Brasil: Brace! Brace!

BRAZIL

Brace, Brace

Jair Bolsonaro, the populist president-elect of Brazil, has been repeatedly compared to US President Donald Trump.

The Intercept’s Glen Greenwald thought those comparisons weren’t fair – to Trump. Greenwald is no fan of Trump. But Bolsonaro, he argued, is a dangerous extremist who explicitly wants to reimpose the military dictatorship that ran the South American country from 1964 to 1985.

As the Independent explained, the president-elect began his own army career under the junta’s rule, eventually rising to the rank of captain. He supports torture and has said socialists should leave the country or face prison once he assumes office.

Brazilian military brass pushed back on that assertion.

“The military has been absent from politics since 1985, after the end of the military government, and that’s how it intends to maintain itself, independent of whether the president-elect is a retired captain from our Brazilian army,” Army Chief Eduardo Dias da Costa Villas Bôas told the Financial Times.

The world will have to wait until Bolsonaro’s inauguration on Jan. 1 to see who’s right.

In the meantime, there are plenty of other reasons to be concerned about the new far-right leader.

One of Bolsonaro’s first cabinet choices was Judge Sergio Moro, tapped to become justice minister. Moro oversaw the sweeping “Car Wash” corruption case that has rocked Latin America. His success in rooting out crooked politicians, in that case, could help the new administration in Brasilia address the country’s terrible crime problem.

But Moro also convicted and jailed ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on bribery charges that alleged Lula received an apartment as a bribe in a scandal involving Petrobras, the state oil company. Lula denied ever owning the apartment, but his conviction was upheld.

Moro denied that Lula’s case had anything to do with his appointment. But even he had to admit his new job looked like a quid pro quo for his role in making sure Lula couldn’t run against Bolsonaro in the election last month.

“I know that some interpreted my nomination as a reward,” the judge told the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, Brazil’s enormous and thriving film industry, a bellwether of a free society and open economy, is fearful of censorship under the new president, the Hollywood Reporter wrote.

Bolsonaro has hit bumps on foreign policy, too, wrote Bloomberg Opinion writer Mac Margolis.

He’s insulted Brazil’s neighbors, like when he questioned the credentials of Cuban doctors in the country, prompting Cuban leaders to say they’ll put their physicians out. He also proposed to relocate Brazil’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem before considering whether that move might jeopardize Brazil’s role as the world’s biggest exporter of halal meat to Muslims.

Brazilian voters clearly wanted change. They’re now going to see whether the unintended consequences of their desires will make them regret their choices.