Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday apologized after his visit to a group of teenagers he implied were sex workers drew accusations of “pedophilia” from opponents.
Fighting for re-election in a runoff against former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Oct. 30, Bolsonaro has been swept up in a firestorm over his remarks about the underage Venezuelan girls, whom he called “very pretty.”
“If my words, which were taken out of context in bad faith, were somehow misinterpreted or caused discomfort to our Venezuelan sisters, I apologize,” Bolsonaro said in a video posted online.
Photo: AFP
“My commitment has always been to better welcome and assist all people fleeing dictatorships anywhere in the world,” he added, flanked by his wife and Venezuelan National Assembly President Juan Guaido’s representative in Brazil.
Bolsonaro recognizes Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate leader, rather than Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
The controversy erupted on Friday when Bolsonaro spoke in a YouTube interview about visiting the home of “three or four very pretty 14 or 15-year-olds” last year in a poor neighborhood in Brasilia.
Photo: AFP
“There was a vibe between us. I turned around. ‘Can I come in your house?’ I went inside. There were 15 or 20 girls [in the house], all Venezuelans aged 14, 15, getting ready on a Saturday. Why? To earn a living,” he said.
The anecdote appeared intended as one of Bolsonaro’s frequent warnings that Brazil would suffer the same fate as crisis-torn Venezuela if it elects Lula.
However, Bolsonaro found himself on the defensive after Lula’s allies attacked the comments as “depraved” and the hashtag #Bolsonaropedofilo went viral online.
His campaign on Sunday succeeded in a petition to electoral authorities to ban an attack advertisement based on excerpts from the interview.
However, Bolsonaro said the preceding day had been “the most terrible of my life.”
In an interview on Tuesday, Lula said Bolsonaro’s behavior “is that of a pedophile.”
“He realized it, that’s why he got scared and tried to explain himself as quickly as possible,” Lula said.
After Bolsonaro’s apology, at least two other videos in which the president had told the same anecdote about the girls were shared online, including by Rosangela da Silva, Lula’s wife.
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