Brazil election: bellwether state could have future of democracy in its hands

[marmar]

(Guardian UK) Armed with red paint brushes and a bucket of glue, the activists marched through the streets of Parrot Hill pasting urgent warnings on to the walls of what has become the frontline in the fight for Brazil’s future.

“Bolsonaro hates the poor,” read one poster. “Bolsonaro speaks nothing but lies. He’s the father of falsehoods,” declared another, asking residents of one of Belo Horizonte’s largest favelas: “Are you really going to vote for him?”

Nil César, one of the fly-posting campaigners, said the president’s contempt for the poor and dramatic loosening of gun laws meant their pre-election operation was quite literally a matter of life or death for the community’s disenfranchised youth.

“I fear this will end in bloodshed … and the problem is that the blood will be black, favela blood,” the 46-year-old activist said as his team plastered Parrot Hill’s redbrick homes with their notices. “We are trying to ensure our survival.”

Belo Horizonte is the capital of Minas Gerais, Brazil’s second most populous and fourth largest state. And as the South American country prepares to hold its most important election in decades on Sunday, the south-eastern region has become ground zero for the scrap between the far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro and his leftist challenger, the ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. ..............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/26/brazil-election-lula-bolsonaro-minas-gerais