Brazil’s New President Stumbles In Terra Incognita
Jair Bolsonaro is discovering the dangers of learning foreign policy on the fly.
The world can’t count on a smooth hand-off.
Photographer: Andre Coelho/Bloomberg via Getty Images
To rescue Brazil from its worst economic debacle in memory, and perhaps his own worst instincts as a career dirigiste, president-elect Jair Bolsonaro has called upon a market-friendly, University of Chicago-trained wunderkind. His pick for Justice Minister? Sergio Moro, of course, the federal judge who presided over the Carwash probe — Latin America’s biggest political corruption-busting case.
So who will be Bolsonaro’s foreign-policy whisperer, and shepherd the upstart former parachutist in an uncertain world caught between a new cold war and a potentially treaty-shredding trade conflict? Anyone please?