Jair Bolsonaro
Jair Messias Bolsonaro is a Brazilian politician and former military officer who served as the 38th president of Brazil from 2019 to 2023. He previously served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1991 to 2019.
Born in Glicério, São Paulo, Bolsonaro began serving in the Brazilian Army in 1973 and graduated from the Military Academy of Agulhas Negras in 1977. He attracted publicity in 1986 after he wrote an article for Veja magazine criticizing the low wages of military officers, after which he was arrested and detained for fifteen days. He left the army and was elected to the Municipal Chamber of Rio de Janeiro two years later. In 1990 he was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies as a representative for the state of Rio de Janeiro. During his 27-year tenure as a congressman he became known for his national conservatism. Bolsonaro entered the 2018 presidential election, during which he began advocating economically liberal and pro-market policies. After surviving an assassination attempt on 6 September, he led in the 7 October first-round results and defeated Fernando Haddad in the 28 October runoff.
Bolsonaro focused on domestic affairs in his first months as president, dealing primarily with the fallout of the 2014 Brazilian economic crisis. The economy recovered slowly, while crime rates fell sharply during the first year. He rolled back protections for Indigenous groups in the Amazon rainforest and facilitated its deforestation. Bolsonaro's response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil was criticized across the political spectrum after he sought to downplay the pandemic and its effects, opposed quarantine measures, and dismissed two health ministers, while the death toll increased rapidly.
A polarizing politician, Bolsonaro has drawn both praise and criticism in Brazil for his views and comments, which have been described as far-right and populist. He is a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage, abortion, affirmative action, drug liberalization, and secularism. In foreign policy he has advocated closer relations with Israel and with the United States; later in his presidency he also made efforts to improve relations with the BRICS countries.
In the 2022 general election Bolsonaro lost to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. On 8 January 2023 a mob of Bolsonaro's supporters stormed federal government buildings, calling for a coup d'état. On 30 June the Superior Electoral Court blocked Bolsonaro from seeking office until 2030 for attempting to undermine the validity of the election through his unfounded claims of voter fraud, and for abusing his power by using government communication channels to both promote his campaign and to allege fraud. Testimony from military officials showed that Bolsonaro had planned a self-coup with the military to keep himself in power.
In November 2024 he was indicted by the Federal Police of Brazil of multiple crimes related to the planned coup. He was charged in February 2025, and the Supreme Court ruled he must stand trial. On 4 August 2025 he was placed under house arrest for using a mobile phone and accessing social media via his son Eduardo, violating pre-trial rules. His trial began on 2 September; on 11 September he was found guilty by the Supreme Federal Court and sentenced to 27 years and 3 months in prison. On November 22, 2025, Bolsonaro was arrested by the federal police after trying to remove his electronic ankle monitor. Two days later, the Supreme Federal Court unanimously voted to keep Bolsonaro in police custody.
Early life
Jair Messias Bolsonaro was born on 21 March 1955 in Glicério, São Paulo, in southeast Brazil, to Percy Geraldo Bolsonaro and Olinda Bonturi. His family is mostly of Italian descent, with German ancestry as well. On his father's side, he is the great-grandson of Italians from Veneto and Calabria. Bolsonaro's paternal grandfather's family comes from Veneto, more precisely Anguillara Veneta, in the province of Padua. His great-grandfather Vittorio Bolzonaro, was born on 12 April 1878. Vittorio's parents immigrated to Brazil when he was ten, together with his siblings, Giovanna and Tranquillo. His German ancestry came from his father's maternal grandfather, Carl "Carlos" Hintze, born in Hamburg around 1876, who immigrated to Brazil in 1883. His maternal grandparents were born in Lucca, in Tuscany, and went to live in Brazil in the 1890s. On 21 January 2022 his mother, Olinda Bonturi Bolsonaro, died at age 94. His father, Percy Geraldo Bolsonaro, died in 1995.Bolsonaro spent most of his childhood moving around São Paulo with his family, living in Ribeira, Jundiaí, and Sete Barras, before settling in Eldorado, in the state's southern region, in 1966, where he grew up with his five siblings. His first name is a tribute to Jair da Rosa Pinto, a football player for Palmeiras, with whom he shares a birthday.
Military career
In his final years in high school Bolsonaro was admitted to the Escola Preparatória de Cadetes do Exército, which he entered in 1973. In 1974 he went to the Military Academy of Agulhas Negras, graduating in 1977 as an artillery officer. He served in the 9th Field Artillery Group, in Nioaque, Mato Grosso do Sul. Later, he studied at the Army Physical Training School in Rio de Janeiro and served in the 21st Field Artillery Group and the 8th Paratrooper Field Artillery Group, from the Paratrooper Brigade, also based in Rio. His superior officers described him as "aggressive" and criticized his "excessive ambition for financial and economic gain". This assessment referred to Bolsonaro's attempt to mine gold in Bahia, though he later claimed the activity was merely a "hobby and mental hygiene".In 1987 he studied in the, where he made the Artillery Advanced Course. Bolsonaro first caught the public's attention in 1986 when he wrote an article published in the news magazine Veja. He complained about low military salaries and claimed that the High Command was dismissing officers due to budgetary cuts, not because they were displaying "deviations of conduct", as the command had told the press. Despite being reprimanded by his superiors, Bolsonaro received praise from fellow officers and wives of military men, becoming a household name for hardliners and right-wingers who were growing disenchanted with Brazil's new civilian democratic government.
In October 1987 Bolsonaro faced a new accusation. Veja reported that, with an Army colleague, he had plans to plant bombs in military units in Rio de Janeiro. After Bolsonaro called the allegation "a fantasy", the magazine published, in its next issue, sketches allegedly made by Bolsonaro in which the plan was detailed. Official records unearthed by the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo in 2018 detailed the case. After an investigation by an administrative military bureau called a Justification Board, Bolsonaro was unanimously found guilty. According to the board, Bolsonaro had a "serious personality deviation and a professional deformation", "lack of moral courage to leave the Army" and "lied throughout the process" when denying frequent contacts with Veja. The Supreme Military Court then analysed the case. The general in charge of reporting the case voted to acquit Bolsonaro, arguing that he had already been penalized for the initial Veja article, that there was no testimonial evidence of his plans to plant bombs, and that there were "deep contradictions in the four graphological exams", two of which failed to conclude that Bolsonaro was the author of the sketches. Bolsonaro was acquitted by the majority of the court. In December 1988, just after this ruling, he left the Army to begin his political career. He served in the military for 15 years, reaching the rank of captain.
Early political career
City councilor in Rio de Janeiro (1989–1991)
Bolsonaro entered politics in 1988, when he was elected to serve as a city councilor in Rio de Janeiro, representing the Christian Democratic Party. According to the biography by his son Flávio, Bolsonaro "was a candidate for councilor because it happened to be the only option he had at the moment to avoid persecution by some superiors. His entry into politics happened by chance, for his desire was to continue in his military career".Bolsonaro spent only two years in the Municipal Chamber of Rio de Janeiro. He was described as a quiet, discreet and conservative councilor, and showed little participation. His term as councilor was used mainly to give visibility to military causes, such as retirement benefits for former officers.
Federal deputy for Rio de Janeiro (1991–2018)
In the 1990 elections Bolsonaro was elected a federal deputy for the Christian Democratic Party. He served seven consecutive terms, from 1991 to 2018. He has been affiliated with several other political parties over the years. In 2014 he was the congressman who gained the most votes in Rio de Janeiro, with 465,000.Bolsonaro's name was listed on the "", a list detailing a corruption and money laundering scheme involving the state-owned electricity company, Eletrobras Furnas. He received housing assistance for deputies who do not have residences in the capital Brasília, despite having an apartment in the southwest of the city. He has later admitted that he considers this practice of his "immoral". He has also been accused of engaging in fuel allowance fraud.
In his 27 years of service in the National Congress, Bolsonaro put forward one constitutional amendment and at least 171 bills, two of which became law. Bolsonaro, who claimed to be persecuted by the left-wing parties, said most congressmen do not vote according to their agenda, but "by who the author of the bill is".
In January 2018 he abandoned the Social Christian Party and switched to the Social Liberal Party. After his arrival, the PSL adopted conservative and right-wing positions, and its social liberal group Livres announced its departure from the PSL.