Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro boosted welfare payments by 50% this summer to sway poor voters his way in an election year. But their loyalty to his leftist challenger runs deep.
“Some people are that easy when they’re in dire straits,” said 60-year-old housekeeper Luzia Martins. “But I don’t sell my conscience.”
The extra government aid to nearly a quarter of Brazil’s population may not sway many voters to switch sides. But political scientists say the Bolsonaro campaign is hoping it might placate a sizable number so that they abstain from voting. Abstention rates are already higher among poor voters.In 2003, then-President da Silva brought his entire Cabinet to the Jequitinhonha Valley, saying he wanted his ministers to see extreme poverty up close.
Bolsonaro’s Brazil Aid welfare program, built upon da Silva’s flagship Family Aid program, has helped people get by. First-round results show it helped Bolsonaro win some votes in the Jequitinhonha Valley, said Carlos Ranulfo, a political scientist at Federal University of Minas Gerais. Cláudio Gonçalves, 64, won’t be casting a ballot. Living alone in Jequitinhonha’s countryside, he has no phone, doesn’t watch television and spends most of his day caring for his pets. At night, he walks an hour to the local bar to sip beer under the starry sky.
Like many people in Araçuai, Aglete Batista, 32, uses her welfare to pay outstanding debts with local grocers. Her family uses a wood stove to cook mostly noodles, rice or beans because they can’t afford propane.A Lula sticker is the sole decoration at their shack that’s surrounded by dirt and mud. Adults sit on a couch outside while naked, dust-covered children play not far from a pit latrine.
During a debate on Sunday both candidates said that if they are elected the higher welfare payments, which are scheduled to end in December, will become permanent.
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