The Trump Of The Tropics: Why Brazil’s Controversial Bolsonaro Is Still Reigning

In 2019, Brazil broke an almost three-decade-old tradition of electing leftist presidents by voting for a Latin American version of Donald Trump: retired military officer Jair Messias Bolsonaro.

An unabashed racist, misogynistic and anti-LGBT candidate, Bolsonaro gained prominence as a controversial politician who praised Brazil’s history of military dictatorship. Despite his questionable ideologies, he won over 55.2% of Brazilians as he vowed to make the much-needed changes thousands had been urging, such as ending the nation’s long history of gang violence and political corruption.

Brazilians had grown tired of leftist politicians who reigned the country since the end of the dictatorship in 1985 and developed deep-rooted resentment for the status quo. Like Trump, Bolsonaro promised to make Brazil better and become the "defender of the Constitution, democracy and liberty" that was in jeopardy after two years of rising crime and political and economic turmoil.

Bolsonaro’s narrative of public security won many Brazilians over and people had the chance to vote not just for him, but for a candidate that was the opposite of what the nation had been experiencing for three decades.

Bolsonaro was the loud and abrasive politician who seemed to brush off all criticism with ease. But then, the pandemic hit and his popularity began to take a sharp turn for the worse.

With over 21 million total reported cases, Brazil has been a global hotspot for COVID-19, ranking second with the highest coronavirus mortality rate, according to Johns Hopkins data.

Though 74% of Brazilians now have at least one dose of the vaccine, harsh attacks over a slow rollout were directed at Bolsonaro, who has often referred to COVID as “mere sniffles” and has openly opposed mask-wearing, lockdowns and other pandemic restrictions imposed worldwide to protect people against the spread of the virus.

"In the Pfizer contract, it's very clear: 'We're not responsible for any side effects.' If you turn into a crocodile, that's your problem,” Bolsonaro said.

"If you become superhuman, if a woman starts to grow a beard or if a man starts to speak with an effeminate voice, they [Pfizer] won't have anything to do with it,” he said, adding that “we all have to die sometime.”

His disregard for the pandemic and the lives lost in the past 18 months has led to growing backlash.

This week, a congressional panel released a draft report recommending homicide charges against Bolsonaro for his lack of COVID-response that led to the death of over 600,000 Brazilians.

The nearly 1,200-page report accused Bolsonaro and 69 other government officials of being responsible for the “deliberate and conscious” delay in releasing COVID vaccines which contributed to the “stratospheric” coronavirus death toll that devastated Latin America’s largest economy.

But Bolsonaro’s tumultuous presidency does not end there.

The ex-military officer has also overseen a 9.5% increase in deforestation from 2019 to 2020 which has led to the Amazon rainforest to emit more carbon dioxide than it absorbs.

According to Suely Araujo, a senior specialist in public policies and climate change issues at Brazil’s Observatorio do Clima, Bolsonaro’s government has had a clear goal for dismantling national environmental policies and destroying indigenous land.

The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil has also asked the International Criminal Court to investigate Bolsonaro for “genocide” and “ecocide” for his persecution of native peoples and destroying their homelands.

With all of this, anti-Bolsonaro sentiment has been on the rise. A Datafolha poll revealed that 51% of Brazilians now disapproved of Bolsonaro, an uptick of 45% from the previous poll in May and the highest since he took office in January 2019.

There have also been 139 impeachment requests signed by more than 1,550 political officials and 550 civic organizations, according to Brazil’s independent investigative journalism agency Agencia Publica.

Why is Bolsonaro still in office? The answer is political connection.

Antonio Lavareda, president of the scientific council of the Institute for Social, Political and Economic Research (Ipespe), said the strong political wave against Bolsonaro has not gained large enough dimension to pressure deputies to proceed with an impeachment.

"The main factors preventing the impeachment are the lack of large-scale street demonstrations, as was the case with [former President] Dilma's impeachment, and the lack of sufficient support in Congress. The parliamentary majority that the president built from June last year has not yet been dismantled," Lavareda told BBC Brazil.

Lavareda also explained that Bolsonaro has a strong alliance with Chamber President Arthur Lira, the only authority that may initiate the impeachment procedure. There is also a lack of sufficient votes among the deputies to endorse a process of impeachment in the Senate.

“President Bolsonaro, an apologist for Brazil’s abusive military dictatorship, is increasingly hostile to the democratic system of checks and balances,” said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “He is using a mixture of insults and threats to intimidate the Supreme Court, which is overseeing investigations into his conduct, and with his baseless claims of electoral fraud seems to be laying the groundwork to either try to cancel next year’s elections or contest the will of the people if he is not re-elected.”

Bolsonaro has repeatedly undermined the power of Brazil’s Supreme Court and his political connections allow him to do so.

As Brazilians continue to face the everyday challenges of the pandemic under Bolsonaro, they will have to wait until the next presidential election in October 2022 if they would like to make a change. Until then, Brazilians can continue with the famous “panelaco," gathering by their windows to begin the chorus of thousands of banging pots and pans protesting against Boslonaro every time he is set to speak on national television.