Monday, October 29, 2018

"Trump of the Tropics" Elected President in Brazil

Jair Bolsonaro
UPDATE below: Trump responds

On Sunday, the former military officer Jair Bolsonaro defeated the leftist Workers' Party candidate Fernando Haddad in Brazil's presidential election.

Bolsonaro, 63, was stabbed in the stomach last month during a rally in the city of Juiz de Fora, in Minas Gerais state.


The incident took him off the campaign trail for weeks as he recovered but it did not halt his momentum.

He is considered by some the "Trump of the Tropics."

When it comes to anti-political correctness, he is Trump on steroids.
In 2014, he told a fellow lawmaker:
“I would not rape you because you are not worthy of it.”
Some of his comments, via The New York Times:

In 2013, he said that he would “rather have a son who is an addict than a son who is gay,” and that he was “proud to be homophobic.”
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In April 2017, Mr. Bolsonaro spoke about visiting traditional Afro-Brazilian communities. He described the weight of the residents using the word “arrobas,” an outdated unit used to weigh cattle and agricultural products.

“The lightest Afro-descendant there weighed seven ‘arrobas’. They don’t do anything. They are not even good for procreation.”
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Bolsonaro advocates torture:

“I am in favor of torture — you know that. And the people are in favor of it, too."
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[H]e also said:

“Elections won’t change anything in this country. Unfortunately, it will only change on the day that we break out in civil war here and do the job that the military regime didn’t do: killing 30,000. If some innocent people die, that’s fine. In every war, innocent people die. I will even be happy if I die as long as 30,000 others go with me.”
On economic policy, his positions are filled with small government platitudes but hint at the potential to be seriously interventionist. From the BBC:
Mr Bolsonaro's economic policy plans resemble those of market-friendly right-wing governments in other parts of Latin America, and include proposals to reduce government "waste" and promises to reduce state intervention in the economy.

However, on occasion he has also defended more nationalistic stances, arguing for the need to keep state control over industries he deems strategic.

The former army captain has said that he wants to undertake a reform of the government in order to reduce and relocate "unnecessary expenses".

"I made a commitment to reduce the number of ministries, extinguish and privatise many of the state-owned [companies] that exist today," he wrote on Twitter.

In his party manifesto, he also suggested that state-run oil company Petrobras should "sell a substantial portion of its refining, retail, transportation and other activities where it has market power" in order to "promote competition" in the oil and gas sector for the good of consumers.

However, in a TV interview on 9 October he expressed concern that privatising electric utility company Eletrobras could lead to it being bought by Chinese investors.

He also rowed back on his earlier support for privatising Petrobras, saying that the "core" of the oil company should stay under state control.
And he has that Israel first thing going on. The BBC again:
Mr Bolsonaro is also thought to favour moving the Brazilian embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
He also said he would close the Palestinian embassy in Brazil. "Is Palestine a country? Palestine is not a country, so there should be no embassy here," he said in August.
He has also said that his first foreign trip as president would be to Israel.
-RW 

UPDATE

Trump responds:




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