Jacobin Radio

Suzi talks to political economist Pedro Paulo Zahluth Bastos about the October 28 election that brought the ultra-right wing Jair Bolsonaro to power. Bolsonaro promised to cleanse Brazil of crime and corruption by killing tens of thousands — and won formidable support from the poor who have been left behind by the neoliberal policies of successive governments, and whose neighborhoods are riddled with violence and crime. They turned away from the Workers Party (PT), tainted by its austerity policies and corruption, like the other political parties. But what can the working class and the poor actually expect from Bolsonaro, who represents a violent extreme of authoritarian neoliberalism, on the rise across the world? We get Pedro Paulo's analysis of the vote, Bolsonaro’s political-economic strategy, and what Bolsonaro’s victory means for Brazilian democracy and Latin America as a whole.

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