What will a Bolsonaro government look like? – The Guardian

In this article, an excerpt from the article published in The Guardian is presented. In reality, my opinions were gathered by the correspondent of the British newspaper in Brazil, Dom Phillips, in a telephone interview.

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What will a Bolsonaro government look like?  

[Excerpts]

Bolsonaro has pledged policies to boost the economy but fears remain over the future of the Amazon and the nation’s LGBT community

Dom Phillipsin Rio de Janeiro

Mon 29 Oct 2018 05.30 GMT

Last modified on Mon 5 Nov 2018 21.03 GMT

Jair Bolsonaro– who won the presidency of Latin America’s biggest country on Sunday– has made broad promises for his government but offered little detail.

And in a country that emerged from military rule only 33 years ago Bolsonaro has prompted concerns with his pledge to include retired generals in his cabinet.

Among the former military officers who played a central role in drawing up his policy proposals are retired generals Aléssio Ribeiro Souto – who has focused on science, technology and education – and Oswaldo Ferreira, who has drawn up plans for infrastructure and the Amazon.

General Augusto Heleno, who ran Brazil’s United Nations mission in Haiti, will be his defence minister and is seen by some as a potential moderating force.

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The Amazon and the environment

Bolsonaro campaigned on a pledge to combine Brazil’s environment ministry with the agriculture ministry – under control of allies from the agribusiness lobby. He has attacked environmental agencies for running a “fines industry” and argued for simplifying environmental licences for development projects. His chief of staff, Onyx Lorenzoni, and other allies have challenged global warming science.

“He intends that Amazon stays Brazilian and the source of our progress and our riches,” said Ribeiro Souto in an interview. Ferreira has also said Bolsonaro wants to restart discussions over controversial hydroelectric dams in the Amazon, which were stalled over environmental concerns.

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Education

Ribeiro Souto said that under a Bolsonaro government, school curriculums would be revised to remove what he described as the “ideology” left by 12 years of rule by the leftist Workers’ party. Science and technology will be given priority and the “traditional family” will be the focus, he said.

“You have to value the traditional family without abandoning those citizens who do not fit within the aspect of the traditional family,” he said.

Souto said the history of Brazil’s military 1964-1985 dictatorship – during which 400 leftwing activists were killed or forcibly disappeared, and thousands were tortured – was a “complex process, traumatic to a certain point”.

But he argued that the history taught in schools should acknowledge what he called the economic successes and institutions created during the dictatorship and show both sides of the story, he said, including around 120 victims of armed leftist groups.

“There were Brazilians fighting for the implementation of the dictatorship of the proletariat. There were Brazilians who were fighting against its implementation,” he said.

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