Flash MOB style demo to distribute street signs in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday March 14. Photo: Courtesy of Liv Sovic.
Extreme right-wing presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, poised for victory in the run-off on October 28, was not the most surprising winner in the first round of Brazilian elections. Christian Democrat former judge Wilson Witzel won 41 percent of the vote for governor on October 7, more than twice as much as Eduardo Paes, the bon-vivant former mayor of Rio de Janeiro, who governed before and during the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games and oversaw an enormous flow of money for urban reforms and building projects.
Paes is a consummate professional politician who has somehow emerged unscathed from Operation Car Wash, the judicial investigation of federal government corruption that began in March 2014 and is still under way. He was by far the best debater among the candidates, he had ample television advertising time and vastly more name recognition than any candidate other than footballer Romário.
