Minorities targeted on Bolsonaro’s first day

SAO PAULO— Newly installed President Jair Bolsonaro targeted Brazil’s Indigenous groups, descendants of slaves and the LGBT community with executive orders in the first hours of his administration, moving quickly after a campaign in which the farright leader said he would radically overhaul many aspects of life in Latin America’s largest nation.

Sao Paulo’s stock market, meanwhile, jumped 3.56 per cent to a record closing of 91,012 points as new cabinet ministers reinforced the intent to privatize state-owned companies and a Brazilian arms maker benefited from Bolsonaro’s plans to loosen gun controls.

Similar spikes in stock prices also occurred during the presidential campaign.

One of the orders issued late Tuesday, hours after Bolsonaro’s inauguration, likely will make it all but impossible for new lands to be identified and demarcated for Indigenous communities.

Areas set aside for “Quilombolas,” as descendants of former slaves are known in the country, are also affected by the decision.

Another order removed the concerns of the LGBT community from consideration by the new human rights ministry.

Bolsonaro, a former army captain and longtime congressman, said during his presidential campaign that he would stop making what he calls concessions to native Brazilians and Quilombolas.