Analysis: If Biden wins U.S. election, Brazil's Bolsonaro loses key trade, climate ally

  • 10/29/2020
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BRASILIA (Reuters) - Victory by Democrat Joe Biden in next week’s U.S. presidential election could put the environment and human rights at the top of the country’s agenda with Brazil, complicating relations with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and jeopardizing trade, diplomats and analysts say.If Biden wins Tuesday’s vote, Bolsonaro would lose a diplomatic ally and find himself isolated in his approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, which he modeled on U.S. President Donald Trump’s disregard for the gravity of the virus. The two leaders have persistently downplayed the pandemic even as their countries suffered from the world’s most deadly outbreaks. Pressure from Biden to curb deforestation in the Amazon and concern for climate change would be a major departure from Trump’s approach and could cause frictions with Bolsonaro, according to Mike Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank that focuses on relations within the Americas. “There are people in the Democratic Party that would like to go after Bolsonaro and be very tough with him on this issue, and join forces with the Europeans to apply significant pressure,” Shifter said in a telephone interview. Concerns for LGBT rights, and those of women and indigenous people, which were not on the agenda under Trump, will be raised by a Biden administration, Shifter said. Brazil’s marginalized communities, including LGBT people and Afro-Brazilians, say violence against its members has increased under a president known for homophobic and racist comments during his time as a congressman. Indigenous leaders say that Bolsonaro’s plan to economically exploit the Amazon has encouraged invasions of reservation lands by illegal loggers and gold miners.

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