Brazil can learn from Argentina and Chile’s reckoning with dictatorship past

Even before being elected President of Brazil in 2018, Jair Bolsonaro had a clear and unwavering position on the repressive and violent military dictatorship that ravaged the country from 1964 to 1985. Besides denying the existence of the military coup itself, Mr. Bolsonaro said back in the 1990s that he was “in favor of torture,” arguing that “through voting, you won’t change anything in the country.”

However, until becoming a household Brazilian name—which only happened in the last few years—Jair Bolsonaro’s opinions on the dictatorship were restricted to a dark corner of politics, making him an example of where not to cast your vote. Now, as president, Mr. Bolsonaro’s views on the military regime have permeated around factions of Brazil’s right-wing. 

The new government’s first international trial by fire happened in Chile, during Mr. Bolsonaro’s official visit to Santiago in March 2019. Members of the presidential entourage—including the sons Mr. Bolsonaro’s sons—exalted the regime of Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean general who oversaw more than 3,000 deaths as the country’s dictator between 1973 and 1990. 

But unlike Brazil, in Chile, only a bare minority in politics endorse the horrors of the dictatorship. Chilean President Sebastián Piñera called his Brazilian counterpart’s statements  “tremendously unfortunate,” while the head of Chile’s Senate called Jair Bolsonaro a “dictator dressed up as a democrat.” 

But why do Chile and Brazil view their authoritarian pasts so differently?

A people without a memory is a people without a future

These famous words can be found are written above one of the stands in the National Stadium...