A government made of heroes and myths

Brazilian politics has been recently marked by three inseparable phenomena: (a) the fight against corruption, (b) the rise of a new right-wing—whose fragmentation is only matched by its authoritarian leanings—and (c) anti-establishment mobilization. Though Jair Bolsonaro emerged as president in this new zeitgeist, it’s former Federal Judge Sergio Moro (the current Justice Minister) who most perfectly embodies these three elements.

His role as leader of the earth-shattering anti-corruption Operation Car Wash—the biggest of its kind—has placed Mr. Moro in the pantheon of Brazil’s contemporary heroes. And I mean that literally.

In 2015, far-right-wing activist and current Congresswoman Carla Zambelli made inflatable ‘Super Moros’ for sale. Then, in 2016—months before the crushing electoral defeat the Workers’ Party would suffer in the municipal elections ballots, a giant effigy of Mr. Moro as Superman was ordered by a lawyer from Lucas do Rio Verde, a municipality in Mato Grosso —the heart of Brazil’s soybean country. During the 2017 Carnival, Super Moro costumes were being sold in Rio. The most recent appearance of the giant “Super Moro” was on May 26, when pro-Bolsonaro protesters took it to the streets, with the caption: “Moro, a Brazilian hero.”

This mystifying—and somewhat puerile—crowning of Mr. Moro has also occurred, to a certain extent, with Jair Bolsonaro, who is called “the legend” by his supporters. The new right-wing militants seem eager to compare their...