What will a Bolsonaro government look like? | News from the world

Jair Bolsonaro – who won the presidency of the largest country in Latin America Sunday – made great promises to his government but provided little detail.

And in a country emerging from a military regime just 33 years ago, Bolsonaro has raised concerns about his promise to include retired generals in his cabinet.

Among the former military officers who played a central role in shaping his political proposals were retired generals Aléssio Ribeiro Souto – who focused on science, technology and education – and Oswaldo Ferreira, who developed plans for infrastructure and the Amazon.

General Augusto Heleno, who headed the United Nations Mission for Brazil to Haiti, will be his Minister of Defense and is seen by some as a potential moderation force.

The three son legislators of Bolsonaro – Eduardo, Carlos and Flávio – should also play a role. Marcos Pontes, a Brazilian astronaut, was introduced as Minister of Science and Technology.

Bolsonaro's alliances with powerful agro-industries, evangelical Christians, and arms lobby groups give him influence at the congress, but he is also committed to avoiding horse trade ministries with parties to obtain their support.

L & # 39; s economy

Brazil is still under the shock of the worst economic downturn in its history and Bolsonaro's manifesto promised to "make the necessary adjustments to ensure growth characterized by low inflation and job creation".

A longtime statistician, he has been converting to the liberal economy and has chosen Paulo Guedes, a liberal educated at the University of Chicago and co-founder of the Brazilian investment bank BTG Pactual, Minister of Finance.

Guedes defended the privatization of state-owned companies, reformed the extremely expensive Brazilian pension system and maintained a 20-year spending cap. But earlier this month, Bolsonaro vetoed the Guedes project to privatize the state-owned oil company Petrobras and the Eletrobras electricity company.

And while Guedes' presence has helped Bolsonaro gain support from banks and investors, doubts remain about its ability to negotiate pension reform, which investors see as essential to solving the problem of high public debt. from Brazil.

security

In a country that recorded 63,880 homicides last year, Bolsonaro's security proposals were at the center of his appeal and included the chemical castration of rapists, thereby freeing the possession of weapons and giving the police impunity to kill more criminals than she already does – 5,144 people died as a result of the 2017

His manifesto blames drug-related crime in five hard-hit states, such as Rio, with left-wing governments and their allies – an ideological approach that offers few solutions, said Renato Lima, president of the Brazilian Forum on HIV / AIDS. public security. Proposals to invest more in the equipment, technology and investigative capacity of the police force lack detail, and although Bolsonaro's manifesto indicates that the armed forces must be prepared to fight against violence, it is important to explain where and how.

"Maybe you can reduce crime, but the violence will be worse. You will aggravate the rights violations and the people will continue to be terrified, "said Lima.

The Amazon and the environment

Bolsonaro campaigned by promising to combine the Brazilian Ministry of Environment with the Ministry of Agriculture – under the control of agribusiness lobby allies. He attacked environmental agencies for managing a "fine industry" and advocated for simplification of environmental licensing for development projects. His chief of staff, Onyx Lorenzoni, and other allies challenged the science of global warming.

"He wants Amazon to remain Brazilian and the source of our progress and our wealth," Ribeiro Souto said in an interview. Ferreira also said that Bolsonaro wanted to relaunch discussions on controversial hydropower dams in the Amazon, blocked by environmental concerns.

The announcement last week by Bolsonaro that he would no longer seek to remove Brazil from the Paris climate agreement has not alleviated the fears of environmentalists.

"We have a serious risk of deforestation exploding and increased violence," said Marcio Astrini, director of public policy at Greenpeace in Brazil.

Native

Bolsonaro promised that no other indigenous reserve would be delineated and that existing reserves would be open to mining, which would sound the alarm among aboriginal leaders. "We are in a state of alert," said Beto Marubo, indigenous leader of the Javari Valley Reserve.

Dinamam Tuxá, executive coordinator of Liaison with Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, said indigenous peoples did not want mining or agriculture on their reserves, which are among the best protected areas in the world. ; Amazon. "He does not respect the traditions of indigenous peoples," he said..

LGBT

Homophobic violence in Brazil reached record levels in 2017, at least 445 people have died of homophobia. Antonio Kvalo, who co-founded the site Tem Local, which reports homophobic attacks, said that the rise of Bolsonaro and his homophobic remarks had further reinforced the prejudices.

Abusers targeting LGBT people are increasingly citing Bolsonaro or, in some cases, wearing their own T-shirts, he said, pointing out that the LGBT population has long suffered from high levels of violence in Brazil. .

"These people have always existed and have always attacked homobaduals, but before they had no excuse," Kvalo said. "We are all very scared."

Education

Ribeiro Souto said that under the Bolsonaro government, school curricula would be revised to remove what he described as "the ideology" left by 12 years of rule by the left-wing labor party. Science and technology will be a priority and the "traditional family" will be the focus, he said.

"We need to value the traditional family without giving up citizens who do not fit the traditional family aspect," he said.

According to Souto, the history of the Brazilian military dictatorship of 1964-1985 – during which 400 leftist militants were killed or disappeared by force, and thousands were tortured – is a "complex, traumatic process up to some point".

But he argued that the history taught in schools should recognize what he called the economic successes and institutions created during the dictatorship and show both sides of the story, did it? he said, including about 120 victims of left-wing armed groups.

"There were Brazilians fighting for the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. There were Brazilians fighting against its implementation, "he said.