Far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro's win in Brazil could signal close relationship with Trump: ANALYSIS
Trump congratulated Bolsonaro on his win and said they would work closely.
As Brazil's far-right president-elect basked in his victory this week, attention turned to what his relationship with President Donald Trump may look like.
Jair Bolsonaro, who clinched the presidency in the second round of presidential voting in Brazil on Sunday, has drawn comparisons to Trump after expressing his desire to "break the system." The 63-year-old defeated Fernando Haddad, the candidate from Brazil's Worker's Party, which had won the three previous elections and whose rule ended in the impeachment of former President Dilma Rousseff on corruption charges.
A former army captain who won with a wide majority, Bolsonaro used language and backed policies similar to Trump's during his campaign. He harped on polarization, "fake news," gun ownership, and putting Brazil first.
"It was not an ordinary election," Mauricio Santoro, a political scientist at Rio de Janeiro State University, told ABC News. Bolsonaro's political rise, he said, took place "at the right time, at the right place, with the right speech."
Bolsonaro's victory has widely been seen as a significant shift in Brazil's history. A relative political outsider, Bolsonaro has now been catapulted to the highest office in Latin America's largest democracy.
"Bolsonaro has never been a big political figure of Brazil until lately," Santoro explained.
Bolsonaro had served as a congressman for the state of Rio de Janeiro since 1990 but never served as a minister or other higher office. The president-elect, whose nickname is "The Big Horse," will be sworn in in January 2019.
On Monday, Trump signaled his desire for a close relationship with Bolsonaro in a tweet.
"Had a very good conversation with the newly elected President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, who won his race by a substantial margin. We agreed that Brazil and the United States will work closely together on Trade, Military and everything else! Excellent call, wished him congrats!" Trump wrote.
Bolsonaro's first moves could parallel steps the Trump administration has recently taken, such as targeting Venezuela's government and moving Brazil's embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Santoro said.
"I do believe Bolsonaro could vote for economic sanctions and military interventions against Venezuela and making Jerusalem the new city for the embassy," Santoro said. "Bolsonaro wants to please Trump as much as possible, going from a cordial relationship to an excellent one."
For his part, Bolsonaro said in an interview with Record TV Monday he would pursue a peaceful solution to the situation in Venezuela.
In a speech Sunday night, Bolsonaro called himself a "defender of freedom" who will protect citizens who follow duties and respect the law. A crowd of his supporters took the streets of Rio de Janeiro to celebrate the newly elected president after the polls closed.
But for many, Bolsonaro's rise has been troubling, particularly his praise for Brazil's past military rule.
Suely Lima, 42, is a housekeeper in the rich neighborhood of Cosme Velho in Rio de Janeiro. Lima lives with her four children in the Prazeres favela. She is now pregnant with her fifth child, a little boy.
"We are the ones Jair Bolsonaro will put the blame on. I don't have any hope for my future baby," Lima said.
She also remembers what it was like being a teenager at the end of Brazil's military dictatorship and the constant threat it posed.
"We have already seen blood. Brazilians never learnt from their past. I would not have imagined it would start again. It's like pain never serves the future," she added.
Iconic Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso echoed the same sentiments in an op-ed in the New York Times Veloso was one of many artists arrested by the military during that period, and he went into exile in London for several years.
"I was forced into exile once. It won't happen again. I want my music, my presence, to be a permanent resistance to whatever anti-democratic feature may come out of a probable Bolsonaro government" Veloso wrote in the Times.
