Bannon arrest doesn’t change a thing for Brazil’s far-right

Steve Bannon, the former top adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, was arrested on fraud charges this week. Strangely, that piece of news appears to have generated more buzz in Brazil than in the U.S., where Mr. Bannon is no longer seen as a major political player. But in Brazil, his connections to the Bolsonaro clan have turned him into a bogeyman for the Brazilian left — which lost no time in foretelling the backslide of the far-right in the country.

Many in Brazil sincerely believe that Jair Bolsonaro’s rise to power was orchestrated by Mr. Bannon, after they were pictured alongside one another on multiple social media posts. That is why, from former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to former presidential candidate Ciro Gomes, everyone on the left seemed to celebrate Mr. Bannon’s disgrace as a blow against the Bolsonaro administration. Political columnist Matheus Leitão, of weekly magazine Veja, went as far as saying that “[Mr.] Bannon’s arrest is worse for Bolsonarism than it is for Trumpism.” 

For Lula, the arrest was “an important victory for democracy” because Mr. Bannon “represents evil” and wished the same for [Mr.] Bolsonaro’s Virginia-based far-right guru Olavo de Carvalho, who The Brazilian Report profiled in 2018. Indeed, many Brazilian commentators have referred to Mr. Bannon as Donald Trump’s answer to Olavo de Carvalho.

What is the real connection between Bannon and the Bolsonaros, if any?

Mr. Bannon supposedly...