- ABC News
- October 8, 2018
Is Brazil's democracy at risk?
Brazil is the largest democracy of Latin America since the end of its military regime that ruled the country for more than 20 years, from 1964 to 1985. But some observers wonder if its democracy is at risk with a far-right extremist candidate, Jair Bolsonaro, 63, who calls himself "the Trump of Brazil" winning the first round of the presidential election, moving him to the runoff at the end of the month. The former army captain -- who is openly homophobic, misogynist, racist, authoritarian and pro-gun -- got 46 percent of the vote compared to the 29.3 percent for the second-place candidate, Fernando Haddad of the Worker's Party. "This vote was a real and clear rejection to everything that was symbolized by the left parties and by Lula," said Thiago de Oliveira, a Brazilian political risks expert at ARKO to ABC News, referring to Lula da Silva, a left-wing politician who was president from 2003 to 2011. He said he thinks that the country's younger generation is not aware of...