Brazil braces for turmoil ahead of presidential election
Last month, a man with a knife walked into a bar in northeast Brazil and asked whether anybody planned to vote forThe man with the knife stabbed him to death.
Polls had predicted that Bolsonaro would draw as little 33% in the first round of voting on Oct. 2. But he ended up with 43% to Lula’s 48%, with other candidates splitting the rest. Private weapon ownership has proliferated since Bolsonaro delivered on a key campaign promise to loosen gun control laws.
Last month, nearly a million Brazilians, including top business leaders, actors and pop stars, signed a letter calling on Bolsonaro to uphold the basic tenets of democracy. Bolsonaro, 67, has pushed for limited government intervention on matters as diverse as the COVID-19 pandemic and the environment, chafing at foreign pressure to reduce destruction of the Amazon rainforest. He has made disparaging remarks about women, Black people and the LGBTQ community and supports harsh policing policies, saying criminals deserve to “die in the street like cockroaches.”
The Bolsonaro supporters included Idlaile da Mazzo, a 33-year-old homemaker, and her friend, Raquel Pereira, a 35-year-old baker.“It’s a spiritual war. A spiritual fight,” said Da Mazzo, who likes that Bolsonaro is antiabortion and opposes what she referred to as “gender ideology” — policies designed to be inclusive for people who are transgender.