British magazine The Economist, regarded by many as a sort of bible of modern-day liberal thought, published a piece in which it shows itself to be extremely tolerant of an openly fascist candidate in the Brazilian election.
Renan Santos, praised by the magazine, advocates "dyeing the ground red with the blood of these scumbags" when discussing the fight against crime. One of the slogans of his political party, Missão, is "arrested, killed."
The magazine mistakenly portrays Santos as "outsider" with a "bold vision" and a "proposal full of new ideas" for the country — and that’s not to mention that this so-called "outsider" identified by The Economist has been involved in Brazilian politics for over a decade.
In fact, it is the opposite. Renan Santos is more of the same. From Paulo Maluf to him, the Brazilian right has championed a model based on police brutality and economic liberalism. There have been countless administrations like this, yet the country has made no progress. In many cases, things have actually gotten worse —as seen today with the administration of Bolsonarista Tarcísio de Freitas in the state of São Paulo, or that of fellow Bolsonarista Cláudio Castro in Rio de Janeiro (who was removed from office and is the target of multiple Federal Police investigations and operations over suspected corruption).
Renan Santos came from the Free Brazil Movement, the MBL. The magazine does not indicated that Santos and his movement have promoted ideas that clash with Brazil’s Constitution. In its Article 5, the Brazilian Constitution states that "Brazilian citizens are equal before the law".
Santos has said that if he wins, he plans to follow what dictator Nayib Bukele did in El Salvador. Critics classify this base-oriented, crude, and uncompromising style of violent populism as politics. They also link it to support for police abuse. In Brazil, this line shows up often on the right. It has appeared in the campaign talk of several contenders. Zema, Caiado, and Renan Santos all pointed to Bukele’s security approach.
But in a recent interview on Estúdio i, a major political show in Brazil, led by Andrea Sadi, contradictions came to light. The discussion also raised worries about how backing Bukele could hurt democracy in Brazil.
If these figures try to copy Bukele’s plan here, they would need to ignore the rule of law. That would weaken democratic life in Brazil.
Therefore, the British magazine piece is troubling for one main reason: a large share of the press has been handling Renan Santos as if he were a regular, mainstream political figure. He is not.
The core issue is simple. Giving him this kind of visibility helps someone linked to a cause that speaks openly about the unrestricted and illegal use of police violence as a political tool. He has also called for the police to kill even more people. That matters because Brazil’s police already have one of the worst records for deaths worldwide. When this is treated as normal content, it says a lot about how parts of the mainstream media work, and about the kind of “economic liberal” thinking they lean on.
What makes it worse is that this line of defense does not even deliver results. It does not bring safer streets. If higher police lethality meant less danger, Brazil would not be seeing the terrible numbers it has today. Instead, the country ranks among the top places where people fear violence in their daily lives.
For many in the liberal media, it looks like almost any form of rule can pass, even a dictatorship, as long as it matches their preferred economic script.
