Rise of the Bolsonaros

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Woman, voice-over: It was like an apocalypse.

The whole city went completely black.

Different woman, voice-over: S�o Paulo was plunged into darkness by huge blankets of smoke.

Woman, voice-over: It was just a weird, eerie feeling.

It turns out that there was this mass fire in the Amazon, and all the smoke had come down and reached S�o Paulo.

Woman, voice-over: How much of the Amazon are they burning for us to get smoke in Sao Paolo?

Man, voice-over: These fires are largely started deliberately by ranchers deforesting the land.

Environmentalists say the increase is down to the policies of the country's new president.

[Cheering] Jair Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro.

Steve Bannon: Bolsonaro.

Narrator: Jair Bolsonaro was elected President of Brazil in 2018.

Man, voice-over: He was funny.

He was a joke... [Laughter] Man, voice-over: until he wasn't so funny and he wasn't a joke.

Narrator: He's become notorious the world over for his controversial views... and for his mission to exploit the Amazon, no matter the cost.

Man, voice-over: Jair Bolsonaro believes that the Brazilian Amazon is the magical path to economic prosperity.

[Men cheer] Narrator: His rise from the political fringe to one of the most powerful positions on Earth mirrors the story of another political outsider...

They call Bolsonaro the Trump of the Tropics.

Narrator: a tale with Bolsonaro's family at its heart.

Man voice-over: It's not Bolsonaro.

It's The Bolsonaros.

Woman: Bolsonaro only trusts his family.

Narrator: They're the key to his success now and in the future.

Man, voice-over: Jair Bolsonaro will be re-elected, and then Eduardo will become president, so we'll have 16 years of Bolsonarismo in Brazil.

I'd love to see that happen, and it can.

Narrator: One family... Bolsonaros: Os Bolsonaros... Narrator: with the fate of the world in their hands.

[Laughter] Bannon, voice-over: I don't understand Brazilian politics or the Brazilian people, but Bolsonaro's inaugural address, it was extraordinary, an extraordinary, immediate display of enthusiasm.

Wow.

This guy is really something.

Man: Bolsonaro!

Bolsonaro!

Bolsonaro!

Narrator: When Jair Bolsonaro became President of Brazil, thousands of his supporters took to the streets.

Man: The right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro has been sworn in as the new President of Brazil.

Narrator: His victory had surprised even some of his most ardent loyalists.

Man, voice-over: Nobody believed that Bolsonaro would ever become the next President of Brazil.

[Clap] The establishment was convinced that, yes, maybe he was running OK in polls but at the end of the day that Brazilians would never vote for that kind of candidate.

Narrator: Jair Bolsonaro led a political insurgency like no other, and now he's attempting to do it again as he faces re-election in October.

[Applause] My name is Juliana Dal Piva.

I'm a Brazilian journalist, and I spent the last 3 years investigating Bolsonaro and his family, and to understand Bolsonaro, you have to understand his background and how he got on politics.

Narrator: The only way to do that is to follow Jair Bolsonaro back to the place where it all began.

Soon after his inauguration, Bolsonaro set off on a victory tour of Brazil.

Woman: Whoo hoo!

Meu presidente.

Whoo hoo!

Narrator: Bolsonaro grew up south of S�o Paulo in the Badlands of Brazil.

His home village was named after the mythical kingdom of Eldorado, but this was no city paved with gold.

Dal Piva, voice-over: It was a family that struggled a lot to survive, to have the very basic that a family needs to support.

Thais, one.

[Clap] [Cheering] [Cheering] [Laughter] His father was a amateur dentist.

[Speaking Portuguese] [Crowd cheering] Narrator: The young Bolsonaro's dreams of becoming a professional soccer player were brutally crushed when his father insisted he remain in the military academy.

Film narrator: A new kind of soldier has emerged-- the special forces troopers, the man whose specialty is guerrilla fighting.

He is identified by his toughness and his skills.

Narrator: At the age of 22, he graduated from the military academy as an artillery officer.

Man: Bolsonaro entered into the Brazilian army in the early Seventies.

[Clap] [Snare drum playing cadence] At the time, Brazil was just at the peak of the most repressive period of its military dictatorship.

Narrator: The military dictatorship that had ruled Brazil since 1964 justified itself by invoking the threat of communism.

Left-wing insurgencies had been identified all across South America.

The mission was to resist the reds, no matter what the cost.

The idea went unquestioned in the mind of Jair Bolsonaro.

[Click] Film narrator: Any form of open disagreement means censorship, imprisonment, and torture.

Man, voice-over: If you were in one of the armed left groups, if you were a member of the Communist Party, if you were a student, and if you were engaged politically, it was a very dangerous time... but for a lot of people, it was a period of growth.

Narrator: For many Brazilians, the years of the dictatorship were about prosperity, not repression.

Winter, voice-over: This was, for Bolsonaro, clearly the golden age, and it was, in his mind, a time when the country was able to repel the communist threat.

There is no doubt that, for Bolsonaro, that was absolutely the best time in his life and in the life of the nation.

Narrator: For Bolsonaro, the good times were about to get even better when in 1978, he embarked on a traditional marriage to Rogria Nantes Braga.

Dal Piva: She's a regular woman raised on conservative basis.

Before the marriage, what I know is that Rogria used to work as a secretary, and after the kids were born, she stopped working and stayed home, and she took care of the sons.

Flvio, he is first son.

Carlos is the second son, and the third one, Eduardo, is the last son.

[Clap] [Clap] Bolsonaro is the only person I've ever heard in my life who referred to his children by number where he calls them number one, number two, number 3.

It's just, like, he doesn't use their name.

He's like, "He's, like, number 3."

It's almost a war language, something out of the army, so 01 is the oldest one--Flvio.

02 is Carlos.

03 is Eduardo.

Narrator: While Bolsonaro imposed military rule over his young family, military rule over Brazil had come to an end.

[Cheering] An historic day for South America's largest country--Brazil.

Connie Chung, voice-over: Flag-waving crowds in Braslia went wild Tuesday, celebrating the election, Brazil's first civilian president in 21 years.

[Cheering] Narrator: An economic crisis had forced the generals back to their barracks.

As long-lost freedoms returned, the country was swept up in a mood of possibility and hope.

[Cheering] This wasn't a view shared by Jair Bolsonaro.

Pereira, voice-over: For someone like Bolsonaro, I think he already had a sense that the nation was somehow not grateful enough for what the armed forces had delivered in the dictatorship.

I do think he was quite disgruntled about a lot of the direction of change in Brazil.

[Indistinct conversation] Narrator: Brazil's new civilian rulers had inherited a country in the grip of an economic crisis.

Like many ordinary Brazilians, the Bolsonaros were struggling to make ends meet.

Narrator: Bolsonaro struggled to support his wife and 3 young children on an officer's pay.

Dal Piva: They had no money to buy a house for their own, and that's why Bolsonaro starts to complain about the salary that the military got on those years.

Narrator: Denied the luxuries that the 1980s had to offer, Bolsonaro took matters into his own hands.

He penned a manifesto in the pages of a popular magazine.

In it, he raged against conditions in the army and demanded better pay for soldiers like himself.

Bolsonaro's solidarity with the soldiers' plight caught the eye of Waldir Ferraz.

[Click] Narrator: After 15 years in the military without getting beyond captain, Bolsonaro realized it was time for a new career.

Off the back of his campaign for better pay for soldiers, Bolsonaro celebrated his first modest political victory-- a seat on Rio's town council.

Narrator: Two years later, Bolsonaro was ready for the big time.

He was elected as a deputy to the National Congress in the capital Braslia.

Pereira, voice-over: So being a federal deputy in the National Congress is quite a privileged position.

You not only get high salary.

It's got a lot of perks-- big staff, travel budget.

Man: The money's important because Bolsonaro is not a rich man.

He's grown up in a poor family.

He's not got a lot of wealth.

You know, he's kind of a self-made man, and politics is important to pay the bills.

Narrator: With political parties inside Congress weak and divided, deputies like Bolsonaro enjoyed a great deal of freedom.

Pereira: In Bolsonaro's case, it was a safe seat in the sense that he could continually get re-elected.

You just represent the state of Rio, and you know where your votes come from, and you can do what you want.

You can use that as a platform for whatever particularistic interests that you have, and for Bolsonaro, it was mainly the military, especially the army.

[Clap] Oyama, voice-over: He was not relevant at all.

On the contrary, we used to say that he belonged to the what we call baixo clero.

The baixo clero, the lower clergy, the members of Congress who really had no connection at all to power or influence or budget, and the disrespect that members of Congress felt for him was clear.

Oyama, voice-over: A journalist who was supposed to be serious would never interview Bolsonaro for anything because we could not expect anything clever from him.

Winter, voice-over: So from very early on in Bolsonaro's life, there was this amazing flair for the outrageous and for noising up the establishment.

Narrator: Bolsonaro's life in politics was starting to put a strain on his home life.

Dal Piva, voice-over: This time, he used to have a house with Rogria north of Rio de Janeiro.

He used to work the entire week from Braslia.

Woman: What we can see from outside is that they have a respectful but distanced relationship.

[Clap] They have good moments and bad moments, and I think there's a lot of jealousy among them.

Narrator: Struggling at home while embattled in Congress, Bolsonaro took comfort elsewhere.

Enter Ana Cristina.

Dal Piva: This is the part that I know more.

I will tell you everything I know.

Ha ha ha!

He noticed her, and she also noticed him, and then they started to have an affair.

Gaspar: She was an assistant in the Congress, and in the Congress, you have lots of assistants, beautiful assistants that are there and that are courted by the deputies, and Bolsonaro was a federal deputy, and she was young.

She was beautiful.

He was enchanted.

[Clap] One day, she told him that she was pregnant.

It would be his fourth child-- Jair Renan Bolsonaro.

Narrator: With their 3 existing sons already grown-up, Rogria quickly filed for divorce.

Dal Piva: The divorce was public, and they fought publicly.

This was something very complicated for the family.

Amado: He decided not only that they would separate, but also that he would like revenge.

Narrator: For several years, Bolsonaro had used his image to support Rogria as she forged her own political career.

After the bitter divorce, he would weaponize the close bond with his sons to have them run against their mother in the Rio city council elections of 2000.

Gaspar: Eduardo Bolsonaro was the younger one-- he couldn't do it--and Carlos, I think he was weaker.

[Click] Bilenky: Carlos was 17 years old, and he has this very strong relationship with his father, and he couldn't deny.

He said, "Yes.

OK." He didn't want to get into politics, really.

He liked surfing.

He was really, like, a little teenager, but he accepted to run for the city council against his mother because the father forced him to that.

The interviews Bolsonaro gave at the time, he would say clearly that, "You're voting for him, but it's me.

Don't worry," and that's the way that he did the campaign.

In the end, Carlos was elected, and Rogria was not.

She was defeated by him.

Amado: And this was the end of the political career of Rogria.

Carlos spent his time there inside the local congress playing video games.

[Zombie screams] He was 17 years old, so it's understandable that he wasn't ready for that kind of responsibility.

[Cheering] Narrator: But family feuds took a back seat when Bolsonaro found a new political enemy.

Woman, voice-over: Brazil's president-elect Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva takes office today.

Man, voice-over: Lula was elected in 2002.

[Clap] This was a player who not only was a very viable player on the Brazilian stage, but also internationally.

McCoy, voice-over: Brazil for all of its history had been a country that was built for and controlled by the elites.

Lula wasn't an elite.

He had worked in a factory.

He had lost a finger.

He led a union.

He didn't talk like the elites.

He was a man of the people.

Pereira, voice-over: But for someone like Bolsonaro, I think, it was probably stuck in his throat that someone of Lula's background became president-- someone who was a trade unionist, someone who defied the military regime, you know, who had lots of left-wing connections abroad with, you know, socialist and communist parties in Europe and in Latin America.

[Cheering] Narrator: During Lula's presidency, a massive oil field was discovered in Brazilian waters, helping fuel an economic boom.

Man, voice-over: For years, it was a basket case of hyperinflation.

Nowadays, it's party time, economically speaking, in Brazil.

Narrator: This economic miracle enabled Lula to pursue his progressive social agenda and lift Brazil's poorest out of poverty.

McCoy: Lula really had this big image of sort of an environmental protector, steward of the environment.

Lula really did a good job of controlling deforestation in the Amazon.

Narrator: But Lula's progressive social agenda went much further.

McCoy: Lula's a leftist figure.

He believes in leftist ideals, and he believes in giving voice to minority groups.

[Man shouting in Portuguese on P.A.]

Lapper, voice-over: As all these changes are happening under Lula, you know, it's not just Bolsonaro who's feeling unhappy with it.

Lots of other Brazilians are.

Brant, voice-over: Over a third of Brazilians have conservative political views, and there was zero politicians who were aggressively conservative voices with one exception, and that was Jair Bolsonaro.

[Applause] Raul Gil: Jair Bolsonaro.

Narrator: Bolsonaro saw his chance to make a name for himself.

He used this political vacuum to target women, minorities, and in particular the LGBT community.

[Cheering] This magazine came out.

He gave, like, this hate speech that he'd rather have a son being run over by a car than see him with a mustache.

You know, he's so extreme that you're shocked to read the stuff he's saying, quotes that people just don't say about how gay people are overwhelmingly drug addicts, about the famous, notorious quote about how, "I'd rather have a dead son than learn that my son is gay."

I mean, this is something that we all remember.

Narrator: His politically incorrect outbursts culminated in one shocking encounter with a female leftist member of Congress.

[Conversation continues on phone] [Speaking Portuguese] Narrator: The fight caused controversy across Brazil, helping Bolsonaro reach a new audience.

Lapper: These developments allowed Bolsonaro to reinvent himself as a national politician.

He'd been a sort of eccentric provincial politician who people hadn't taken seriously.

It means that he's got a bigger constituency, a bigger base of social support.

He's gonna get much bigger pickup in media.

Joice, take one.

Narrator: One journalist who picked up the story was Joice Hasselmann.

[Laughter] Narrator: While publicly portraying himself as a contented husband and father, his private life was in chaos.

Ana Cristina had other relationships with other men.

Narrator: Ana Cristina's alleged infidelity meant she had to go.

Twice married with 4 kids, Bolsonaro was alone again, but for any middle-aged politician looking for love, there was always one place to turn-- the dozens of assistants working in Congress.

Dal Piva: Michelle was also an employee of the Congress.

She used to work as an aide from the cabinet, and she met Bolsonaro around the building on Congress.

They met, dated, and got married very fast during a period of 6 months.

Michelle is very different from the other former wives of Bolsonaro.

She's softer.

She's more a quiet woman, and she tries to make Bolsonaro softer, too.

Ha ha ha!

Narrator: Michelle helped Bolsonaro present a more wholesome public image... [People clamoring] Narrator: which was further bolstered when the police launched a major investigation into political corruption.

Narrator: Nicknamed Operation Car Wash, or Lava Jato, it uncovered a complex scheme of kickbacks whereby Brazil's largest construction companies would bribe politicians and officials in return for lucrative government contracts.

In the end, a third of Congress was implicated.

Hundreds of people were arrested and billions of dollars stolen.

[Camera shutters clicking] McCoy, voice-over: Car Wash was the largest corruption probe in Latin American history.

It was stunning to see all of these politicians being taken down, and finally, they're getting their comeuppance.

They're being thrown in jail.

Winter, voice-over: It was like a noose that began to slowly close around a huge part of Brazil's political establishment.

[Man shouting in Portuguese on P.A.]

Pereira, voice-over: There's a growing feeling amongst people that they're all bums, they're all self-interested.

Lapper, voice-over: It further shakes confidence in the biggest political parties that have run things in Brazil since the turn to democracy in 1985, and it creates a political vacuum.

[People chanting in Portuguese] Narrator: Brazilians were angry, and as discontent grew, one man remained untouched by the stench of corruption sweeping through Brazilian politics.

[Cheering] [Air horn blasts] Pereira, voice-over: Bolsonaro's not being investigated.

He was not important enough to be included on those kickback schemes, and that, all of a sudden, is his great virtue.

Bolsonaro.

Vem c mito.

[Continues speaking Portuguese] Lapper, voice-over: Bolsonaro becomes a bit of a celebrity, bit of a prophet, in a way.

He becomes the alternative.

He becomes a voice of different path.

[Cheering] Pereira, voice-over: It's almost as if this enormous wave was pulsating through Brazil, and Bolsonaro knew how to surf it.

He knew how to get on top of it and ride it.

[Cheering] He was gonna knock a hole through the entire political establishment.

[Cheering] [Chanting continues] Narrator: With the 2018 presidential election on the horizon, Bolsonaro gathered his supporters to make an announcement.

[Men chanting "Mito!"]

Narrator: He was officially running for President of Brazil.

Narrator: It was a turn of events that, until recently, had been unthinkable.

No one believed that he had a chance... [People clamoring] Winter, voice-over: because he'd been such a peripheral figure in Brazil's Congress.

The main reaction from Brazil's political establishment when Jair Bolsonaro declared his candidacy was laughter.

[Laughter] [Both speak Portuguese] Narrator: His race to become President of Brazil had begun.

Woman, voice-over: He was famous for gaffes, famous for offenses.

People really did not expect this man to win the presidency.

[Click] Narrator: Bolsonaro's appeal was simple-- "Brazilian politics is a cesspool of corruption, and I'm the man to fix it."

[Cheering] Narrator: It was a strong message, but getting it heard was another matter.

[Cheering] Narrator: After two terms, Lula had left office in 2010 with the highest approval ratings of any president in Brazil's history and was remembered for 8 golden years of prosperity.

He was now running to be president again.

Man, voice-over: Lula, the most popular politician in the history of Brazil, an icon, even out of the country.

Narrator: Lula's promise to rekindle the glory days made him the hot favorite... and when the early polls came out, Bolsonaro barely registered.

Narrator: Bolsonaro's strongest allies were his sons.

The 3 eldest were now in politics and standing by to offer support.

Eldest son Flvio was considered the presentable face of the family.

Gaspar, voice-over: Flvio Bolsonaro, he's a more flexible guy.

He has a way of treating people that is softer.

Narrator: As the English-speaking member of the family, Eduardo was tasked with developing contacts abroad.

Eduardo: We have some scientists saying that the Earth is getting hotter, and we have some scientists that they are telling that the Earth is getting colder.

Narrator: Carlos, the action man with the reputation of being hot-tempered, was increasingly found at his father's side.

Gaspar: Carlos has a very particular relationship with his father because, I think, he's kind of obsessed by the father.

Narrator: Carlos became his father's chief of communications.

He faced an immediate problem in a country where TV airtime was decided by the number of seats a candidate's party held in Congress.

Narrator: As the frontrunner, Lula was granted 2.3 minutes a day.

Narrator: Bolsonaro was awarded 8 seconds.

Television advertising had always been seen in Brazilian politics as the most important thing to get elected.

Narrator: Carlos had to develop a whole new way of campaigning.

Gaspar, voice-over: Carlos admired his father so much, believed in his father so much, and he transformed his father into this YouTube character.

Narrator: Bolsonaro became a lifestyle brand, with viewers treated to daily updates of his every move beamed over the Internet and produced on a shoestring.

Bannon, voice-over: Bolsonaro's doing something quite radically different.

He was just putting the camera on a stand and then talking directly to the people, something that even Trump wouldn't do.

Good day.

Ooh!

Narrator: In the first 6 months of the campaign, Bolsonaro went viral, drawing the attention of people not normally interested in politics.

[Chuckles] Ha ha ha!

[Bloop] [Bloop] [Bloop] Narrator: The 2018 election coincided with an explosion in the use of the private message sharing network WhatsApp.

These groups ended up being hives of election talk, so Bolsonaro realized the new form of campaigning was making sure that you had a tribe of supporters who were sharing your information through their WhatsApp group.

[Click] [Click] Winter, voice-over: I saw Jair Bolsonaro landing at an airport, and you start hearing in the background this... [Imitates crowd cheering] [Cheering] Winder, voice-over: You hear this roar get louder and louder, and then the airport doors open.

[Cheering] [People chanting "Mito!"]

[People chanting "Mito!"]

Bannon, voice-over: Bolsonaro was bringing an immediacy to politics that you had not seen in any nation on Earth.

They would toss him up like a hero.

It was extraordinary.

[People chanting "Mito!"]

Oyama, voice-over: I asked someone, "What are you yelling?"

and he said, "Mito!

Mito!"

[People chanting "Mito!"]

Oyama, voice-over: What I saw in people's eyes was worship, like idolatry, and I had the impression that I was seeing a big phenomenon.

Narrator: In the fight with Lula for a bigger audience, Bolsonaro planned a trip to the biggest stage of them all.

Brant, voice-over: I got a phone call from Flvio.

"Gerald, we're planning a trip to the U.S., his debut, if you will, in the United States."

These phases of the campaign were all broadcast live on social media, which is something that nobody else was doing.

Narrator: Bolsonaro's rise on social media drew comparisons with another right-wing populist.

Michelle Makori: What do you make being compared to President Donald Trump?

[Speaking Portuguese] Translator: At times, I take it as a joke, but I also take it seriously.

His way of doing politics is not evading the commitments he made during his campaign, so I feel fine about it, even a little flattered.

I think at the time, the reason he fascinated me, he kind of was Trump to the tenth power about social media.

In New York City, when I met Eduardo and some other members, I was learning from them.

Reason I wanted to meet, I wanted to learn from them.

Bannon, voice-over: They were running a campaign on not even a shoestring and doing it amazingly.

They had their hands on the pulse.

They had momentum.

I think they knew they had something like we knew we had something with Trump.

Narrator: But news of his outrageous reputation had already reached America.

Winter: I was present when there was a question asked about Bolsonaro's comment years before to a female legislator who he said didn't deserve to be raped.

Bolsonaro had been bragging about this comment in front of other audiences for years since that incident, but unlike Trump, he's always clever enough to be able to read the room.

I watched as Bolsonaro kind of took a deep breath and said, "Sometimes I lose my temper, and I say things that I shouldn't," and he didn't exactly apologize, but some people who were there took it as kind of a sufficient show of contrition to be able to move past some of these outrageous moments and focus on what he might do as president.

Brant: And that had a very important effect in terms of showing the Brazilian public, "You know what?

Important people are listening to what he has to say."

Narrator: Bolsonaro was clearly making an impact abroad and on social media, but he was still lagging far behind in the polls.

Narrator: With 8 months to go before the election, he set out on a tour of Brazil.

Winter, voice-over: The Brazil that we tend to see is the Brazil of samba and soccer.

It's basically the Brazil of Rio de Janeiro, but there's also a Brazil that's called the interiorz�o, which means literally the big interior.

The rodeo is big there.

There are people in cowboy hats, and that is the Brazil of Jair Bolsonaro.

[Cheering] [Cheering] Man, voice-over: A big portion of his most fervent base comes from people who are involved in the agricultural business, people who are involved in mining, and the reason that he has very strong support is that he was going to do whatever he wanted to do to be able to expand development in the Amazon.

Announcer: There is a treasure awaiting you.

Take stock.

Avail yourself.

Get rich with Brazil.

Narrator: Bolsonaro's policy to exploit the Amazon's natural resources was an echo of the rampant deforestation by the military dictatorship of his youth, part of Brazil's strategy to become a rich, industrialized nation.

Watson, voice-over: From the very beginning, Bolsonaro wanted to develop the Amazon economically.

He sees the Amazon as a gold mine in the literal sense, and doesn't see why Brazil shouldn't benefit from that.

Fishman, voice-over: Bolsonaro from the very beginning, he said that he wanted to get rid of all the environmental regulations and get rid of all the things that were limiting the economic development of the Amazon.

This could only come through environmental devastation, deforestation, and limiting the rights of indigenous communities that live there.

Cowie, voice-over: I remember my first trip to the Amazon, and on the way, I just remember seeing a huge billboard poster, so much pro-Bolsonaro graffiti.

Sims, voice-over: I met a lot of people in the Amazon.

They were poor.

They were indigenous.

They were depending on state aid, but they said they were gonna vote for Bolsonaro, and when I would ask them why, they would tell me they were gonna vote for him because they felt like he would be the defender of the traditional family in Brazil.

[Click] [Click] Dal Piva: This idea of family is part of Bolsonaro's agenda in politics.

He's a politician that has an idea of what a family should be.

Narrator: As a Catholic who'd had two messy and very public divorces, Bolsonaro didn't seem like an obvious advocate for traditional family values.

Dal Piva: Many things that happened on his family are very complicated.

Narrator: Bolsonaro was climbing in the polls, but Lula remained far ahead.

He needed an electoral miracle.

Brazil's 65 million evangelicals could be the answer to his prayers.

McCoy, voice-over: It is a charismatic religion that has found massive followings among poor communities, rural communities, and Bolsonaro said, "Oh, my gosh, the evangelical vote can win the election"... [Speaking Portuguese] McCoy, voice-over: but wait a second.

He's not evangelical.

He's Catholic.

Narrator: Bolsonaro set out on a mission to convince the evangelicals that he was actually one of them.

He used his trump card.

Man: Michelle sua.

Narrator: His wife Michelle was an evangelical.

[Speaks Portuguese] Narrator: Step one-- go to wife's church.

McCoy, voice-over: The fact that his wife is evangelical has obviously given him more street cred among evangelicals.

Narrator: Step two-- take the family on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land... and then post it on social media... Narrator: and finally, step 3-- persuade the biggest evangelical celebrity in Brazil to back your presidential campaign.

[Speaking Portuguese] Narrator: Malafaia and his evangelical followers were enticed by Bolsonaro's promise to tear up political correctness and restore the traditional family.

Bolsonaro's openly anti-gay outbursts became integral to his appeal to conservative values and may even have emboldened violent extremists.

Sims, voice-over: So if you're a Christian evangelical and you're concerned your sons might grow up to be gay, Bolsonaro was able to appeal to those kind of fears that a lot of people had.

Narrator: In the face of growing intimidation, others continued to stand up to prejudice, like LGBTQ+ activist Marielle Franco.

[Click] Miranda: Marielle was my best friend.

When you come from the favelas, you are LGBT, you are black, and you go to a place of power, like, we always shared notes before we went to give a speech, and we always go check with each other how we felt.

[Cheering] Woman, voice-over: She was very passionate about helping people since day one, since she was a child.

Any unfair situation with black people, with a woman, she would jump in.

[Click] I was at home... and I saw the news.

Marielle Franco was killed and shot in her head with 5 shots.

Miranda: It was so, so, so violent, the way they killed her.

Like, just, like, the way they killed her, it was like she was nothing... and we were afraid because we didn't know who killed Marielle.

Narrator: While the other presidential candidates condemned the killing, Jair Bolsonaro stayed silent.

When the suspected gunman and his driver were arrested, rumors began to circulate he was somehow involved.

McCoy, voice-over: You have a lot of links between Bolsonaro's family and militias, and militias are believed to be behind the murder of Marielle, and most extraordinarily, the people accused of killing Marielle lived in the same condominium complex as Bolsonaro.

Woman, voice-over: One of the men charged with the crime visited the gated community where the president owns a house hours before the murder.

McCoy, voice-over: There's no evidence beyond these coincidences, and so that then creates this whole, like, paranoia.

[Chanting continues] Narrator: 4 years after Marielle's murder, the men accused have yet to stand trial, and their motive remains a mystery.

Anielle: There were many speculations, but we never had anything proven.

That was that, you know?

Greenwald: I absolutely think that Bolsonaro's fingerprints are all over Marielle's killing, not because we can say that he played any role in the planning of it, but for certain that he fostered the environment in which that happened.

[Cheering] Narrator: In the wake of Marielle's murder, Bolsonaro dropped in the polls by several points.

Lula was now 16 points ahead.

It appeared that nothing could prevent Lula from winning the elections.

On the campaign trail, Bolsonaro needed to find some weakness in his archrival.

He turned to his most trusted campaign theme-- anti-corruption.

Operation Car Wash had been dominating headlines for the past 4 years, with hundreds of politicians and businessmen arrested for bribery.

Just when Bolsonaro needed a break the most, a new scandal erupted.

Winter, voice-over: By 2018, the Car Wash investigation had made its way to the person who investigators believed was the ringleader of the whole scheme, and that was Lula.

Graieb, voice-over: There were several accusations that were made against him-- one, that a construction company had paid an apartment for him and his family, that another construction company had renovated a country property that he used frequently.

Woman, voice-over: A judge said Lula was a direct beneficiary of bribes and pocketed about one million euros.

[Cheering] Graieb, voice-over: The Supreme Court judged him guilty, and he was finally taken to jail.

Man, voice-over: The jail term will prevent him from standing in Brazil's presidential election in October.

Narrator: With just 4 weeks to go until the election, the Worker's Party chose Fernando Haddad, the former mayor of S�o Paulo, as their new candidate.

[Click] Narrator: It was now Haddad's turn to be the target of Bolsonaro's digital army.

[Bloop] Narrator: Anonymous activists began mass-messaging in closed WhatsApp groups.

Fake news spread like a virus.

Including, most notoriously, that Haddad, while mayor, had tried to distribute penis-shaped bottles to children.

Winter, voice-over: This misinformation really was key to building up negative feelings against Bolsonaro's opponents.

[Cheering] Narrator: A devastating social media armory helped Bolsonaro's digital army make significant gains in the polls.

Cowie, voice-over: Just saw the energy, how wide-eyed people were with excitement, very genuine chance that he would get elected to the presidency.

[Cheering] Bannon, voice-over: But I remember saying to Eduardo, "What's security like?

I mean, he doesn't-- He's just out there," and they said, "Oh, you know, people love him, you know.

He's got some security, but the people love him."

[Cheering] Bannon, voice-over: I said, "I think your number-one problem is an assassination attempt."

[People chanting "Mito!"]

Woman, voice-over: Stabbed in the abdomen, and the politician was rushed through the crowd to hospital.

Narrator: The knife penetrated 5 inches into Bolsonaro's torso.

He lost almost half of his blood.

Winters: It is an extremely critical moment.

He might die.

Woman, voice-over: Police have since released a photo of the suspect who was arrested.

He's been named as Adlio Bispo de Oliveira.

Narrator: Although the attacker said he'd acted alone under orders from God, rumors spread that he was part of a left-wing conspiracy.

[Click] Carlos saw an opportunity... Narrator: getting his brother Eduardo to go live to the Brazilian people.

Carlos was the guy that was there all the time.

He didn't want to leave the operation room.

He realized that this was an opportunity.

Narrator: Still looking weak from his injuries, Bolsonaro addressed the nation.

[Click] McCoy: At that point, people are like, "Oh, my God, this guy could win the election."

Narrator: 115 million voters went to the polls for one of the most crucial elections in Brazil's history.

Watson, voice-over: There was so much emotion, it was a real, like, "OK. Our vote is gonna make a difference.

We are gonna have to vote."

There were two candidates offering incredibly different things, and so it was a real uncertainty for the future of Brazil.

Narrator: Bolsonaro's supporters gathered outside his home.

Inside, his family and inner circle watched the results come in... and true to form, the event was made a social media spectacle.

Narrator: Shortly after 7 P.M., the announcement was made.

[Cheering] [Cheering] Narrator: The fringe candidate denounced as too controversial for the presidency defied the analysts to win perhaps the most unexpected victory in Brazil's history.

Bolsonaro!

Bolsonaro!

McCoy, voice-over: People are yelling, people talking about closing down different powers in the government.

"It's about us taking back the country," is really what it is.

"It's about us finally getting our voice because we want something different."

Bannon, voice-over: Bolsonaro and his team spent literally nothing to win a stunning victory.

It was every bit as stunning as Trump's victory in '16.

[Cheering] Narrator: Now he was president-elect, the world wondered what Bolsonaro's would do with his new powers.

[Cheering and applause] Narrator: In Parliament, friends and enemies gathered while millions tuned in at home to listen to Bolsonaro's vision for a new Brazil.

Woman, voice-over: There was just this feeling that here was a president who wasn't like the rest of the politicians.

This is a military captain.

He's coming.

He's gonna shake things up.

The themes that he struck during that speech and the words that he said, it was ominous in a way, this sort of combativeness about him.

[Applause] [Cheering] Narrator: Bolsonaro started to surround himself with allies ready to sweep away more than a decade of socialist policies and fulfil their populist revolution.

[Clap] Arajo: We were living a historic moment that we really had in our hands this huge opportunity to really change Brazil.

[Clap] [Clap] Mandetta: He said, "Do whatever needs to be done.

If it doesn't work, I'm gonna blame it all on you."

Narrator: While on the outside, he filled his cabinet with experts and politicians, behind the scenes, he planned to put his sons at the center of power.

McCoy: His sons are his closest advisors.

That is something that has not changed in Bolsonaro's world.

It's Eduardo, it's Flvio, and it's Carlos.

Narrator: All 3 had formal political positions.

Flvio and Eduardo were members of Parliament, while Carlos was a local councilor in Rio... but their true power lay in their unofficial roles at their father's side.

Since Brazil returned to democracy in the 1980s, we have not seen a president's family so fully involved.

They are front and center in decision making and strategy.

Narrator: Bolsonaro made no secret of wanting to give his sons a top seat at the table.

[Click] Brant, voice-over: Eduardo is a politician who has national potential in his own right-- the Congressional candidate in Brazil that won the highest number of votes in Brazilian history, an effective communicator in terms of the message that the Bolsonaro base really embraces.

Narrator: Just weeks into his presidency, Bolsonaro began his mission to deliver for his supporters.

For millions of them, just like in the U.S., one of the most fundamental issues was their right to bear arms.

Watson, voice-over: It's always been a very controversial issue.

This is a country, of course, that has a lot of gun violence.

Cowie, voice-over: It's just part of Brazil, right?

It's one of the world's most violent and murderous countries, more than 50,000 homicides a year.

McCoy, voice-over: Lot of people here have been victims of muggings.

They've been victims of violent crimes, or they know someone who's been a victim of a mugging or a violent crime.

There's a lot of fear of that, and he was able to kind of tap into that fear to be able to say, "We're gonna try to make Brazil safe again."

Narrator: Bolsonaro changed the gun laws, allowing Brazilians to keep up to 60 weapons.

Pereira, voice-over: There are ways that you could imagine his supporters saying, "Yes.

He delivers."

I mean, he's definitely changed the landscape in terms of gun ownership, you know.

We know that gun ownership has gone way up.

Bolsonaro: Yee hoo!

Narrator: Mistrusting the mainstream media, Bolsonaro continued the strategy of speaking directly to his base that had served him so well during his campaign.

Narrator: In the first year alone, he made 50 Facebook broadcasts, compared to just 5 TV addresses.

It's not, like, super flashy social media.

It's super low-tech.

It's just him at a table, and he uses these platforms as almost a way to energize that base.

[Cheering and applause] Winter, voice-over: Bolsonaro knows that in order to keep his base engaged, he has to constantly be kind of shaking the tree and identifying enemies.

Narrator: Bolsonaro was also ready to deliver on another of the controversial campaign promises that would come to define his presidency-- exploiting the riches of the Amazon rainforest for economic gain.

Narrator: One of Bolsonaro's first moves was to slash the budget of both the environment and indigenous protection agencies, signaling to the world that it was open season on the Amazon.

Cowie, voice-over: After Bolsonaro had been elected, there was a surge in invasions of indigenous lands.

There was this very, like, permissive atmosphere to illegal logging, indigenous land invasions, and illegal mining.

Maslin, voice-over: What's undeniable is that since Bolsonaro came into power, deforestation has really spiked.

Narrator: In his first year as president, deforestation increased by 34%.

Maslin, voice-over: Bolsonaro has dismantled the environment ministry, has reduced the number of staff members monitoring different parts of the Amazon.

More than anything else, this message of impunity, I think, has a lot to do with why those numbers are going up.

Narrator: Bolsonaro's response to indigenous opposition to his plans was to promise that they too could share in the spoils of deforestation.

Maslin: When Bolsonaro puts on an indigenous headdress and talks about how indigenous people don't want to be cavemen anymore, he's not speaking to indigenous people.

He's speaking to his base.

He's speaking to the farmers and the miners, the people in the Amazon who think that the region would be a lot better off if Brazil were to start prioritizing them.

Narrator: In August 2019, the consequences of Bolsonaro's Amazon policy were felt 1,600 miles away in Brazil's largest city-- S�o Paulo.

Watson, voice-over: I was at home one afternoon sitting on the sofa, and suddenly, the whole city went completely black.

[Man speaking Portuguese] The only thing I remember, it was dark, and this was so weird.

[Woman speaking Portuguese] It turned out that it was a cloud coming from the Amazon from Amazon fires on the other side of the country.

Mello, voice-over: I mean, how much of the Amazon are they burning for us to get smoke in S�o Paulo?

Man, voice-over: These fires are largely started deliberately by ranchers deforesting the land.

Woman, voice-over: We know that tens of thousands of them are burning right now in the Amazon.

Man, voice-over: Smoke from the wildfires hangs heavy over Brazil's cities, making it harder for anyone to ignore the impact on this country and far beyond.

It even shows up in images from a NASA satellite-- from space, the evidence of our burning planet.

Narrator: Bolsonaro's policies led to outrage across the world.

Crowd: Has got to go Hey, hey Ho, ho Bolsonaro's got to go Greta Thunberg: We need to stop destroying nature, and the Amazon is such a key to addressing the climate crisis.

Crowd: Need a just transition Climate action is our mission We need a just transition... Arajo, voice-over: To care about the environment, of course, is a good thing, but environmentalism can become an ideology.

It can become a very destructive ideology, and ideologists need enemies to paint things black and white, and the enemy that they chose was Bolsonaro.

Narrator: Bolsonaro's response was to take aim at his glamorous critics.

Narrator: Bolsonaro now used a planned speech to the U.N. to answer his global critics, whom he saw as wishing to slow Brazil's development.

Tijjani Muhammad Bande: I have the pleasure to welcome to United Nations His Excellency Jair Messias Bolsonaro.

McCoy, voice-over: It was an aggressive, confrontational speech more or less saying, "The Amazon is ours, and butt out."

Narrator: Bolsonaro may have won few friends at the U.N., but his supporters loved it.

[Click] Narrator: Bolsonaro's assertion of Brazilian sovereignty over the Amazon cemented his reputation among his base... but his presidency was about to be put in peril by scandal involving those closest to him-- his sons.

Narrator: During his campaign, Bolsonaro had railed against corruption, but now his own son Flvio was in the spotlight.

Brazil's financial intelligence unit accused Flvio of embezzling public money and laundering up to half a million dollars through his business and property empire.

Eh?

As investigators began to circle his family, Bolsonaro was accused of stepping in.

[Click] Narrator: For one of his most loyal supporters, he'd crossed the line.

Eh?

[Click] [Hasselmann's voice speaking Portuguese] [Click] [Click] Narrator: Eduardo Bolsonaro started to publicly fan the flames.

Narrator: Joice infiltrated a secret Instagram group of Bolsonaro supporters.

She discovered that the smear campaign was being orchestrated by a group known as The Office of Hate.

It was believed to be run from an office in the presidential palace, next door to the president himself.

with one man in charge... Carlos Bolsonaro.

Gaspar: Carlos Bolsonaro lives for his father.

He has this--I think obsession would be the word.

He's aggressive when he thinks people are betraying his father in some way.

[Click] Narrator: With evidence of a coordinated campaign of misinformation, Joice Hasselmann testified to Parliament.

[Bloop] [Ding] Mello: The accounts linked directly to the Cabinet of Hate were spreading messages massively like an ecosystem of disinformation.

You have the Cabinet of Hate next to Bolsonaro's office in Planalto, and then you have the Bolsonarista bloggers and YouTubers.

Then you have the social media accounts of the president himself and his sons.

Narrator: Bolsonaro denied the existence of the Office of Hate.

Narrator: In her testimony, Joice revealed that all across Brazil, there were targets just like her.

Dal Piva, voice-over: I got the message accusing me of persecuting the president, telling that my body would disappear.

Mello, voice-over: When they start sending messages saying, you know, "If you want the safety of your 6-year-old son, you should leave the country.

This is not a warning," I mean, who writes that stuff?

Narrator: With first Flvio and now Carlos engulfed in scandal, the president who had won power crusading against corruption was in trouble.

[Click] Narrator: Eduardo, the son least touched by scandal, increasingly became the public face of the family and the regime.

We realized that maybe because of the problems of Carlos and Flvio, Eduardo would become the wannabe successor.

Um abrao, fiquem com Deus.

Narrator: As Bolsonaro entered the second year of his presidency, he reflected on what he declared had been a year of triumphs... Boa noite.

Narrator: but he was about to face his biggest crisis yet.

Man, voice-over: The coronavirus has the world on edge, the spread of the disease creeping into even more countries, causing major disruptions to everyday life.

That's when I came to him, "Now listen.

"It's coming, and it's gonna be huge.

We need to protect lives."

Narrator: As local governors locked the country down city by city, Bolsonaro decided to make a rare official appearance on television and address the nation.

McCoy, voice-over: I, like everyone else, was looking at this leader for a moment of, like, "Where we going?

We all live in Brazil.

What are we gonna do?"

I was like, "Oh, my gosh, he's talking about his own athletic history."

He's, like, an older man, and he's saying, "If I got the disease, I'd be just fine."

Like, what sort of message is this giving to your people?

His speech is so opposite to what most world leaders were saying at that time.

Narrator: Most, but not all.

He's doing a fantastic job, a great job.

Brazil loves him, and the USA loves him.

By the chemistry between the two, you can see by the way they conduct themselves that there's a mutual admiration.

I mean, Trump is tickled every time they call Bolsonaro the Trump of the Tropics.

Mandetta, voice-over: Bolsonaro went to Florida and met with Trump.

When they came back, 17 people got sick, and it's funny because on the next day that he arrived, two or 3 days, when I went to talk to him, he said, "I have the solution, talked to Trump, and we have the chloroquine."

Narrator: Like Trump, Bolsonaro believed falsely that these malaria pills could cure COVID.

He wanted me to go on TV and tell people, "We have a solution for it.

Just take this medicine, and it will be OK." I couldn't do that.

I couldn't do that.

McCoy, voice-over: There's this moment where these sort of, like, emu type birds on the gardens of the presidential palace, and he takes out this box of hydroxychloroquine, and I think he tries to almost go and feed the emus the medication that he was taking.

It was an absurd, insane moment in Brazilian politics.

McCoy, voice-over: Most politicians, once they saw the extraordinary gravity of the pandemic and the disease changed courses.

Bolsonaro didn't.

Mandetta, voice-over: He would shake hands.

He would hug, telling people not to wear masks.

He would say, "Well, it's gonna die, "whoever's gonna die, anyway, only elderly people, and we will move forward faster than anybody in the world," and I was saying, "No.

This is not something about politics.

This is something about life and death."

Narrator: Manaus, the largest city in the Amazon, suffered one of the worst outbreaks, its population forced to dig mass graves.

Indigenous communities living deep in the rainforest, often lacking basic health care, were left largely unprotected.

[Men shouting] Narrator: With protection agencies on the ground weakened, loggers and miners were bringing the virus into indigenous land.

Narrator: As the death toll increased and unemployment soared, so did Bolsonaro's disapproval ratings.

[Kitchenware clattering] Mandetta, voice-over: It was really an awful time, terrible time.

He wanted me to say, you know, "I give up.

Enough," but I told him, "I'm not gonna quit."

Boa noite.

Boa noite.

[Applause] Mandetta, voice-over: He seems to be, like, a very insecure man, you know, someone always trying to prove his power.

Narrator: As the crisis deepened, a recording of a closed cabinet meeting was leaked, giving a glimpse of how Bolsonaro was coping.

Brazil tuned into that cabinet meeting like, you know, one of the biggest telenovelas, I think, of the year.

They were all like that, you know.

He's the kind of guy that complains.

He just doesn't pay attention.

He wanted loyalty from them and said that if he didn't get that loyalty, then they better say good-bye to their ministerial posts.

Woman: So... Ah.

I would have fired him if I were his boss on the first day.

Woman: This isn't just about grief and anger.

Different woman, voice-over: The protestors go much further, accusing the Brazilian leader of genocide.

Narrator: With calls for his impeachment rising, Bolsonaro's chances of re-election in 2022 were looking increasingly doubtful.

The last thing needed was this.

Announcer: Breaking news, CNN.

[People chanting in Portuguese] Narrator: Former President Lula de Silva had been jailed in 2018 for allegedly accepting political bribes.

Although he'd been released on a technicality the following year, he had still been barred from public office.

Now the Supreme Court ruled that Lula, the most popular president in Brazilian history, could run against Bolsonaro for the presidency of Brazil in 2022.

Winter, voice-over: Bolsonaro understood very quickly that he faced a very real threat.

Bolsonaro could lose the 2022 election and not only lose, but lose to his most hated rival--Lula.

[Siren] Narrator: With Lula now well ahead in the polls, Bolsonaro put on a military parade in the capital, a provocation not seen since the days of the military dictatorship.

[Car horn honking] Making sure the tanks went past the Supreme Court, it was seen as a sign of Bolsonaro's future intentions.

Narrator: With the 2022 elections looming, Bolsonaro took a page out of the Trump playbook by questioning Brazil's voting system.

Maslin, voice-over: There was this discourse starting about the election that's coming up this year and Bolsonaro's insistence that Brazil's electronic voting machines could cause electoral fraud, and it really seemed like he was saying, you know, if he lost, he was not gonna accept the result.

Narrator: Eduardo was dispatched to spread the word of electoral fraud to his father's supporters in the U.S.

I would like to explain how the things work in Brazil about elections.

He gave by far the most powerful speech on election fraud.

What happen in Brazil is, you go to a machine.

you dial the number of your candidate, and then you pray for God that in the capital in Braslia they are going to count it correctly.

This election is the second most important election in the world, right, and the most important elections ever in South America.

Bolsonaro will win unless it's stolen by-- guess what--the machines.

Thank you, sir.

Narrator: Bolsonaro was now being investigated for misinformation, corruption, and even genocide against the indigenous population.

He called his supporters to take to the streets for a show of force on September 7, Brazil's Independence Day.

Woman, voice-over: Brazil's marking its Independence Day, normally a moment of national unity, but not this time.

Maslin, voice-over: People kind of went to the streets with signs saying things like, "Military intervention."

McCoy, voice-over: There was a lot of fear, and nobody quite knew what was gonna happen.

Maslin, voice-over: There was a real kind of feeling of maybe this could be similar to what happened in January 6 in the U.S. when Trump lost and his supporters stormed the Capitol.

Bannon, voice-over: If you look at the footage, it's absolutely unbelievable.

The scale is really breathtaking.

Millions of people go into the streets and say, "We want freedom of expression."

Narrator: Bolsonaro promised his adoring supporters that, despite what the constitution dictated, he was going nowhere.

[Cheering] [Cheering] Narrator: The stage has been set for a battle for the future of Brazilian democracy itself.

[Bolsonaro shouting Portuguese] There's gonna be a heavyweight title fight in October of 2022.

It's gonna be Lula versus Bolsonaro.

Winter, voice-over: Unless Bolsonaro is able to win the vote in October 2022, I think that he and his supporters will end up forcing some kind of confrontation with Brazil's other institutions.

Man: Sim, sim.

Ha ha ha!

Winter, voice-over: There are people in Bolsonaro's circle who tell me that they will never hand over power to Lula.

[Explosion] It's hard to see how this gets resolved without some kind of constitutional crisis.

Narrator: Bolsonaro is once again rallying his base, reasserting his status as a man of the people.

Brant, voice-over: In an ideal world, Jair Bolsonaro will be re-elected... and then Eduardo will become president, so we'll have 16 years of Bolsonarismo in Brazil.

I'd love to see that happen, and it can.

[Cheering] Narrator: The fate of Brazil is in the hands of its people as they head to the polls.

You were dead wrong on Trump.

You were dead wrong initially on Bolsonaro, is that put your prejudices away, put your name-calling away, and look at what the facts on the ground are.

We're only at the beginning of this.

It's not gonna stop.

It's only gonna pick up momentum, and of that I'm as sure as the turning of the Earth.

Rise of the Bolsonaros is available on Amazon Prime Video