Bolsonaro puts crime in his sights

Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s new president, persuaded voters in Latin America’s biggest country to elevate him to leader on extreme-right vows to restore security that eclipsed his record of racism, misogyny and homophobia. The 63-year-old former paratrooper and veteran lawmaker is openly nostalgic for the 1964-1985 military dictatorship that imposed calm in the streets.

But he denies being a threat to democracy, saying he will be a “slave to the constitution” who will govern “with authority but not authoritarianism.” The man with the sharp blue gaze has vowed to ease gun laws to allow “good” people to dispense justice themselves. “If a truck driver is armed when someone tries to steal his cargo, the robber is killed,” and the driver will go unpunished, he said the day after his election.

“That will cut violence in Brazil for sure.” Bolsonaro himself was the victim of violence. On September 6, as he was campaigning, he was stabbed in the stomach by a mentally unbalanced lone assailant in a crowd, nearly costing him his life. That only burnished his image as a “legend” -- the nickname his most ardent supporters have given him.