Jair Bolsonaro Fast Facts
Jair Bolsonaro – (translated as “strong leader”) is the current President of Brazil. He was elected in early 2018 and, since his election, has promised to address issues related to Brazil’s high unemployment rate and to improve Brazil’s education system. He is also a proponent of gun control, has a strong support in Brazil’s Catholic Church, and wants to close the remaining military bases in Brazil’s northeast.
Bolsonaro is known for creating a “fake news” image and regularly uses controversial speech with racist undertones – especially against Indigenous communities. According to a recent study, Brazil is the second least developed country in Latin America, despite being the world’s fourth largest country. In September 2018, Bolsonaro’s approval rating was at a record low of 13% after more than 3 years of economic mismanagement and poor performance of the government.
Biography
Jair Bolsonaro was born on 17 October 1986 in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. His father, retired public school teacher, was an avid soccer fan and played for the youth selection. His mother, Maria Cristina, is a housewife. His mother, the only one present at the delivery, described Bolsonaro’s father as being very strict, but also described him as being very supportive. Jair is one of nine siblings.
When he was 11, he moved to a rural area where his parents had a farm. His mother, Maria Cristina, took her son with her to work. He attended a religious mission school, spending most of his time in the fields. He did not speak Portuguese as a first language. Bolsonaro was expelled from his mission school for breaking his mother’s arm. He was subsequently expelled from a Catholic boarding school for bad discipline and an argument between his parents. Bolsonaro then got a job at a metal factory in the city of Porto Alegre, where he worked until age 18. There he met a high school classmate, Marielle Franco, and a year later started his first business, a car rental service. At the end of high school, he moved to a small farm, where he worked as a farmer alongside his future wife, Marielle.
On June 4, 1992, he married his wife
