Brazil: Clean Slate or Slippery Slope?

Once ranked the fourth most democratic country in the world, Brazil is very likely to lose its democratic status. On October 28th 2018, Brazil took a huge leap from the left wing to the far-right. Jair Bolsonaro’s win sent a shockwave throughout the world, with fear of the sweeping right wing wave taking place all-over the world.

Bolsonaro, a retired military officer, and currently a congressman, won the second round of elections with a 55 percent majority vote.

Why is Bolsonaro’s win problematic, then? Well, the man is openly racist, sexist, homophobic and is dubbed by many as a fascist and a Neo-Nazi.

This man was stabbed in September while on the campaign trail because of his problematic political views.

He once said “when your son gets a little bit gay, slap him, and he’ll change his behavior”.

When asked what he’d would do if his son falls in love with a black woman, he replied  “my sons are well raised”. He also referred to Afrodescendentes as being overweight and lazy.

One of his most famous quips was when he said that he wouldn’t rape a congresswoman, because “she didn’t deserve it”.

Moreover, Bolsonaro is a huge supporter of torture and of the 21-year military dictatorship that took place in Brazil between 1964 to 1985. He even went further by saying that the only thing this regime did wrong was that they did not kill enough people.

How and why then did Bolsonaro win? Well, Bolsonaro is a charismatic populist leader that came at a very vulnerable time in Brazil’s history.

Brazil’s crime rates have been insanely high, with homicide tolls reaching around 64,000 in 2017. Of course, violence against women is another story, in which, the world has been continuously witnessing; women marching down the streets of Brazil calling the state into action.

Certainly, being between three of the biggest cocaine industries, Colombia, Bolivia and Peru, plays a huge role on crime and violence. 

Moreover, graft is rampant in Brazil, where former President Luiz Da Silva was caught in a corruption scandal involving the oil industry, among many other politicians, which inevitably damaged the economy.

However, the public believed that it was time for change, and they decided that they would fight violence with violence. Bolsonaro promised to fill the streets with soldiers and he even started playing around with the idea of no gun control.

The public believed, that although his ideas were radical, maybe that was what Brazil needed.

Do the Brazilians realize that this may be at the cost of their freedoms and their democracy? Let’s think this through for a second.

The people are supporting a man with a finger gun for his campaign icon. Promising violence, he has clear views supporting torture and ethnic cleansing.

His ideas sound pretty much like the all-too famous military, dictatorship regimes. He is almost establishing an emergency state, a state of serious oppression and ruthlessness.

This man, who is promising women protection from violence, once talked about a woman not being worthy of rape. It is very unlikely, that his views spontaneously changed.

He is targeting blacks and the LGBT community as well. It seems that the Brazilians will soon become apathetic and many innocent people will fall victim to this regime.

However, Bolnosaro must realize that Brazil is a strong nation and the people will not hand him the country on a silver plate. After his symbolic win, thousands of Brazilians took to the streets of São Paulo, screaming “we will resist!”.

“Dictatorship never again!” Beware President Bolsonaro, the Brazilians will not let you take away their freedom.