Bolsonaro vs. Maduro: The Next Clash in Latin America? (Opinion, NYT)

[TomSea]

Opinion | Bolsonaro vs. Maduro: The Next Clash in Latin America?
Both leaders threaten the region’s hard-won democracy.

By Jorge G. Castañeda

    Jan. 8, 2019

MEXICO CITY — Jair Bolsonaro was sworn in last week as Brazil’s new president. Nicolás Maduro, having taken over from the deceased Hugo Chávez in 2013, will be sworn for a second six-year term as Venezuela’s president on Thursday. These inaugurations illustrate the threats facing Latin America’s democracy, international alignments and unity.

Mr. Bolsonaro is a right-wing former military hothead, with a record of incendiary statements on everything from gay rights to women, Afro-Brazilians to Donald Trump. He was elected on a wave of anti-corruption and anti-establishment sentiment in Brazil that was further fueled by a citizenry dismayed by record-high crime (even though his own family has already been accused of corruption). He immediately proceeded to pick fights with other leaders in Latin America — rescinding invitations to Mr. Maduro and Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, to attend his inauguration — and has practically broken off diplomatic relations with Venezuela.

Venezuela’s foreign minister, Jorge Arreaza, said President Maduro “never considered attending” the Bolsonaro inauguration, and few guests will be joining Mr. Maduro at his own party. The Latin American Group of Lima, the European Union, and several other countries refused to recognize the legitimacy of his re-election; only the Cubans, Bolivians, Nicaraguans and Salvadorans will figure among Latin American guests, and perhaps an envoy of the new Mexican government, which has clear sympathies for Mr. Maduro, but prefers to be discreet about it.

Read more at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/08/opinion/bolsonaro-maduro-clash-latin-america.html