While many people watched election night unfold and contemplated how Donald Trump's victory would affect American politics, Simon Romero was thinking about a different country.
Romero, the Brazilian Bureau Chief for The New York Times, is visiting campus this week and spoke Thursday about the current political turmoil in Brazil and how it could be affected by the U.S. presidential elections. Brazilians are shocked by Trump's victory and what it means for their country's foreign policy and economy, he noted.
“Brazil is in a similar place politically as the United States is in," Romero said. “There is a general disenchantment with the democratic process in Brazil that is growing more intense."
Brazilian social media shows that the people are just as politically divided as Americans are right now, Romero explained.
Political polarization in Brazil is growing more and more intense, heightened by the recent impeachment of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and the Thursday arrest of Sérgio Cabral, former governor of Rio de Janeiro, who was taken into custody as part of an embezzlement investigation.
In addition to the political instability, Brazil is in the midst of its worst economic recession in decades, noted Patrick Duddy—director of the Duke Center for the Latin and Caribbean studies and former U.S. ambassador to Venezuela, who moderated the event.
“The situation economically [in Brazil] is a tragic one," Romero said. "You see almost a 10 percent decline in GDP over the last two years."
The faltering economy has generated resentment among the Brazilian people towards their government. Romero said that one of the country's major political parties, Partido de los Trabajadores—in English, the Workers' Party—is undergoing a sort of identity crisis. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the former Brazilian president and a founding member of the Workers' Party, was indicted on charges of corruption and money laundering this September.
“The Workers’ Party is going through this intense period of self-examination and a deeper exploration of its own future," Romero said.
The political polarization and unstable economy have created conditions in which someone like Brazilian congressman Jair Bolsonaro, a man with few credentials or knowledge in the works of democracy, could possibly win the 2018 Brazilian presidential elections, Romero said. After Trump’s victory last week, Bolsonaro tweeted, “Congratulations to the people of the United States electing @realDonaldTrump... Brazil will be on the same path in 2018."
Romero noted that Bolsonaro is supported by many members of the Workers' Party, and that he has spoken out against LGBTQ+ rights and has similar social views as Trump. The popular sentiment of disenchantment with politics in Brazil is similar to what propelled Trump to the U.S. presidency and what drove the people of the United Kingdom to vote to leave the European Union.
Romero added that since his first exposure to Brazil as a student in 1990, the country "is as divided as I have ever seen it."
The event was hosted by the Duke Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
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