‘We’re a Country of Losers’: Brazil’s Brashest Billionaire Goes Off
He’s a retail mogul and huge Bolsonaro fan; selling washing machines, drills, umbrellas and politics
Luciano Hang gives a motivational speech to employees before a store opening.
Photographer: Tommaso Rada/BloombergPeople wait for hours to take selfies with him. Some weep when they’re introduced. Luciano Hang often goes in for a hug when a fan approaches. Then there might be more weeping.
Hang, an eccentric 56-year-old who owns the big-box chain Havan, is a retail rock star in Brazil, a free-market evangelist and arguably Jair Bolsonaro’s most passionate booster in the business community. He’s pulling out the stops to encourage his many devotees to support the far-right president’s plans to transform the country by, among other things, relaxing gun-control laws, cutting back on environmental protections and embracing capitalism big time.