BOLSONARISM AND FAR-RIGHT IN THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY IN TIMES OF DEMOCRACY CRISIS

• Grant number: 24/19037-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: December 01, 2024
• End date: April 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: Rúrion Soares Melo
• Grantee: Telma de Sousa Bemerguy
• Host Institution: Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 19/22387-0 - Crises of democracy: critical theory and the diagnosis of present time, AP.TEM

Abstract

This research aims to delve into the dynamics and disputes of the public sphere in contemporary Brazil, based onan investigation of perceptions, feelings, and shared grammars among self-identified Bolsonaro supporters in theLegal Amazon. Throughout the research, the work of mapping and delimiting particular and/or resonant aspects ofBolsonarism in the Amazon will be carried out through ethnographic incursions in Amazonian cities that yieldedsignificant votes for Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 elections: Santarém, Itaituba, Novo Progresso, in Pará, andSorriso, in Mato Grosso. The localities are situated on the margins of the BR-163, which integrates a central routefor the export of commodities produced in the Midwest of Brazil. The BR-163, called the "soybean highway," wasone of the federal highways blocked in the context of the protests carried out after Bolsonaro's defeat in the re-election. In the ongoing investigations into the attempt to abolish the Democratic State that culminated in theattack on the buildings of the National Congress, the Supreme Federal Court, and the Planalto Palace in Brasília onJanuary 8, 2023, a significant portion of individuals mentioned as financiers of the anti-democratic acts maintaineconomic activities in the region of influence of the road. The selected cities were the scene of camps built in frontof military institutions to question the legitimate result of the elections. The research will seek to map possiblesimilarities and differences between the discourses of actors in the region and those elaborated by supporters ofJair Bolsonaro in large urban centers, with research directed at local perceptions around the figures of the "goodcitizen," the "patriot," the "worker," and the "bandit," central categories in narratives of self-perception elaboratedby actors in the field of the extreme right in other Brazilian empirical contexts. The final objective of theinvestigation will be to analyze whether such perceptions corroborate or challenge the characterization ofBolsonarism as a far-right counter-public in the country.