By Pamela Machado and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Developments of autocratic governmental
tendencies emerge from the deleterious effects of nationalism bolstered around
prejudice, bigotry, hatred, suspicion amplified by anxiety, conspiracy
theories, denialism of fundamental concepts of science, rejection of facts, and
the celebration of a powerful figure in a strongman, applicable to men or women
but, mostly seen in men as demagogues provoking the worst sentiments in the
population. There are few leaders in the world nowadays that could represent
this idea more accurately than Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro.
The
election of Jair Bolsonaro into the presidency of Brazil created a new era in
the political landscape for Brazilian citizens with the alignment of
Evangelical Christian fundamentalism and strongman negative populism. The
autocratic tone in Bolsonaro’s government is no longer a surprise for those
worrying about the waning status of democracy around
the world, and of civil liberties
internationally. Since taking office in January of 2019,
the Brazilian president has made tens of international headlines starring his
homophobic rhetoric, lack of diplomacy, poor social media etiquette, and
disastrous handling of environmental degradation, amongst some of a litany of faux pas
moments and real political scandals.
Week
after week, Brazil’s president has shown signs pointing to a tyranny being
instituted in Brazil under his rule. The latest recurrences involve the Amazon,
with the international community funding the
Amazon removing financial support
because of the deforestation ongoing within the country, including by Norway and Germany. In
response, Bolsonaro said, as a childish tease helpful in ascertaining his
character, “Isn’t Norway that country that kills whales up there in the north
pole?… Take that money and help Angela Merkel reforest Germany.” Bolsonaro
shows no intention to take on criticism from the international community and
scientists, and then act to curb deforestation.
As a
matter of fact, Bolsonaro has strong allies in Brazil pushing him to disregard
environmental discussion as a ‘conspiracy from the left’ and ‘fake news’. One
of the strongest lobbyists in Bolsonaro’s government is indeed the agribusiness
sector, which is among the most powerful industries in South America. The
agribusiness model, which leaves soils impoverished and lands devastated, is at
the opposite side of environmentalism and indigenous land advocacy; and
Bolsonaro’s intentions are to open the Amazon for agribusiness lords.
Conservation of the Amazon is one of the key aspects in establishing
international alliances, especially with countries in the European Union, where
the green influence has grown in the political realm since the last EU
elections last May. Bolsonaro’s stance can only lead to Brazil’s isolation in a
global scenario in times when cooperation is a fundamental virtue to avoid a global
ecological collapse.
Bolsonaro
has caused outrage after sacking the director of
Brazil’s National Space Research Institute (INPE)
at the beginning of the month. Ricardo Galvão, the previous director of INPE,
had called out Bolsonaro’s
government on skyrocketing deforestation in the
Amazon after data showed that deforestation was 88% higher in
June compared to a year ago. To compound this, Bolsonaro is a major climate change
denier and sees the science of climate change as a Marxist plot. He
claimed INPE’s latest report is lying and the methodology of the study is not
trustworthy, even as the Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change continues in its Sixth Assessment Cycle. Bolsonaro and his coterie have a
history of climate change denial, not even skepticism. He was clear about
destroying the Indigenous environments and
the ties between them. Bolsonaro is not informed or does not want to believe
the realities and seriousness of the climate crisis facing us, where he proposes citizens, not
himself, eat less and defecate every other day in order to help the climate
while working to destroy the environment. Citizens
should become active and involved in the political process, as they have
become increasingly active and involved in the political process based on these
atrocious attitudes, statements, and opinions on science.
Also,
he made clear the intent, if elected, to leave the Paris Climate
Agreement from 2015, mimicking US President Donald Trump. Ed Atkins, from the University
of Bristol, has stated that leaving the Paris Agreement is not
really in the hands of Bolsonaro: “Ultimately, his power to reverse the
decision is limited, however. This is because the Paris deal was approved via
the Brazilian congress, which is currently divided between 30 parties, and
Bolsonaro would face the tricky task of convincing a broad church of
conservatives.” However, Bolsonaro seems to care little about the rules of
democracy and the institutions he should respect.
If only
environmental concerns were the only thing to worry about – but the president’s
latest scandal about the Amazon are only another indicator of the autocratic
turn taking place in Brazil.
Bolsonaro
is surely familiar with fake news tactics that undermine the strength of
democracy: this is his strongest weapon to keep his electorate faithfully
supportive as the economy continues to wade in Brazil leaving almost 14 million
unemployed, worsening criminality or increasing the number of “cockroaches” in his opining, and
quality of life – among other atrocities such as censoring LGBTI+ films and
cutting funding to federal universities.
The
far-right president is progressively turning himself into an authoritarian
force in Latin America’s major country – and he is quite proud to be so. The
stance of dehumanization against one’s own most vulnerable citizens simply
shows to the public in glaring and gory detail an arrogance fit for
authoritarian rule.
Bolsonaro
has a long-lasting and widely reported passion with authoritarian leaders in
South America. Like attracts like, one may assume here. He also has an open
disgust to democracy and state institutions: “My pen is mightier than yours,”
he told the lower house Speaker Rodrigo Maia earlier this year, implying that
congressmen are not as powerful as him.
At a
worrying speed, Bolsonaro takes steps closer in his vision to turn Brazil into
a country where those who appreciate diversity and show respect to nature have
no voice. Brazilian democratic institutions, where corruption is deeply
ingrained, seem to get weaker by the hour and there is dooming scenario about
the next three years until the next election is held make it looks like an
obscure endless era.
This
political cascade of anti-democratic leaders and forces contains racial
elements to it. According to the latest data available, Brazil’s population is
mostly non-white. The portion of Brazilian identifying themselves as whites
fell from 53.7% in 2000 to 47.7% in 2010, when the latest statistic was
released. Issues of self-identification or self-report in the collection of the
data aside; the result is collective actions taking place all over Brazil to
educate about ethnicities and gender rather than an actual decrease in the
number of white people, as seen in the number of mixed-race which rose
from 38.5% to 43.1%. Thanks to open conversations about racial questions and
structural racism, a larger number of Brazilians have become more literate on
identity politics and the issues following from them.
Bolsonaro’s
contempt towards mixed-raced and non-white communities is escalating. Even more
explicit comes from the majoritarian authoritarianism of the statements,
Bolsonaro, in 2017, said, “Minorities have to bend down to the majority… The
minorities [should] either adapt or simply vanish.” The rhetoric of
dehumanization creates the basis for autocratic and tyrannical orientation
leading to an easy denial of civil liberties for minorities and other,
typically, vulnerable populations within Brazil. The demagoguery around
denial of the real world, of living in a fantasy concocted of delusions of mass
and widespread conspiracy theories, forms the basis for decoupling popular
discourse from facts, common Brazilian values and shared identity, and
democratic orientation of the government. There needs to be rapid damage
control and broad activism to begin to solve the problems created, the fires
started, by the Brazilian president and his coterie.
Photo by Alexandre Perotto on Unsplash
