Jair Bolsonaro, Far-Right Populist, Elected President of Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil on Sunday became the latest country to drift toward the far right, electing a strident populist as president in the nation’s most radical political change since democracy was restored more than 30 years ago.

The new president, Jair Bolsonaro, has exalted the country’s military dictatorship, advocated torture and threatened to destroy, jail or drive into exile his political opponents.

He won by tapping into a deep well of resentment at the status quo in Brazil — a country whiplashed by rising crime and two years of political and economic turmoil — and by presenting himself as the alternative.

“This is a really radical shift,” said Scott Mainwaring, a professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government who specializes in Brazil. “I can’t think of a more extremist leader in the history of democratic elections in Latin America who has been elected.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/28/world/americas/jair-bolsonaro-brazil-election.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimesworld

Link to tweet

Bolsonaro, new prez of Brazil:
-"I am in favor of a dictatorship”
- Called a female lawmaker a “slut”
- said "no father is ever proud of having a gay son”
- has called indigenous Brazilians “parasites”