Among the main controversies surrounding Jair Bolsonaro are his right-wing populist position,Publications characterized as right-wing populist include:
his criticism of the political left, his classification of torture as a legitimate practice, his opposition to LGBT rights and several other questionable statements,Publications considered contrary to LGBT rights include:
which have led to 30 calls for his impeachment and three court convictions. Several international organizations consider that his authoritarian tendencies threaten to cause irreparable harm to civil society, the press, Afro-Brazilians, indigenous people and critics of the government. Bolsonaro also has a hostile relationship with the press and has been accused of proliferating fake news.
Although his statements are classified on the far-right of the political perspective, Bolsonaro rejects such categorization.Publications characterized as far-right include:
On March 12, 1999, he spoke in the Chamber of Deputies to praise Federal Deputy Luiza Erundina, a member of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB) and recognized as a left-wing figure. After the 2002 elections, he announced his vote for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in the second round, although he had supported Ciro Gomes (then affiliated to the PPS) in the first round.
His statements have been described as hate speech,Publications characterized as hate speech include:
homophobic, misogynistic, sexist, racist and anti-refugee. In August 2018, the British magazine The Economist described him as a "radical", a "religious nationalist", a "right-wing demagogue", an "apologist for dictators" and a "threat to democracy".
Bolsonaro often defends Brazil's military dictatorship. During an argument with demonstrators in December 2008, he declared that "the mistake of the dictatorship was to torture and not to kill." He has been criticized by the media, politicians and the Torture Never Again group, especially after he posted a poster on his office door telling relatives of those who disappeared during the military dictatorship that "those who look for bones are dogs". During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bolsonaro spread disinformation and made statements contrary to the recommendations of health agencies, besides carrying out several public activities.
Operation Dead End On October 27, 1987, Jair Bolsonaro reported on the Operation Dead End to reporter Cássia Maria from Veja magazine. He supported an improvement in pay and opposed the arrest of Captain Saldon Pereira Filho. The aim of the operation was to explode low-powered bombs in toilets at the Agulhas Negras Military Academy, in Resende, and in military barracks in order to protest against the low salaries that military personnel were receiving.
Bolsonaro allegedly drew a sketch of where the bomb would be installed in the Guandu Pipeline, which supplies water to the municipality of Rio de Janeiro. Veja handed the material over to the Minister of the Army, Leônidas Pires Gonçalves, who, after four months of investigation, concluded that the report was correct and that the captains had lied. Unanimously, on April 19, 1988, the Military Justification Council (CJM) ruled that Bolsonaro was guilty and that "his incompatibility for the rank of officer and consequent loss of rank be declared". In his defense, Bolsonaro said that Veja magazine had published fraudulent accusations in order to sell more with sensationalist articles.
The case was submitted to the Superior Military Court (STM). The trial was held in June 1988 and the court accepted the thesis of Bolsonaro's and Captain Fábio Passos da Silva's defense, which claimed that the documentary evidence was insufficient because it did not allow for handwriting comparisons, since block letters had been used. They used the strategy of presenting four reports instead of the two required by the system, leading the justices to make a technical mistake in their verdicts. The STM acquitted the two officers, who were kept in the army. In the same year, Bolsonaro went into the military reserve with the rank of captain and began his political career, running for councillor in Rio de Janeiro. Later, the Army Police report was disproved by the Federal Police, which confirmed Bolsonaro's handwriting.
Corruption In December 2020, Jair Bolsonaro was named "Person of the Year" by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an international consortium of investigative journalists. According to the organization, Bolsonaro has "surrounded himself with corrupt figures, used propaganda to promote his populist agenda, undermined the justice system, and waged a destructive war against the Amazon region that has enriched some of the country's worst land owners."
Assets
Between 2010 and 2014, Jair Bolsonaro's assets grew by more than 150% according to the declaration filed with the Superior Electoral Court (TSE). During this period, he acquired five properties worth a combined R$8 million, including two houses in Rio de Janeiro bought for R$500,000 and R$400,000, respectively, figures considerably lower than those evaluated at the time. The Federal Council of Real Estate Brokers (Cofeci) claims to have evidence that the purchase operation involved money laundering. According to the Electoral Justice, he owns cars worth up to R$105,000, a jet-ski and financial investments worth R$1.7 million. When he entered politics in 1989, Bolsonaro declared that he had a Fiat Panorama and two plots of land in Resende, valued at R$10,000. Until 2008, he and his children declared assets of about R$1 million, reaching R$15 million in 2017. As a congressman, he earned a salary of R$25,000, plus a Brazilian Army salary of R$5,700. In his defense, Bolsonaro claimed that Rodrigo Janot, former Prosecutor General of the Republic, had filed an anonymous complaint about his declaration of assets in 2014 and that the accusations were "slanderous" and part of a "campaign to assassinate his reputation".
Bolsonaro has also received a housing allowance of about R$3,000 from the Chamber of Deputies since 1995, despite owning a two-bedroom apartment in Brasilia since 1998. A report on the Vice website raised the issue in March 2017 due to the repercussions of Operation Weak Meat. Bolsonaro posted a video on his YouTube channel explaining that the R$200,000, half of the amount spent on his campaign, was returned as a "donation to the party". However, the TSE spreadsheet revealed that the amount was transferred back to Bolsonaro's account, but now as a donation from the party fund.
In April 2017, Bolsonaro was indicted for using his parliamentary quota to pay for trips around Brazil to present himself as a pre-candidate for the presidency in 2018. According to the Chamber's rules on the use of the quota, no expenses of an electoral nature will be allowed. Between 2016 and 2017, at least six of his trips were funded by the Chamber for a total of R$22,000. His press office denied that he was campaigning and claimed that the use of the travel quota was related to his participation in the Chamber's Public Security Committee, on which he is an alternate.
On April 7, 2020, the Agência Sportlight revealed invoices showing that Bolsonaro, when he was a member of parliament, overbilled for the reimbursement of public fuel funds. At the end of the month, Minister Luiz Fux of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) sent a criminal complaint to the Public Prosecutor's Office (PGR) against Jair Bolsonaro. Criminal lawyer Sidney Duran Gonzalez filed the complaint.
Nepotism In December 2017, the newspaper O Globo reported that Bolsonaro and his children employed one of his ex-wives and two of her relatives in public positions in their offices. According to the newspaper, they occupied the positions from 1998 onwards. However, as the hirings took place before 2008, when the Supreme Federal Court (STF) standardized the rules against nepotism, they cannot legally be classified in this way.
A report in Folha de S. Paulo in January 2018 revealed that Bolsonaro had hired a ghost servant in Brasilia. According to the article, between January and June, Walderice Santos da Conceição received more than R$17,000 as an employee of his office in the Chamber of Deputies, but worked as an açaí vendor in the municipality of Angra dos Reis, in Rio de Janeiro. She had been one of his 14 employees since 2003, earning a salary of R$1,416.33. In August 2018, Bolsonaro announced that Walderice had resigned from her job as an advisor and commented: "She has two dogs there and in order not to die she occasionally gives the dogs water, that's all. That's her crime, giving water to the dogs".
Ana Cristina Valle In September 2018, Veja magazine published an article detailing a 500-page lawsuit filed by ex-wife Ana Cristina Siqueira Valle against Bolsonaro. In the document, filed in April 2008 with the 1st Family Court of Rio de Janeiro in the midst of a contentious separation, Ana Cristina made several accusations against Bolsonaro, including: hiding assets from the Electoral Justice in the 2006 election, incompatibility of income with his monthly earnings and theft of cash and jewelry from a safe at a Banco do Brasil branch. Following the allegations, the Federal Revenue Service opened an investigation in 2008, but found no irregularities. After the publication of the report, Bolsonaro sent a request to the Public Prosecutor's Office of Rio de Janeiro asking that issue 2602 of Veja magazine be withdrawn from circulation. It also asked for an investigation into how the article accessed a case that had been archived and was kept secret from the courts. Ana Cristina later claimed to have lied to the courts in her testimony.
Slush fund On October 19, 2018, the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), following a request from the Workers' Party (PT), launched an investigation based on a report in the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, which claimed that companies paid up to R$12 million in contracts for the mass sending of fake news against Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on the WhatsApp app to favor Bolsonaro's presidential campaign. Bolsonaro's defense says he has been falsely accused and would take the appropriate legal measures. According to the PT, the act consisted of the practice of slush fund.
In a 1999 interview with a program on Rede Bandeirantes, Bolsonaro said: "My advice and I do it: I withhold everything possible." His name is registered on the Furnas List, a corruption scheme that used illegal money to finance 156 political campaigns in 2000. Although he claims that the list is fake, its authenticity has been proven by a Federal Police report. In the Consultation of Candidate Campaign Donors and Suppliers, on the website of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), Bolsonaro's name also appears as a recipient of R$200,000 from the company JBS during his campaign in 2014. That year, Bolsonaro was re-elected federal deputy with the highest number of votes in Rio de Janeiro and received more than 460,000 votes.
In 2016, Bolsonaro opposed an amendment articulated mainly by parties and parliamentarians involved in Operation Car Wash to give amnesty to crimes of slush fund. On October 7, 2020, he announced the end of the operation, claiming that there was no corruption in his government. Carlos Fernando dos Santos Lima, a former member of the operation, stated on social media that Bolsonaro is one of those responsible for ending the operation by making a political alliance with "Renans, Maias, Aras, Toffolis and Gilmares, and all of them, hand in hand around the great national accord, decided to save the rotten and nefarious system of political corruption. Bolsonaro is a shameful fraud".
Queiroz case