Jeff Rubin on Brazil’s Election and What’s on the Ballot | Latin American Studies

Jeff Rubin on Brazil’s Election and What’s on the Ballot

In a September 27 op-ed in The Conversation, Jeff Rubin, Associate Professor of History, and co-author Rafael R. Ioris, Professor of Modern Latin America History at the University of Denver, make the case that two very different Brazils could emerge after elections on October 2.

In one scenario, Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s current president, will manage to stay in power – by either winning the vote or illegally ignoring it – and continue to push the country down an authoritarian road. Alternately, the country will begin the process of rebuilding its democratic institutions, which have been undermined during Bolsonaro’s four years in power. That project will be the task of a broad center-left coalition led by former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers Party.

Rubin and Ioris contend that a Lula victory, following on the victories of Gabriel Boric in Chile and Gustavo Petro in Colombia would not only swing the swing the ideological balance of the region to the left, it would complement the US’s own efforts to strengthen democracy at this time.

Read more at the Conversation.

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