Beef, Bible and bullets: an interview with Richard Lapper

Posted by Becca Parkinson - Wednesday, 17 Aug 2022

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The people of Brazil will soon have the chance to choose whether or not to re-elect far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. With elections due to be held in October 2022, we spoke to author Richard Lapper, author of Beef, Bible and bullets: Brazil in the age of Bolsonaro (MUP, 2022) ahead of the upcoming general election to get the basics on the Bolsonaro saga so far, and his expectations for the future.

How was Bolsonaro elected?

Jair Bolsonaro came to office in 2018. Bolsonaro was backed by a number of right-wing parties and he defeated the candidate of the left-wing Workers Party (Fernando Haddad) by a fairly convincing margin. The election was generally considered to have been fair. Critics, however, say that a corruption case against former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was politically motivated. Even after Lula was imprisoned in 2018 and excluded from the election he was well ahead of Bolsonaro in the polls.

Why is Bolsonaro burning the Amazon rainforest?

Bolsonaro isn’t burning the Amazon deliberately. But his policies have led to a sharp uptick in the rate of deforestation. That’s because he has underfunded and weakened the main state agencies responsible for environmental protection. In addition, the mainly small businesses responsible for a good deal of the damage – illegal miners, loggers and cattle ranchers, for example – are big supporters of Bolsonaro and his government has done quite a bit to encourage them.

What does Bolsonaro stand for?

Bolsonaro is a right-wing authoritarian populist. He has argued in favour of a return to socially conservative values and a very tough stance on law and order. He has given Brazilians easier access to weapons and given the police a freer hand to clamp down on the gangs that control the poor areas of many Brazilian cities. Bolsonaro believes that the armed forces did a good job when they were in power in Brazil (from 1964 to 1985) and he associates the return of democratic rule with inefficiency and corruption.

Will Bolsonaro be re-elected?

Since March 2021 the opinion polls have shown Lula – the former President – who was released from prison in 2019 – with a substantial lead. Bolsonaro’s government has spent heavily on social welfare programmes this year and that has begun to narrow the advantage in the last few weeks. But it still seems more likely that Lula will win.

How did Bolsonaro rise up into a position of immense power?

Bolsonaro served for more than a decade in the army (where he rose to the rank of captain). He got into politics in the late 1980s, was elected to congress in 1990 and built up a constituency among grass roots soldiers and policemen by pressing for things like wage increases and better retirement benefits. His base widened after that but Bolsonaro was always an outsider in the legislature, a maverick prepared to argue in favour of unfashionable anti-liberal views. He came to the fore during the 2010s when the popular mood turned against the established parties of the centre-left and centre-right due to a deep economic recession and a big corruption scandal (known as lava jato or carwash).

What is Bolsonaro’s relationship with Vladimir Putin?

Bolsonaro is a big ally of former President Donald Trump and after Trump’s defeat in 2020 the Brazilian President has been somewhat isolated internationally and keen to acquire support wherever he can find it. Although Brazil voted at the UN to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Bolsonaro argued that his country should be neutral. Economic factors are important in explaining this stance. Brazil imports about a quarter of the fertilisers used by its powerful agribusiness sector from Russia.

How is Bolsonaro different to his opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (known as Lula)?

Bolsonaro and Lula are both popular and somewhat charismatic leaders who have a strong almost personalist relationship with their supporters. Neither depends much on parties. Lula stands head and shoulders above rival leaders in the left-wing Workers Party and he has specialised in building broad alliances with a variety of usually more moderate forces. Bolsonaro has changed his party repeatedly. In other ways they are very different. Although a left-winger Lula is a consensual leader very different in style not just to Bolsonaro but also to the authoritarian leftists in charge of Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. Lula’s governments (2003 to 2007 and 2007 to 2011) made lot of progress in reducing poverty and raising living standards. Under Lula Brazil also protected the Amazon effectively, reducing the rate of deforestation. 

Beef, Bible and bullets by Richard Lapper is available now in hardback, paperback, ebook and audiobook formats – shop all here.

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