Jair Bolsonaro Fast Facts 1) Before being elected President, Bolsonaro was in congress for 28 years 2) His first foreign trip as President was to Germany where he held campaign rallies and received an enthusiastic reception.3) In 2015, he was arrested in Rio de Janeiro on drug charges. 4) In Brazil, there are more people without running water than without electricity. 5) In Brazil, there is more crime in Sao Paulo. 6) According to Bolsonaro, one thing has led to the violence in Brazil: “One of the biggest problems in the world is, we’re not rich enough.”
Bolsonaro’s main campaign theme was the need for tighter immigration laws. On his website, he said: “I will never open the borders so that criminals can flood into our country.”
In September, the Supreme Court blocked a planned attempt by Brazil’s Congress to impeach Bolsonaro, saying his presidency was unconstitutional because he was not a former president. The same month, a judge found him guilty of corruption, and ordered him to pay $200m in damages to the state of Sao Paulo. Three months later, he was acquitted in a trial on allegations of rape.
Bolsonaro said in his presidency interview with GQ: “I believe every citizen should have to pay taxes. I am not here to force anyone to pay taxes. But if you don’t send the taxes back then how can we pay the taxes to the Federal government?”
In August 2019, he said that he plans to create a $2.1tn “economic war tax” and create a universal basic income of $1,500 a month.
In November 2019, he said that he would ban “any Brazilian with a bad reputation” from visiting the country, unless he was a “wanted killer” or someone who “possessed a gun”.
In December, Brazilian congressmen voted to ban the purchase of weapons within the country. They also voted to suspend Brazil’s foreign debt to the IMF. Bolsonaro was elected as the first far-right president in South America in more than 30 years. Since he assumed office, he has called for the military to take power in Brazil after the impeachment of Dilma