CNN
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Here’s a look at the life of Jair Bolsonaro, former president of Brazil.
Date of birth: March 21, 1955
Place of birth: Campinas, Brazil
Birth name: Jair Messias Bolsonaro
Father: Percy Geraldo Bolsonaro, dentist
Mother: Olinda Bonturi Bolsonaro
Marriage: Michelle Bolsonaro; Ana Cristina Valle (divorced); Rogeria Bolsonaro (divorced)
Children: with Michelle Bolsonaro: Laura; with Ana Cristina Valle: Jair Renan; with Rogéria Bolsonaro: Flavio, Carlos and Eduardo
Education: Agulhas Negras Military Academy, 1977
Military: Army, captain
Religion: Catholic
A conservative provocateur, Bolsonaro has a predilection for inflammatory statements. His rhetorical targets include women and the LGBTQ community. In 2003, he told a congresswoman that she did not deserve to be raped. In an interview with Playboy magazine in 2011, Bolsonaro said he would be incapable of loving a gay son. He expressed a sense of nostalgia for Brazil’s past of military dictatorship.
Bolsonaro served seven terms as a congressman in the Chamber of Deputies. In Congress, his priorities included protecting citizens’ rights to own firearms, promoting Christian values, and fighting crime. In 2017, he said: “A police officer who does not kill is not a police officer. »
Bolsonaro changed his affiliation several times, eventually campaigning for the presidency as a member of the Social Liberal Party.
When Bolsonaro took office in 2019, Brazil was suffering from a prolonged period of economic malaise and growing insecurity. His rise was preceded by a corruption scandal that shook political and financial institutions. During his inaugural speech, Bolsonaro pledged to transform Brazil into a “strong and thriving country.”
1986 – Bolsonaro writes an opinion column for Veja magazine that criticizes the Brazilian army’s pay system. He was then sanctioned for insubordination.
1989-1991 – City councilor of Rio de Janeiro.
1991-2018 – Member of Congress representing Rio de Janeiro in the Chamber of Deputies.
July 22, 2018 – Bolsonaro announces his candidacy for president.
August 15, 2018 – Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, former president of Brazil, announces that he has submitted the necessary documents to register as a Workers’ Party candidate against Bolsonaro. Lula da Silva is campaigning from prison, where he is serving a 12-year prison sentence for corruption.
September 1, 2018 – Brazil’s highest electoral court bars Lula da Silva from running for office while incarcerated. Ultimately, a former mayor of São Paulo, Fernando Haddad, became the candidate of the Workers’ Party.
September 6, 2018 – Bolsonaro is stabbed in the stomach during a campaign rally. He spent more than three weeks in the hospital recovering.
October 7, 2018 – Voters cast their ballots in the first round of elections. Even if Bolsonaro wins more votes than Haddad, he does not exceed the 50% threshold. A second round is planned for later this month.
October 28, 2018 – Bolsonaro wins the second round. The final count shows Bolsonaro with 55.13% and Haddad with 44.87%.
January 1, 2019 – Bolsonaro takes oath. The same day, he published a series of decrees. An order could potentially remove many LGBTQ civil rights protections by removing LGBTQ issues from the list of issues handled by the Department of Women, Families and Human Rights. Another decree gives the Ministry of Agriculture the power to designate indigenous lands, paving the way for agricultural development in previously off-limits areas.
January 15, 2019 – Signs an executive order temporarily removing a regulation that limits the purchase of firearms to only those who can prove they own a firearm. The regulation gave police discretion to approve or deny the sale of firearms.
January 28, 2019 – Authorities say Bolsonaro underwent successful surgery to remove a colostomy bag that was installed after he was stabbed four months ago.
February 28, 2019 – Bolsonaro meets with Venezuelan opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaidó in Brasilia. In a joint press conference, Bolsonaro pledged Brazil’s support to help ensure that “democracy is restored to Venezuela.”
May 3, 2019 – A spokesperson for Bolsonaro announces that the president has canceled a trip to New York, where he was to receive the person of the year award given by the American-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce. The trip was canceled due to political backlash. The event’s original host venue, the American Museum of Natural History, canceled and some corporate sponsors dropped out. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio called Bolsonaro a “dangerous man.”
May 7, 2019 – Bolsonaro signs decree easing gun control restrictions. The decree makes it easier to import firearms and increases the amount of ammunition an individual can purchase each year.
July 11, 2019 – At a press conference, Bolsonaro said he wanted his son, Eduardo Bolsonaro, to be ambassador to the United States. He says Eduardo is friends with US President Donald Trump’s children.
August 23, 2019 – Bolsonaro announces plan to send military troops to fight forest fires ravaging the Amazon rainforest.
August 26, 2019 – At the G7 summit in France, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a $20 million emergency fund to help Brazil fight the fires. Bolsonaro responds that he cannot accept Macron’s “intentions behind the idea of an ‘alliance’ of G7 countries to ‘save’ the Amazon, as if we were a colony or a no man’s land.” The dispute comes after a Facebook user posted a meme ridiculing Macron’s wife’s appearance on Bolsonaro’s page and the president joked: “Don’t humiliate this guy… haha.”
September 8, 2019 – Bolsonaro is undergoing hernia surgery to treat complications from previous surgeries performed while he was recovering from a stab wound.
December 24, 2019 – He told Band TV that he was hospitalized overnight after a fall in the presidential palace on December 23. He says he had a brief memory loss, but recovered.
April 19, 2020 – Bolsonaro joins a rally in the country’s capital, where protesters called for an end to coronavirus quarantine measures and some called for military intervention to shut down Congress and the Supreme Court. He then defends his participation, saying he was not calling for military action against the country’s other branches of government.
June 23, 2020 – Bolsonaro was ordered by a federal judge in Brasilia to wear a face mask in public or face a fine. The decision extends to all civil servants in the Federal District, where the capital Brasilia is located.
July 7, 2020 – Bolsonaro announces he has tested positive for Covid-19, after downplaying the virus for months.
March 16, 2021 – A Brazilian court ordered Bolsonaro to pay damages to a journalist after she made comments questioning his credibility.
April 27, 2021 – The Brazilian Senate launches an investigation into the federal government’s response to Covid-19.
July 14, 2021 – Bolsonaro is admitted to hospital to investigate the cause of persistent hiccups that are leading to abdominal pain, according to Brazil’s Special Secretariat for Social Communication.
December 3, 2021 – Brazil’s Supreme Court orders investigation into Bolsonaro’s false claim that people vaccinated against Covid-19 may have a higher risk of contracting AIDS. The investigation is being launched in response to a request from the country’s parliamentary committee investigating the Bolsonaro government’s response to the pandemic.
January 3, 2022 – Bolsonaro is admitted to hospital with a blockage in his intestine.
June 29, 2022 – A Brazilian court rules that Bolsonaro must pay “moral damages” of 35,000 reais (about $6,700) to a Brazilian journalist after she made comments containing sexual innuendo about her in 2020.
October 2, 2022 – During the presidential election, Bolsonaro finished with 43.2% against 48.4% for Lula da Silva. Each candidate had to exceed 50% to be elected in the first round of voting. The two candidates will therefore face each other in a second round on October 30.
October 30, 2022 – Bolsonaro lost his bid for a second term, after obtaining 49.1% of the vote against Lula da Silva, who won with 50.9%.
November 22, 2022 – Bolsonaro files a petition with Brazilian election authorities formally challenging the results of the presidential vote, alleging that some voting machines malfunctioned and that all votes cast through them should be canceled. The petition was rejected the next day.
January 10, 2023 – Leaves a hospital in Florida and arrives at a residence in Orlando. Bolsonaro said he was receiving treatment for complications related to his stabbing in 2018. Bolsonaro’s hospitalization comes after hundreds of his supporters stormed the capital Brasilia on January 8, ransacking the offices of the government and sparking strong condemnation from the international community.
January 13, 2023 – Brazil’s Supreme Court said it accepted the prosecutor’s request to investigate Bolsonaro’s alleged involvement in the Jan. 8 attacks on government buildings in Brasilia.
June 30, 2023 – Brazil’s top electoral court bans Bolsonaro from running for political office until 2030, after finding him guilty of abuse of power and misuse of state media during the 2022 election campaign. Speaking to Brazilian radio station Itatiaia, Bolsonaro said he planned to appeal the court’s decision.
August 17, 2023 – Brazilian hacker Walter Delgatti Neto told Brazil’s Joint Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPMI) that during a meeting in August 2022, Bolsonaro asked him if he could hack voting machines and offered to pardon if he suffered legal consequences.
February 8, 2024 – In a statement, Brazilian Federal Police say four people have been arrested and 33 search warrants executed as part of an investigation into an alleged coup attempt aimed at keeping Bolsonaro in power as president. Fabio Wajngarten, a lawyer representing Bolsonaro, confirms that Bolsonaro is among those under investigation.
March 19, 2024 – Bolsonaro has been charged by Brazilian federal police on suspicion of fraud following allegations that he falsified Covid-19 vaccination data while still president, CNN Brasil affiliate reports.