New Republic: Why Brazilians Elected Bolsonaro

Brazilians, in electing Jair Bolsonaro as president, yearn for order and economic prosperity. The military is the country’s most trusted public institution. But Bolsonaro has dismissed human rights and opposed limits on Brazilian police to rely on firepower. He had a troubled record in the military under civilian rule and praised the military dictatorship that ruled the country from 1964 to 1985, explains Andre Pagliarini for the New Republic. “He wants to militarize Brazil’s borders and has described the Landless Workers Movement, an organization that occupies large, unproductive estates in the countryside to advocate for land reform and denounce rural inequality, as a terrorist organization,” he writes. “He has pledged, in short, to revive, in spirit if not necessarily by law, the repressive thrust of the military regime.” Brazil has had economic problems since 2014, and many Brazilians blame leftists. Support for Bolsonaro will wane if economic improvements do not quickly materialize, but as Pagliarini concludes, welcoming authoritarians is much easier than removing them from power. – YaleGlobal