Waack: Flávio Bolsonaro uses Trump to stifle scandals

How many votes is a photo with Donald Trump worth in the Brazilian elections? Presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro (PL) thinks it's worth something.

Who knows, it might take the place of other photos. Like the ex-banker Daniel Vorcaro, who he went to ask for money to make a film about his father, according to Flávio.

Or the place for photos of the former governor of Rio de Janeiro Cláudio Castro (PL), a character of considerable prominence in regional Bolsonarism and today the target of a Federal Police operation linked to the Banco Master scandal.

But what does Trump's visit say about Brazil and the United States under a possible Flávio Bolsonaro government?

Next to him was his brother Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL), who worked to get the American government to harm Brazil as a way of favoring his political grouping, and for this reason he is being prosecuted.

Flávio promised old things, like resolving the commercial dispute started by the Americans and applauded by his brother.

But he also promised that Brazil would be part of the Shield of the Americas, a type of defense alignment that has always been avoided by the Armed Forces here - even though it maintains close ties with the American military power.

It is curious to note such idolatry of Trump when he did not hesitate to leave Jair Bolsonaro abandoned, when he thought that Lula (PT) offered him more than a politician in jail.

Tying Brazil to Trump, as Flávio and his brother suggest, is not just a strategic error in the great geopolitical confrontation in which what is required of Brazil is balance - something that Trump does not have.

It is submitting the national interest to the interest of a political group, commanded by the Bolsonaros. The same criticism that has always been made towards Lula and the PT.

Source: CNN