Four years after President Jair Bolsonaro rode to victory with the backing of Brazil’s Bibles, Bullets and Beef coalition, this powerful trio of groups still form the core of his base.
AFP spoke to Bolsonaro supporters from the “BBB” constituencies – conservative Christians, security hardliners and farmers – about the October 2 elections in which the far-right incumbent ran against leftist ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003- 2010) started.
– Proud Policeman –
Former Rio de Janeiro police officer Elitusalem Gomes Freitas, 42, says his admiration for Bolsonaro began well before the ex-army captain’s 2018 campaign, when the current president was still a congressman for Rio.
“When officers were killed on duty, other politicians never expressed their condolences. Bolsonaro did,” says Freitas.
“He went to the funerals and paid tribute to our colleagues.”
Freitas, a heavily built man who spent two decades as a police officer before entering local politics, is now running to represent Rio in Congress, as Bolsonaro once did.
Pictures on his social networks show him with a stern face, a gun, the Brazilian flag and a black T-shirt with the words “Bolsonaro”.
He describes himself as a gun advocate, conservative and “terror of the left”.
Bolsonaro’s victory four years ago “raised great expectations among the conservatives,” he says.
“But problems that have dragged on for 30 years will not be solved in four years.”
Still, he loves Bolsonaro’s “integrity,” after what he calls the “rape” of Lula and his Labor Party.
Like Bolsonaro, he claims nefarious powers are planning a “secret vote count” to steal the election.
“The people who accuse Bolsonaro of plotting a coup are inverting the narrative. They are the real putschists,” he says.
– Dear voters –
Retired math teacher Mariza Russo Feres, 68, says she prays every day “for Brazil and the president that God will choose.”
The evangelical pastor’s wife fears Lula’s return to power.
“I’m afraid of Communism,” she says, sitting in a pew in Sao Paulo’s posh Pinheiros neighborhood where her husband is preaching.
She sees Bolsonaro as a defender of family values ??and Lula as a threat.
“For example, abortion is anti-Christian, and we’re concerned that a candidate … is forcing it on us,” she says, referring to abortion-rights statements by Lula, who later backed down and were met with negative reactions in a country that remains largely conservative on this issue.
Feres also cites the Left’s alleged imposition of “gender ideology” in schools.
With the Bible in her hand, she kneels down, closes her eyes and prays for the country.
– happy farmer –
Farmer Carlos Alberto Moresco, 47, says he is far from ‘idolatrous’ Bolsonaro. There are no election posters for the incumbent on his farm, Fazenda Onca.
But the facts speak for themselves, he says: Bolsonaro has been the best president in recent history of Brazilian agribusiness, opening up new markets in Asia and investing in infrastructure that has helped boost exports.
“He was very clever in choosing his ministers. Our (former) Secretary of Agriculture (Tereza Cristina) was an agricultural engineer,” says Moresco, who grows corn and soybeans on the 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) he leases outside the Central Western town of Luciania.
He’s also a fan of the Bolsonaro government’s program to regularize land titles for more than 350,000 farmers who lacked legal titles.
“He brought dignity to these people who were just making ends meet. Now they can borrow with land titles and farm with dignity,” he says.
“If someone is true to my values ??and principles, I am true to them. Our President values ??rich and poor alike, so I say he deserves four more years.”
