
Witzel’s Unholy War
Bolsonaro’s Brazil is ruled by a politics of death: who deserves it, who is spared, and who gets to dispense it. Meet the most skilled practitioner of this politics: Rio governor Wilson Witzel.
Stephanie Reist is a freelance writer and researcher based in Rio de Janeiro. She received her PhD in Latin American cultural studies from Duke University and is currently a postdoctoral researcher in education policy at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, Multidisciplinary Institute. Her research focuses on race and public policy in urban peripheries.
Bolsonaro’s Brazil is ruled by a politics of death: who deserves it, who is spared, and who gets to dispense it. Meet the most skilled practitioner of this politics: Rio governor Wilson Witzel.
The investigation into the murder of Marielle Franco keeps bumping up against the most powerful people in Brazil — like President Jair Bolsonaro. They don’t want us to find out the truth.
Brazil’s fascist president loves to say that “a good thug is a dead thug.” But the saying didn’t start with him — it has deep roots in Brazil’s violent, racist political economy.