Versión Español
January 1 marks the first anniversary of Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency in Brazil. One of his most notable achievements has been to break down the inequality between the political class and the civilian population by ending the privileges of the public sector, which will save Brazilian taxpayers billions.
There are about one million public servants in Brazil, and they earn the equivalent of 20 million people in the private sector. This is the great Brazilian inequality machine. This reform is expected to save one trillion reals in ten years (250 billion USD), which will enable investment in infrastructure and decrease the brutal Brazilian tax burden.
The civil society voted for Bolsonaro to shrink the state and he did it
The most remarkable thing is that this was not accomplished through political trickery, nor with the money and influence of politicians. Instead, the government made a good communication strategy. It used its political capital with the electoral masses, pressured the legislators through social media, and organized civil society, showing that whoever voted against the measure wanted Brazil’s defeat.
The Economic Freedom Act was also approved, which seeks to reduce bureaucracy and allow entrepreneurs to grow. The stock market reached almost 120,000 points (under Dilma, it was 40,000).
So far this year, more than 1.1 million jobs have been generated in Brazil.
Bolsonaro faced the world over the Amazon fire, while Evo Morales enjoys impunity
These achievements are on a domestic level. On the other hand, at the international level, Bolsonaro faced the world. The fires in the Amazon unleashed a campaign against him, where there was even a proposal before the UN to take away Brazil’s control of the forest so that it would be “global.” But the statistics showed that the fires were fewer than usual and that it was a campaign with political ends.
The ideological roots of the supposed environmentalism were exposed when in neighboring Bolivia where the now ex-president Evo Morales signed a decree to allow the burning of the forests without time restrictions, thus breaking the natural cycle and the ancestral technique, which caused the destruction of more than 5.3 million hectares and killed 2.3 million animals.
However, the Bolivian leader was not condemned worldwide. On the contrary, he participated in the climate change summit as an environmental hero. He blamed the capitalist system for environmental damage even though Bolivia suffered through the historically worst state-executed disaster under the government of Evo’s Movement Towards Socialism party.
El sistema capitalista fomenta la lógica de dominación de los hombres sobre la naturaleza. Nuestros pueblos enfrentan una vez más con mayor rigor huracanes, sequías, incendios y otros fenómenos extremos. Es urgente el cumplimiento efectivo y sin dilaciones del Acuerdo de París pic.twitter.com/YUhvejs4X7
— Evo Morales Ayma (@evoespueblo) September 23, 2019
Meanwhile, in Brazil, true to Jair Bolsonaro’s suspicions, it was proven that the fires were set by none other than alleged environmentalists.
Four members of the Alter do Chão Fire Brigade (Daniel Gutiérrez Govino, João Victor Pereira Roman, Gustavo de Almeida Fernandes, and Marcelo Aron Cwerver) were arrested on Tuesday, November 26, for allegedly setting fire to the Environmental Protection Area (APA).
“We began tracking the movement of the four suspects. We noticed that their legal entity obtained a contract with WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature), sold 40 images to WWF for exclusive use for 70,000 reals (16,500 USD), and WWF received donations of 500,000 reals (117,000 USD) from actor Leonardo DiCaprio to help NGOs fight forest fires in the Amazon,” said the head of the Civil Police of the Interior, Jose Humberto Melo Jr.
– Em outubro declarei que muitos focos de incêndios poderiam estar ligados a ONGs. Agora a polícia paraense prende alguns suspeitos pelo crime. pic.twitter.com/AT2SoBgNJV
— Jair M. Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) November 27, 2019
In Brazil, deaths of criminals increased, and innocent deaths decreased
Police also report that there are fewer violent deaths in Brazil than in the last decade. This was announced by the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Sergio Moro, the judge in charge of purging the country’s most corrupt politicians, among them Lula Da Silva, who was sent to prison. Moro also made it impossible for Dilma Roussef to finish her term because of her links to corruption with state funds.
Nationwide, homicide is down 22.6%. Besides violence, robbery also decreased. In Rio de Janeiro, street robbery, which includes pedestrian theft, collective burglary, and cell phone theft, decreased by 3.6%. The latter remains the crimes that most affect the population, causing personal injuries and loss of documents. There was a total of 88,596 cases reported from January to August 2018, compared to 85,513 in the same period this year.
The only figure that increased was the number of criminals who died during armed confrontations with the police. In the case of Rio de Janeiro, it increased by 16.2%.
– Registro de armas de fogo cresceu 50% no corrente ano, levando-se em conta o mesmo período de 2018. Segundo "especialistas", o número de mortes deveria aumentar no Brasil, MAS na prática caiu 22%.
– Dependo do Parlamento para ampliar o direito a posse/porte para mais cidadãos. pic.twitter.com/kibR4Qk3A0
— Jair M. Bolsonaro (@jairbolsonaro) December 29, 2019
Under Bolsonaro, Brazil stopped being the bank for Cuba and Venezuela
When the Workers’ Party was in power, Brazilian taxpayers’ money not only financed works in tyrannical regimes such as Cuba and Venezuela (the Mariel Port expansion alone cost 957 million USD, funded by the Brazilian state) but also provided loans. Until October 2018, Cuba owed the National Bank of Economic and Social Development (BNDES) 17.4 million USD in installments due in June, July, and August.
Since Brazil was Cuba’s guarantor, besides giving it money for works, it also paid off international loans so as not to lose credibility.
“Non-payment by Brazil would have undesirable consequences for the country, so it would no longer be considered a good payer by international banks and BNDES,” explained the former Secretary of Government, Carlos Marun.
In the middle of the presidential campaign, Jair Bolsonaro announced that his government would bring this to an end, as his campaign slogan was “Brazil above all else.” He announced that BNDES would no longer be at the service of tyrannies, and he has accomplished this.
🇻🇪"Venezolanos mueren de hambre por la tiranía de un gobierno que anda de la mano con la dictadura cubana. Via BNDES y otras fuentes de su dinero Brasil es un gran patrocinador del socialismo que masacra millones en el mundo. ¡Eso cambiará! ¡Con nosotros, el foco es Brasil!" https://t.co/xwuNIgzo20
— Rumbo Libertad (@Rumbo_Libertad) September 30, 2018
Bolsonaro ended the slavery of Cuban doctors
Bolsonaro also denied the Cuban regime its primary source of income, the salaries of doctors -of which they expropriated between 75 and 95%- which meant 500% (11.5 billion USD in 2016) of what they earn from tourism.
Although he offered asylum to doctors who wanted to stay after being released from Cuba, Bolsonaro said that Brazil would admit doctors under ‘Cuban guardianship,’ on the condition that they were screened, could travel with their families (Cuba forced them to travel alone), and had a decent salary. But Havana did not allow it and withdrew these doctors.
The decrease in crime goes hand in hand with the reduction of bureaucracy, thus diminishing cases of corruption
The fact is that a reduction of bureaucracy characterizes the current administration. Bolsonaro surpassed by 3.5 million the money that he intended to collect through privatization in the first week of October, three months before the end of the first year of his administration. His government had set a goal of 20 billion USD in profits from privatization in his first year in office. The Special Secretariat released the information for Privatization, Divestment, and Markets of the Ministry of Economy.
This secretariat set the goal for 2021: to privatize Brazil completely, from prisons to airports to basic sanitation.
This would generate even more employment, and the provision of services would be passed on to civil society, rather than the political class which has so far lived at the expense of others.
This article was written together with Lucas Ribeiro, Masters in politics and international relations.
