Introduction: Brazil under Bolsonaro

• Author: Tulio Ferreira,James N. Green
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X231157700
• Published date: 01 January 2023
• Date: 01 January 2023
• Subject Matter: Introduction

https://doi.org/10.1177/0094582X231157700

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 248, Vol. 50 No. 1, January 2023, 3–13

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X231157700

© 2023 Latin American Perspectives

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Introduction

Brazil under Bolsonaro

by

Tulio Ferreira and James N. Green

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's triumph in the October 30, 2022, election for an

unprecedented third term as president of Brazil has been considered an

emblematic victory for democracy and progressive change by academic observ-

ers and the international press. Even though da Silva won by a narrow margin

(1.8 percent of the vote), it was an important defeat for the antidemocratic

extremist Jair Messias Bolsonaro, an “insignificant, low-level” (baixo clero) pol-

itician who represented the far-right in Brazilian politics for more than two

decades before being elected the thirty-eighth Brazilian president in 2018. That

year, Bolsonaro’s election win also captured international attention but for dif-

ferent reasons. Newspapers and magazines worldwide, from a broad range of

ideological perspectives, reacted to Bolsonaro’s election mostly with apprehen-

sion. The British magazine The Economist wrote immediately prior to the elec-

tions that “the probable president [Bolsonaro] is reviving Latin America’s

unholy marriage between market economics and political authoritarianism.”1

The headline of the New York Times article on the presidential inauguration

read: “Jair Bolsonaro Sworn in as Brazil’s President, Cementing Rightward

Shift.”2 Observers across the globe immediately appeared deeply concerned

about Brazilian democracy and the effects Bolsonaro’s election would have on

the country’s domestic and foreign policies.

Inside Brazil it was no different. Journalists, politicians, artists, and academ-

ics expressed concerns about the effects of Bolsonaro’s election on economics,

politics, social and human rights, the environment, indigenous people, Afro-

Brazilians, the LGBTI+ community, and the poor and working classes. Former

President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who had been reluctant to openly crit-

icize the candidate prior to the 2018 elections, has since declared that Bolsonaro

could jeopardize Brazil’s image abroad. Rubens Ricupero, one of Brazil’s most

experienced diplomats, said that the proposals of Jair Bolsonaro “could leave

Brazil poorer, isolated, and despised.”3

At the time of Bolsonaro’s election, the far-right was on the rise worldwide.

Political leaders around the globe have been elected as part of this trend. Erdoğan

in 2014 in Turkey, Trump in 2016 in the United States, Duterte in 2016 in the

Philippines, and Bolsonaro in 2018 in Brazil are prominent examples. Nationalism,

antiglobalism, and populism are some of the terms that academics, the media,

and ordinary people use to explain the phenomenon. Are we observing a new

Tulio Ferreira is an associate professor of international relations at the Universidade Federal da

Paraíba. James N. Green is Carlos Manuel de Céspedes Professor of Modern Latin American

History at Brown University and president of the board of the Washington Brazil Office.

1157700LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X231157700Latin American PerspectivesFerreira and Green/INTRODUCTION

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