HUMAN RIGHTS UNDER THE BOLSONARO GOVERNMENT

EXPRESSION OF THE AUTOCRATIC STATE

Abstract

Under the Bolsonaro government (2019-2022), characterized as a far-right administration, Brazilian society underwent an increase in the vulnerability of minority groups (Indigenous peoples, women, LGBTQIA+ individuals, among others) as well as a denial of human rights. This paper aims to analyze why, in Brazilian society, especially during the Bolsonaro government, fundamental principles on which human rights are based were neglected and denied. The general objective of the article is to examine why, in Brazilian society, particularly during the Bolsonaro administration, the fundamental principles establishing human rights were denied and/or neglected. The specific objectives are: (i) to characterize the Bolsonaro government and its performance on human rights; (ii) to present and analyze the particularity of Brazil in relation to human rights. To develop this article, both quantitative and qualitative research on the period, directly linked to human rights issues and the actions of the Brazilian state, were employed. Drawing from the works of Florestan Fernandes, the data collected were analyzed to establish connections between human rights, the Bolsonaro government, Brazilian particularities, and the bourgeois autocratic state. As a result, this research concludes that the Bolsonaro administration's efforts to dismantle public policies related to human rights, as well as its offensive stance toward minority groups, strongly replicate the structure of the bourgeois autocratic state, typical of dependent capitalist countries that experience restricted democracy.