Brazilian Election

“I’ve got five kids. Four of them are men, but on the fifth I had a moment of weakness and it came out a woman.”

"I am in favour of torture, you know that. And the people are in favour as well."

“I would be incapable of loving a gay son. I prefer that he die in an accident.”

These are quotes from Jair Bolsonaro, who, as of October 28^th, is the most powerful man in Brazil.

The Brazilian election, which commenced on October 7^th, has been marked with violence and hostility sparked from corruption, a loss of confidence in Brazilian political institutions, and a severe economic recession. Bolsonaro’s Partido Social Liberal came to the rise, vowing to stem the corruption and make Brasilia work for the Brazilians. Debates were heated and tensions were high, with violent, politically-motivated attacks occuring on multiple occasions. On October 8^th, an Afro-Brazilian man was stabbed to death in the city of Salvador. On October 16^th, a transgender woman was killed by a mob in São Paulo. On September 6^th, Bolsonaro himself was stabbed in the abdomen during a rally in the town of Juiz de Fora, 200 km north of Rio de Janeiro. These are only a few of the many instances of violence during the campaign. Additionally, multiple allegations of fake news and misinformation on behalf of the PSL and their supporters have been flagged.

This election will, in all likelihood, have an impact on not just Brazil, but the world.

Bolsonaro has made a plethora of inflammatory and controversial statements regarding human rights, gender and racial equality, and LGBTQ+ rights. He has stated multiple times that Brazilian leftists should be shot, imprisoned, or made to leave the country. He compared Afro-Brazilians to cattle and named refugees the scum of the earth, he has stated that he would rather his own son die in an accident than turn out to be homosexual, and told a female member of congress that he would not rape her because she was too ugly. Additionally, he idolises the 1964–1985 Brazilian military dictatorship, claiming the era’s top torturer and head of the dictatorship’s intelligence agency, Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, to be a hero. This goes without mentioning his stances on internal security, such as repressing news sources which criticise him, allowing police officers to kill anyone suspected of criminal activity, and claiming to end activism, which are all reminiscent of the twenty-year-long, brutal military reign first established by Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco.

Equally worrying are his plans for the environment. Brazil has the largest share of the Amazon rainforest, with 60% of the crucial forest within her borders. The Amazon comprises half of the entire world’s remaining rainforest, with one in ten of every living animal species on Earth living there. One quarter of a square kilometre of rainforest in the Amazon can contain up to, or more than, 1,100 unique species of trees and 22,698 tonnes of living plant mass. The previous Brazilian governments have been encroaching on the Amazon for years, but none have been as brazenly defiant of our world’s globally accepted environmental needs. The destroyal of the Amazon, as Bolsonaro proposes, would put the last nail in the coffin of attempts to divert the impending climate crisis. Not only would its destruction release untold amounts of greenhouse gases and decimate biodiversity, it would remove one of the most capable carbon sinks we have available to us. An additional worry are the many indigenous groups of the Amazon. Not only would their livelihood be destroyed, there are palpable fears that the new government will capitalise on the widespread issue of racism to justify a forceful removal of indigenous Brazilians.

This election was the continuation of a noticeable political trend, involving surge in popularity of nationalist and reactionary politicians, some examples being the U.S.’ Donald Trump and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán. Not even Trump, however, has been as extreme in rhetoric and policy as president-elect Bolsonaro. As the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s twelve-year timer continues to tick, the goal of beating climate change is looking to be farther and farther away.