right direction. He’s a question mark right now. We’ll see what’s going to happen. Everyone is hoping for the best.”