Friday, January 23, 2026

Jan Rocha's Blog

Jan Rocha is a former correspondent for the BBC and the Guardian and lives in São Paulo, Brazil. She is the author of a number of LAB books, and contributes this regular column for LAB, known for its incisive analysis of current Brazilian politics.

Public Enemy No.1 is Jair Bolsonaro

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All over the world leaders have celebrated the beginning of vaccination in their countries, some of them taking the first jab themselves. But when the first vaccines were administered in São Paulo on Sunday, Jair Bolsonaro sulked in silence in his palace.

Brazil: diversity does well, but the moderates are the winners

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Bolsonaro and his brand of extreme right wing politics have emerged as the big losers in Brazil’s recent local elections, but established left wing parties have not done so well either. Jan Rocha reports.

Bolsonaro — the new Jim Jones

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President Bolsonaro is the new 'Jim Jones', says Jan Rocha, comparing the Brazilian president to the cult leader who led his followers in a mass suicide in Guayana in 1978.

A bad week for Bolsonaro

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21 June 2020. It would be an understatement to say this has been a bad week for Bolsonaro. In fact it has been disastrous....

Bolsonaro: quack doctor

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15 May 2020. As Brazil lurches from one political crisis to another, the death toll rises steadily, making it the new epicentre of the...

Brazil: the parallel universe of Messias Bolsonaro

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It was billed as an important presidential announcement, and his ministers stood behind him, dark suited, hands clasped in front of them like a...

Bolsonaro the grave-digger

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April 23 2020. I'm not a gravedigger’ said President Jair Bolsonaro scornfully, when a reporter tried to question him about the number of coronavirus...

Brazil’s disaster movie

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Watching the Brazilian political scene is a bit like watching an old disaster movie, where a suicidal maniac has taken over the plane’s controls and put...

Brazil’s twin catastrophes: the virus and the president

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Brazil faces two disasters: the pandemic of coronavirus, and the pandemonium of the Bolsonaro government. The first is invisible and highly contagious but should only last...

Bolsonaro clowns while poverty soars

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In what has become a daily ritual in Brasilia, the sleek black car stops by the band of fervent Bolsonaristas waiting outside the Alvorada...

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