International
Bolsonaro finds strong support in Rio’s ‘Brazilian Miami’
AFP | Eugenia Logiuratto
Posh-looking drivers in expensive cars are honking their horns on a beachfront avenue in Rio de Janeiro, blaring their approval at a vendor selling green-and-yellow Brazilian flags outside President Jair Bolsonaro’s former home.
Welcome to Barra da Tijuca, the neighborhood known as the “Brazilian Miami,” a bastion of support for the far-right incumbent as he fights to win reelection in his October 30 runoff battle against leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010).
Known for its upscale shopping malls, gated communities and luxury condos with sweeping views of the emerald coastline, Barra voted heavily for Bolsonaro in the first-round election on October 2, when Lula took 48 percent of the vote nationwide, to 43 percent for the incumbent.
In Barra, Bolsonaro won 50 percent of the vote, to 37 percent for Lula — a preference visible in the abundance of Brazilian flags fluttering from the west-side neighborhood’s balconies, a symbol adopted by the president’s supporters.
“People here in Barra are very in sync with Bolsonaro ideologically. The majority of people support him, because there are a lot of businesspeople,” says resident Felipe Fontenelle, a 58-year-old entrepreneur who owns a communications security firm and stakes in two restaurants.
Lula, he warns, represents “communism.”
Developed in 1969 by renowned modernist urban planner Lucio Costa, Barra underwent a demographic boom in the 1980s, becoming a magnet for celebrities, politicians and the upwardly mobile as they sought a haven from the city’s violence.
Now home to some 135,000 people, its elite status was cemented when it was chosen as the site for the Olympic village for the 2016 Rio Games.
“It’s a neighborhood for the nouveau riche, especially people who believe in the idea of the self-made man: that they worked hard and succeeded,” says sociologist Paulo Gracino Junior of Candido Mendes University, calling it an enclave of executives, professionals and military top brass.
He points out it is also home to ex-cop Ronnie Lessa, a convicted arms trafficker who is the chief suspect in the 2018 killing of black LGBT activist and Rio city councillor Marielle Franco.
Lessa and Bolsonaro lived on the same street.
Bolsonaro’s hood
Bolsonaro, then a congressman representing Rio, moved to Barra with his family in the 2000s.
They still own the house they bought in Vivendas da Barra, a gated community that sits behind a cement wall topped with barbed wire.
The private condo has become a rallying point for Bolsonaro backers.
Visiting Rio from the southern state of Santa Catarina, retired lawyer Mirian Rebelo and her son Rodrigo, a dentist, stopped there to take selfies, both sporting Tommy Hilfiger T-shirts and sunglasses.
“I love the president’s focus on the family. And he doesn’t mince words. He speaks his mind,” says Mirian, 65.
“Every country deserves a Bolsonaro,” says Rodrigo, 41, praising the president’s “crackdown on corruption and the ideology of evil.”
Cacalo Matarazzo, a lawyer and jiu-jitsu teacher who lives next door to Bolsonaro’s condo complex, says he counts the president as a friend.
“Everyone here knows him well. He even invited me over for coffee before his inauguration” in 2019, says the stern, square-jawed 73-year-old, after proudly showing a series of photographs of himself with Bolsonaro on his cell phone.
“But it’s not just about Bolsonaro, it’s about a guy who’s fighting to build a better Brazil.”
Matarazzo is no fan of Lula, who makes a cameo among the Bolsonaro merch on sale out front.
There, the veteran leftist, who was jailed in 2018 on controversial, since-overturned corruption charges, appears in effigy as an inflatable doll in a prison uniform.
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Aerial view of the Barra da Tijuca neighbourhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 10, 2022. - Posh-looking drivers in expensive cars are honking their horns on a beachfront avenue in Rio de Janeiro, blaring their approval at a vendor selling green-and-yellow Brazilian flags outside President Jair Bolsonaro's former home. Welcome to Barra da Tijuca, the neighborhood known as the "Brazilian Miami," a bastion of support for the far-right incumbent as he fights to win re-election in his October 30 runoff battle against leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010). (Photo by CARLOS FABAL / AFP)
International
Man arrested after deliberately driving into seven children in Osaka
Japanese police arrested a man on Thursday after he rammed his car into a group of seven schoolchildren in an apparent deliberate attack in the city of Osaka.
The children, who were on their way home from school, sustained injuries and were taken to the hospital. All seven remained conscious, according to local authorities.
An Osaka police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the suspect is a 28-year-old man from Tokyo. The officer shared statements the man made after his arrest: “I was fed up with everything, so I decided to kill people by driving into several elementary school children,” the suspect reportedly said.
The man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
The injured children, aged between seven and eight, included a seven-year-old girl who suffered a fractured jaw. The six other children—all boys—suffered minor injuries such as bruises and scratches and were undergoing medical evaluation.
Witnesses described the car as “zigzagging” before hitting the children. One witness told Nippon TV that a girl was “covered in blood” and the others appeared to have scratches.
Another witness said the driver, who was wearing a face mask, looked to be in shock when school staff pulled him from the vehicle.
Violent crimes are rare in Japan, though serious incidents do occur from time to time. In 2008, Tomohiro Kato drove a two-ton truck into pedestrians in Tokyo’s Akihabara district, then fatally stabbed several victims. Seven people were killed in that attack.
Internacionales
Clashes erupt during may day protests across France amid calls for better wages
May Day protests in France were marked by a heavy police presence and clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement in several cities.
In Paris, Lyon, and Nantes, thousands took to the streets to demand better wages, fairer working conditions, and to voice their dissatisfaction with President Emmanuel Macron’s government.
While the majority of the demonstrations remained peaceful, isolated confrontations broke out in some areas. Protesters threw objects at the police, prompting the use of tear gas and resulting in several arrests.
Videos showing police crackdowns circulated widely on social media, drawing criticism from labor unions and human rights advocates, who denounced the authorities’ response to the protests.
International
Kristi Noem credits Trump for mass migrant deportations by mexican president
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem claimed that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has deported “more than half a million” migrants due to pressure from former President Donald Trump.
During a cabinet meeting highlighting the “achievements” of Trump’s administration in its first 100 days, Noem asserted that under the Republican leader’s influence, “Mexico has finally come to the table” to negotiate on migration and fentanyl trafficking.
“The president of Mexico told me she has returned just over half a million people before they reached our border,” Noem stated, criticizing media reports that suggest the Biden administration deported more migrants than Trump’s.
“I wish those deportations were counted,” Noem added, “because those people never made it to our border—she sent them back because you made her.” She went on to thank Trump: “They never made it here because they got the message—because you were so aggressive.”
Noem has made controversial claims about Sheinbaum in the past, prompting the Mexican leader to refute them.
On April 1, Sheinbaum responded to one such statement by declaring, “The president answers to only one authority, and that is the people of Mexico,” after Noem said on Fox News that she gave Sheinbaum “a list of things Trump would like to see” and that Mexico’s actions would determine whether Trump granted tariff relief.
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