page_title: Jair Bolsonaro
section_title: Views on the Brazilian military dictatorship
hierarchical_section_title: Jair Bolsonaro / Political positions / Views on the Brazilian military dictatorship
caption_attribution_description: Português: Rememorar os Fatos Relacionados ao dia 31 de Março de 1964, véspera do golpe de estado que deu origem a ditadura militar. Dep. Jair Bolsonaro (PP-RJ) Data: 01/04/2014
context_page_description: Jair Messias Bolsonaro is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer who is the 38th president of Brazil. Elected in 2018 as a member of the conservative Social Liberal Party before cutting ties with them, he has been in office since 1 January 2019. He previously served in the country's Chamber of Deputies, representing the state of Rio de Janeiro between 1991 and 2018.
  Bolsonaro was born in the town of Glicério, in the state of São Paulo. He graduated from the Agulhas Negras Military Academy in 1977 and served in the Brazilian Army's field artillery and parachutist units. He became known to the public in 1986, when he wrote an article for Veja magazine criticizing low wages for military officers, after which he was arrested and detained for fifteen days. One year later, he was accused by the same magazine of planning to plant bombs in military units, which he denied. After a first degree conviction, he was acquitted by the Brazilian Supreme Military Court in 1988. He joined the reserve army in 1988 with the rank of captain and ran for the Rio de Janeiro City Council that same year, being elected while a member of the Christian Democratic Party.
context_section_description: Throughout his political career, Bolsonaro has made several admiring comments about the U.S.–supported Brazilian military dictatorship which ruled the country from 1964 to 1985. He said in 1993, eight years after the return of democracy, that the military regime had "led to a more sustainable and prosperous Brazil". Bolsonaro has publicly referred to the military dictatorship as a "glorious" period in Brazil's history, and that under the military dictatorship, Brazil enjoyed "20 years of order and progress". In December 2008, Bolsonaro said that "the error of the dictatorship was that it tortured, but did not kill".
  Bolsonaro has also repeatedly made admiring comments about a number of other Latin American dictatorships. He praised Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori as a role model for his use of military intervention via self-coup against the judiciary and legislature. In a 1998 interview with Veja magazine, Bolsonaro praised the Chilean dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, and said the Pinochet regime, which killed over 3,000 Chilean citizens, "should have killed more people". In 1999, Bolsonaro said that Hugo Chávez represented "hope for Latin America", comments that became a matter of controversy during the 2018 campaign, when Bolsonaro presented himself as a harsh critic of Chavismo. In 2019, already in power, Bolsonaro commended  Paraguayan dictator Alfredo Stroessner as a "visionary" and "statesman", drawing immediate criticism, particularly due to multiple allegations of pedophilia against Stroessner.
  Speaking before his vote in favor of President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment amid the massive corruption scandal, Bolsonaro paid homage to Colonel Brilhante Ustra, an agent of Brazil's military dictatorship, and announced on the floor of the Chamber of Deputies that he was dedicating his pro-impeachment vote to Ustra's memory. Ustra had headed the DOI-CODI torture unit where Rousseff was allegedly tortured during the military dictatorship. Left-wing deputy Jean Wyllys spat at him after his statement during the same session. The congressman claimed to have suffered homophobic offenses from Jair Bolsonaro and his allies.
  In a TV interview with Câmera Aberta in the 1990s, Bolsonaro said that if he ever became President, he would use this as an opportunity to shut down the National Congress and instigate a military coup himself. As of 2018, he appeared to have changed his mind, and said that if someone becomes the head of the country, it would be through voting.
  In March 2019, Bolsonaro stated that the 1964 coup d'état that overthrew President João Goulart was not a coup, and that March 31, the day the coup was installed, should be "properly commemorated".
caption: Bolsonaro and his son Eduardo hold up a Brazilian flag during a ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1964 military coup d'état, 1 April 2014.
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