Jair Bolsonro, the current president of Brazil, has struggled since the 2008 Amazon deforestation crisis and will try to halt the global climate crisis
Brazilians are heading to the polls Sunday in a polarizing national vote poised to usher in a new president, who will be forced to grapple with an economic crisis, surging Amazon deforestation and lingering questions over the health of Latin America’s largest democracy.
Environmental and climate worries also loom large. Jair Bolsonro, the president of Brazil who believes that the rainforest should be open to farming, mining and ranching as well as weakened environmental protections is responsible for deforestation hitting 15-year highs in the Amazon. Brazil has turned into a pariah because of the destruction of the Amazon, and the effects on the efforts to avert a climate crisis.
The election is a duel between Mr. Bolsonaro and a former leftist president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who served from 2003 until 2010. After Mr da Silva was convicted of corruption and sentenced to prison, the Supreme Court ruled the judge was biased and threw out the conviction.
This is the tiny home of 46-year-old single mother Sandra Silva. It is all she can afford, and she has had little time to spruce it up because taking care of her four children and one grandchild who live with her has turned into a full-time job.
“It hasn’t been easy,” she told CNN. She has struggled to find work and is living off government benefits, rationing what the family eats so they can afford baby formula. Most of the time, she gives the children rice and beans, but worries that they need more nutritious food, she says.
“Bolsonaro was even capable of lying on the national broadcaster, saying that there is no hunger in Brazil,” he explains. Millions of people need a plate of food due to them being unable to feed themselves.
“During the pandemic there were so many deaths and then nothing improved, things are only getting more and more expensive,” she says. “I intend to vote for Lula because (incumbent Brazilian President) Bolsonaro has been there for four years. And in four years he hasn’t been able to do much.”
Though unemployment has been on the decline in the Latin American nation, its economy has struggled to pick up pace since the worst days of the pandemic. Now the war in Ukraine is driving the cost of living up, leaving many in precarious conditions. More than 33 million Brazilians experience hunger according to a recent study by a network of NGOs.
Silva was one of the first to settle in the favela known as the Nova Vitoria Esperança community six years ago. The number of houses in the area has increased since then, but it was only a few back then. Over 100 families have settled in the past two years because of rising costs, which drove many away from other parts of the city. Social workers tell CNN that most of them need support.
Around the neighborhood, posters cover the walls in support of the leftist presidential hopeful Lula da Silva and his Workers Party. Bolsonaru, the right-winger who has struggled to win over this area and its electorate, is not getting a lot of love.
Lula, who previously served as president from 2003 to 2011, is widely remembered as having lifted millions of Brazilians from extreme poverty through “Bolsa Familia” welfare program.
A gas voucher program, as well as accelerated aid disbursements to needy, was announced by Bolsonaro’s government earlier this month after the first round of voting.
Mendonça runs an NGO that helps rough sleepers get back on their feet. Among other things, they operate a soup kitchen in the heart of São Paulo, which serves around 1,400 meals a day.
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It is not every day that you can buy bread. Some days you have it and some days you don’t. I don’t always have a formula. I can not buy meat on some days so we have to eat beans or rice.
Their home is three hours and three buses away from the wealthy center, a world away from the hustle and pristine skyscrapers of Brazil’s commercial capital. The city center has a husband that works for 14 hours a day. They are struggling to feed themselves and their children despite his efforts.