Latin America expert Pablo Galarce on Tuesday said that Jair Bolsonaro’s presidential victory in Brazil is part of a growing trend of authoritarian leaders across the world.
“[What] has happened today is what happened in the 60s in so many countries where we had military dictators before, and then we had democracy and now, unfortunately, democracy throughout the world has not been able to solve so many problems,” Galarce, a Democracy and Governance Adviser, told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton and Krystal Ball on “Rising.”
“A lot of people [have] come out of poverty, but their issues are still so big, and a lot of people are resorting to violence, to extortion, to narco-trafficking,” he continued. “This is a trend we, unfortunately, see throughout the world.”
“Unfortunately, Brazil is a violent society,” he said. “60,000 people a year have been killed in Brazil due to unemployment, lack of resources, lack of economic means.”
Galarce went on to compare Bolsonaro’s rhetoric to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s crackdown on violence and corruption.
“Sort of like the president of the Phillippines in other words, very extremist in saying ‘when we patrol the streets and have some issues, we can just kill people.’ “
“There’s a lot of issues. There’s a lot of violence. There’s a lot of drug trafficking going on in Brazil, but I don’t think you should be solving the drug trafficking issue just by killing people,” he said.
Bolsonaro was elected president of Brazil on Sunday, winning roughly 55 percent of the vote.
His opponents have repeatedly criticized his rhetoric on a slew of issues including race and LGBTQ matters.
President Trump called his new Brazilian counterpart on Sunday to congratulate him on his victory.
— Julia Manchester
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