Verbal War Between Bolsonaro and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio

By Harold Emert

RIO DE JANEIRO – BRAZIL – Despite vows of new paths of friendship with the Trump administration, Brazil’ s new right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, and his family are engaged in a verbal war with New York’s Mayor Bill De Blasio.

The Mayor has called for the cancellation of Bolsonaro’s scheduled award on May 14 as “Personality of the Year” at the Museum of Natural History on Manhattan’s West Side.

The ex-Army Captain has indirectly struck back at Mayor Blasio via a statement by his son  Eduardo Bolsonaro, President of the Foreign Relations Committee of Brazil’ s Chamber of Deputies who says (quoting a colleague) “This attempted cancellation is proof that idiots are in all parts of the world not only Latin America.”

Eduardo adds: “The cultural movement which has occurred in Brazil (throwing out a leftist government for a rightwing President) has occurred as well in the USA, England, France, and Chile.”

The Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce which has reserved the Museum of Natural History for the event is reportedly sold out with nearly a thousand invited persons paying US$ 30,000 a head for its annual event. Each year a Brazilian and American are awarded the prize, but so far, according to Brazilian media reports, the name of the American has not been released.

Former “Jet-Wash scandal” judge Sergio Moro, who is President  Bolsonaro’s Justice Minister, received the award in 2018.

Bolsonaro’s award comes “as a result of” his emphasizing the importance of Christian and family values in his seven terms as a federal deputy in Brazil’ s Congress, according to the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce.