Jair Bolsonaro

Jair Bolsonaro

Jair Messias Bolsonaro is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer. He is the 38th president of Brazil, having been in office since 1 January 2019. He served in the Brazilian Army’s field artillery and parachutist units. From 1991 to 2018 he served in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, representing the state of Rio de Janeiro. He became known to the public in 1986, when he wrote an article for Veja magazine criticizing low wages for military officers.

About Jair Bolsonaro in brief

Summary Jair BolsonaroJair Messias Bolsonaro (born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer. He is the 38th president of Brazil, having been in office since 1 January 2019. He served in the Brazilian Army’s field artillery and parachutist units. From 1991 to 2018 he served in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, representing the state of Rio de Janeiro. He became known to the public in 1986, when he wrote an article for Veja magazine criticizing low wages for military officers. He announced his candidacy for president in March 2016 as a member of the Social Christian Party. He left the party in 2018 and joined the Social Liberal Party, and then launched his presidential campaign in August that year, with retired general Hamilton Mourão as his running mate. He portrayed himself as an outsider and a supporter of family values. During his presidency, he rolled back protections for indigenous groups in the Amazon rainforest and facilitated its destruction through deforestation. His response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil was criticized across the political spectrum; he sought to downplay the pandemic and its effects, and fired two health ministers, while the death toll increased rapidly. In 2019 he left his party amid a confrontation with other members and formed his own political organization.

His views and comments have been described as far-right and populist, which have drawn both praise and criticism in Brazil. His family is of Italian descent, with some German ancestry. On his father’s side, he is of Italians of Calabria and Veneto, more precisely Anguillara. His maternal grandparents were born in Lucca, Brazil, and went to Brazil in 1883. His father’s maternal grandfather, Carlos Hintze, immigrated to Brazil around 1876, who was born in Tuscany. His great-grandfather, Vittorio Bolsonario, was born on 12 April 1878, in Padua, Brazil. He was married to Olinda Bonturi and has two children, Giovanna and Tranquillo. He has a son, Jair, who is the President Federal Deputy Councillor of Rio De Janeiro, and a daughter, Giovanna, who lives in São Paulo, and is married to Luiz Felipe dos Santos. He also has a step-son, Joao Eduardo dos Santos, who serves as the President of the Federal Council of the City of São Paulo, in the city of Manaus. He is the great-great-grandson of Carlos Hintze and Olinda Bonturi, who went to Brazil in 1883, and was born in Padua in 1883, and was born in Tuscany, where his grandfather was born in the province of Padua. His mother is from Veneto and he comes from Veneta, the province of Veneta.