New Brazillian President Jair Bolsonaro has promised to radically change the path taken by Latin America’s biggest country by trashing decades of center-left policies.
However, while the far-right politician enjoys sky-high popularity, the challenges to his agenda are formidable.
Here are the key issues he faces:
ECONOMY
Brazil is a commodity-exporting powerhouse, but it is still limping out of a record-breaking recession that eradicated many gains from the stellar period of prosperity it enjoyed only a decade ago.
Bolsonaro has appointed a free-marketeer, Paulo Guedes, as Brazilian minister of the economy to push through reforms to bring down Brazil’s swelling debt, mainly through privatizations, tax changes and encouraging foreign investment.
One of the trickiest problems is likely to be cutting back on Brazil’s unsustainable pension system, which requires an overhaul of the constitution.
Bolsonaro’s far-right Social Liberal Party does not have a majority in the Brazillian Congress. To pass legislation he would have to rely on ad hoc alliances with backbenchers in various parties who are part of his evangelical, pro-agribusiness, pro-gun base.
Consulting firm Eurasia Group said that the reforms pose “a real challenge.”
The big swing in public support behind Bolsonaro could give him the legislative firepower he needs, if he moves early in his term — but even then “expect a lot of drama” in Congress, it said.
DIPLOMACY
Brazil’s new orientation is likely to become quickly clear to the world through its diplomacy and a lot of that is inspired by US President Donald Trump, whom Bolsonaro admires.
Bolsonaro has already said he would pull his country out of a UN global migration pact, and he is deciding whether to do the same with the Paris accord on climate change and whether to move Brazil’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem — all measures aligned with Trump.
Additionally, he is hostile to greater Chinese investment in Brazil, and he has said he would do all he can to challenge the leftist governments of Cuba and Venezuela.
DOMESTIC POLITICS
Bolsonaro’s two main promises are to crack down on rampant crime and extinguish political corruption.
The former military man wants laws eased so “good” people can own guns to deter armed assailants.
Critics fear that could usher in a “Wild West” in a country where there are already nearly 64,000 homicides annually.
Police officers — responsible for about 5,000 deaths a year — would be given greater impunity under Bolsonaro.
The fight against corruption has been under way since 2014, under a sprawling anti-graft probe known as “Car Wash,” which has snared many political and corporate chiefs.
In a savvy move, Bolsonaro has named the judge who led “Car Wash,” Sergio Moro, as his minister of justice.
Yet corruption in Brazil has deep roots and any evidence of it in Bolsonaro’s inner circle — some allegations are already being investigated — or his party could rapidly damage his image.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
RSS