IN OCTOBER, Jair Bolsonaro was elected president of Brazil, beating the left’s candidate Fernando Haddad, in a result which sent shock waves around Latin America and globally. His election was a triumph for the Trump administration, welcoming an ally against less compliant governments in the region. 

And while he posed as an “outsider,” the massive amounts of money spent on his campaign, including a dirty social media campaign from the Steve Bannon textbook, is just one signal of how he is in fact the candidate of the mega-rich, whom he will now reward with a privatisation bonanza.

His victory also presents a major threat to democratic, social and economic rights, fuelling violence and repression against the left and the labour movement. Days before his election, Bolsonaro said, if he was elected, “leftists will have to ... leave the country or go to jail,” adding “reds will be banished.”