Balancing extremism and diplomacy: Mr. Bolsonaro in Washington

Mar 18, 2019 16:18 5 min read (Updated: Jan 30, 2020 14:50)

In what was the first main event in Jair Bolsonaro’s long-awaited trip to the U.S. to meet with Donald Trump, the Brazilian president attended a dinner held at the Washington home of Sérgio Amaral, the Brazilian ambassador to the U.S. The guest of honor, however, was not Mr. Bolsonaro—rather it was his ideological guru, the self-titled philosopher Olavo de Carvalho.

After the meal, Jair Bolsonaro called a toast to Mr. Carvalho, at which moment Paulo Guedes, the Economy Minister, lauded the ideologue as being “the leader of a revolution” in Brazil. Revolutionary would be one way of describing...

Balancing extremism and diplomacy: Mr. Bolsonaro in Washington

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