Jair Bolsonaro Facts

(CNN) – These are some of the most outstanding facts about Jair Bolsonaro, president of Brazil.

Personal

Date of birth: March 21, 1955

Place of birth: Countryside, Brazil

Birth name: Jair Messias Bolsonaro

Dad: Percy Geraldo Bolsonaro, dentist

Mother: Olinda Bonturi Bolsonaro

Marriage: Michelle Bolsonaro; Ana Cristina Valle (divorced); Rogéria Bolsonaro (divorced)

Children: with Michelle Bolsonaro: Laura; with Ana Cristina Valle: Jair Renan; with Rogéria Bolsonaro: Flavio, Carlos and Eduardo

Education: Agulhas Negras Military Academy, 1977

Military: Army captain

Religion: Roman catholic

Other data

Bolsonaro, a conservative provocateur, likes inflammatory statements. Among the targets of his rhetoric are women and the LGBTQ community. In 2003, she told a congresswoman she was not worthy of being raped. During a 2011 interview with Playboy magazine, Bolsonaro said that he would be incapable of loving a gay son. He has expressed nostalgia for Brazil’s past as a military dictatorship.

Bolsonaro served seven terms as a congressman in the Chamber of Deputies. While in Congress, his priorities included protecting citizens’ rights to own firearms, promoting the values christians and a heavy hand on crime. In 2017, he said: “A policeman who does not kill is not a policeman.”

Bolsonaro has switched parties several times, ultimately campaigning for president as a member of the Social Liberal Party.

When Bolsonaro took office, Brazil was suffering from a prolonged period of economic crisis and growing insecurity. His rise was preceded by a corruption scandal that shook political and financial institutions. During his inaugural speech, Bolsonaro vowed to transform Brazil into a “strong and prosperous country.”

Chronology

1986: Bolsonaro writes an opinion column in Veja magazine that criticizes the Brazilian army’s payment system. Later he is punished for insubordination.

1989-1991: Councilor of Rio de Janeiro.

1991-2018: Congressman representing Rio de Janeiro in the Chamber of Deputies.

July 22, 2018: Bolsonaro announces his candidacy for the presidency.

August 15, 2018: Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, former president of Brazil, announces that he presented the necessary documentation to register as a candidate of the Workers’ Party to run against Bolsonaro. Lula da Silva is campaigning from prison, where he is serving a 12-year sentence for corruption.

September 1, 2018: The most important electoral court in Brazil prohibits Lula da Silva from running for reelection while in prison. Ultimately, a former São Paulo mayor named Fernando Haddad is running as a candidate for the Workers’ Party.

September 6, 2018: Bolsonaro is stabbed in the stomach during a campaign rally. Spend more than three weeks in the hospital.

October 7, 2018: Voters vote in the first round of elections. Although Bolsonaro wins more votes than Haddad, he does not exceed the 50% threshold. A second round is set for later in the same month.

October 28, 2018: Bolsonaro wins the second round. The final tally gives Bolsonaro 55.13%, compared to Haddad’s 44.87%.

January 1, 2019: Bolsonaro takes office. On the same day, he issues a series of executive orders. One of them could remove many LGBT civil rights protections by removing the issues of this community from the list of issues handled by the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights. Another order gives the Ministry of Agriculture the authority to designate indigenous lands, paving the way for agricultural development in areas that previously could not be exploited.

January 15, 2019: Bolsonaro signs an executive order temporarily removing a regulation limiting firearm purchases only to people who present a justification for owning a weapon. The regulation gave the police discretion to approve or deny the sale of weapons.

January 28, 2019: Official sources report that Bolsonaro underwent a successful surgery to remove a colostomy bag that was placed on him after being stabbed four months earlier.

February 28, 2019: Bolsonaro meets with the opposition leader of Venezuela and self-proclaimed interim president, Juan Guaidó, in Brasilia. During a joint press conference, Bolsonaro pledged Brazil’s support to help ensure “the restoration of democracy in Venezuela.”

May 3, 2019: A spokesman for Bolsonaro announces that the president canceled a trip to New York, where he was to be honored with a Person of the Year award from the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce. The trip was canceled amid a political backlash. The American Museum of Natural History, the original host of the event, canceled it and some sponsoring companies withdrew. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio had called Bolsonaro a “dangerous man.”

May 7, 2019: Bolsonaro signs an executive order relaxing restrictions on gun control. The executive order facilitates the importation of weapons and increases the amount of ammunition that an individual can purchase annually.

July 11, 2019: During a press conference, Bolsonaro says he wants his son Eduardo Bolsonaro be an ambassador to the United States. He says that Eduardo is a friend of the children of the US President Donald Trump.

August 23, 2019: Bolsonaro announces a plan to send army troops to combat the forest fires that sweep the Amazon jungle.

August 26, 2019: At the G7 summit in France, the President of the European nation, Emmanuel Macron, announces a US $ 20 million emergency fund to help Brazil with the fires. Bolsonaro responds that he cannot accept Macron’s “intentions behind the idea of ​​an ‘alliance’ of the G7 countries to ‘save’ the Amazon, as if we were a colony or no man’s land.” The dispute unfolds after a Facebook user posted a meme ridiculing the appearance of Macron’s wife on Bolsonaro’s page and the president jokingly: “Don’t humiliate the guy … haha.”

September 8, 2019: Bolsonaro undergoes a hernia operation to treat complications from previous surgeries performed while recovering from a stab wound.

December 24, 2019: He tells Band television that he was hospitalized overnight after falling in the presidential palace on December 23. He says he had a brief memory loss, but recovered.

April 19, 2020: Bolsonaro joins a protest in the country’s capital, where protesters called for an end to quarantine measures for covid-19 and some urged military intervention to shut down Congress and the Supreme Court. He later defends his participation, saying that he was not calling for military action against the other branches of the country’s government.

June 23, 2020: A federal judge in Brasilia orders Bolsonaro to wear a mask in public or face a fine. The decision extends to all government employees in the Federal District, where the capital Brasilia is located.

July 7, 2020: Bolsonaro announces that he tested positive for covid-19, after months of downplaying the virus.