BBC

Rise of the Bolsonaros tells the story of Brazil's far-right president through sources like Steve Bannon and Bolsonaro's son Flavio.

An especially relevant piece of information left out of Rise of the Bolsonaros is the supreme court’s charge that Moro [leaked fraudulent audio tapes](https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/story-shipwrecked-sailor-named-sergio-moro/) to media in order to damage the reputation of Workers Party candidate Fernando Haddad just one week before the presidential elections, and then, in a clear conflict of interest, accepted a cabinet position in the Bolsonaro government. Instead, it brings up frivolous charges that were dropped before his trial even started, such as “receiving 1 million euros in bribes.” The fact that Lula was ultimately released from prison after the election is written off as a “technicality.” There is also no acknowledgment that this delay was only made possible by the political bias of a crooked judge who illegally [colluded with prosecutors](https://theintercept.com/2019/06/09/brazil-lula-operation-car-wash-sergio-moro/) throughout the trial. [massive increases](https://www.reuters.com/article/brazil-lula-spending/brazils-lula-defends-increase-in-social-spending-idUSN0333545520070903) in spending on public health and education and successful [poverty-reduction policies](https://economia.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,miseria-no-brasil-cai-27-7-no-1-mandato-de-lula,54881). Bannon’s claim in the documentary that he reached out to the Bolsonaros to learn about their social media strategy seems like a blatant lie, since [many of the tactics](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/08/11/bolsonaro-trump-playbook/) employed by Bolsonaro were clearly based on the Trump campaign’s culture war rhetoric. The documentary frames Bolsonaro as being broke and unable to support his family, but at the time of the article, Brazilian army captains earned [10,433 cruzados per month](https://www.migalhas.com.br/quentes/287138/artigo-sobre-baixos-salarios-no-exercito-marcou-nascimento-da-carreira-politica-de-bolsonaro)—over 12 times the country’s minimum salary of [804 cruzados](https://audtecgestao.com.br/capa.asp?infoid=1336). [closed-door meeting](https://www.brasilwire.com/lava-jatofascism-is-a-match-whos-the-matchmaker/) in New York in 2017 with US business leaders and Bolsonaro—then a presidential hopeful—evidently prompting Americas Quarterly to lend [increasingly favorable coverage](https://www.brasilwire.com/boycott-americas-quarterly-and-ascoa/) to the far-right demagogue. [unsuccessful, environmentally devastating projects](https://www.cccep.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/WP55_world-bank-road-project-brazil.pdf) in the Amazon rainforest. [upper-middle class](https://biblioteca.ibge.gov.br/visualizacao/livros/liv101760.pdf). [US Department of Justice ](https://www.brasilwire.com/us-doj-clarifies-role-in-lava-jato/)was a crucial partner in the Lava Jato (“Car Wash”) investigation, which resulted in the [prosecution and jailing](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/07/world/americas/brazil-lula-surrenders-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva-.html) of Brazil’s left-leaning former president Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva. Since then, AS/COA has worked, most recently through its media arm, Americas Quarterly—of which Winter is editor-in-chief—to promote nearly every other far-right US intervention in Latin America, including the recent regime-change efforts in [Venezuela](https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/why-venezuelas-opposition-is-finally-getting-it-right/) and [Bolivia](https://www.americasquarterly.org/article/who-will-lead-bolivia-out-of-its-dangerous-power-vacuum/). [boom and bust](https://www.britannica.com/place/Brazil/The-economy) periods. Rise of the Bolsonaros was released on August 28 on PBS, and is airing as a three-part series in Britain on BBC2.