On January 2nd of 2019, Jair Bolsonaro officially took office as the new president of Brazil, after receiving 55 percent of the popular vote in October of 2018. President Bolsonaro’s campaign was littered with controversies, from homophobia to racism to surviving a knife attack weeks before the election. When a member of the Chamber of Deputies called Bolsonaro a rapist, he responded by saying “I wouldn’t rape you because you don’t deserve it.” He later added that the congresswoman was simply “not his type.”

Source: Irish Times

So how does a person who once praised a military coup get elected in a country that was previously a military dictatorship? For similar reasons that the United States elected President Trump; citizens were hoping for a change. The majority of Brazil’s past leaders have been brought up on corruption charges. Many people were frustrated with the downturn in the economy, the increasing violence, and the leftist government’s inability to appropriately respond to crises. Bolsonaro ran on an anti-establishment campaign that promised to restore Brazil to its proper glory, making him the perfect candidate for many disheartened citizens.

Source: The Nation

Most notably, President Bolsonaro has been in the news over the past couple of months due to the government-sanctioned fires in the Amazon. There has been a significant increase in the number of fires (74,00 this year, double that of last year) in the Amazon as cattle ranchers and loggers work to clear more land. President Bolsonaro and the policies his government have enacted encourage this behavior in a bid to increase economic gains. Significant losses in the Amazons would have devastating effects on the entire world.

Source: Time

Not only does the Amazon house roughly 10 percent of the world’s biodiversity, but it also produces between 6 to 20 percent of the world’s oxygen. Nepstad et al. report that “approximately eight trillion tons of water evaporate from Amazon forests each year… the remainder of the rainfall entering this enormous basin flows into the Atlantic Ocean—15–20% of the worldwide continental freshwater run-off to the oceans.” Moreover, the simple act of deforestation releases a large amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Source: The Washington Post

President Bolsonaro has come under further fire (no pun intended) for his recent rollbacks on protective legislation for the indigenous peoples of Brazil. It is expected that mining and agricultural practices on indigenous lands will soon be legalized. The Guardian reports that “According to a recent report by Brazil’s Indigenous Missionary Council, 153 indigenous territories had been invaded since January – compared to 76 last year.”

Source: Al Jazeera

Is the “Trump of the Tropics” a rightly deserved nickname for President Bolsonaro? I believe so, in fact, I find that in most cases, President Bolsonaro represents a more extreme and violent leadership than President Trump. His presence is particularly concerning in a region that is becoming increasingly unstable due to economic downfalls. It is likely that other countries follow in Brazil’s footsteps and elect a far-right leader as more and more people become dissatisfied with the leadership of the left.