So, this happened.

For all I know, he's right.

But the dictatorship was so awful that that benefit seems almost an unintended side-effect brought about by people determined to carry out horrific crimes of their own.

I was fifteen that year.

And he was nine.

Fujimori saved Peru and Pinochet saved Chile, the latter launching a dictatorship that was also an orgy of murder and other crimes.

Brésil : le coup d’État de 1964 a “sauvé” le pays, selon la présidence

Voilà plusieurs jours que l’ordre donné par Jair Bolsonaro au ministère de la Défense d’organiser des fêtes de commémoration dans les casernes, en hommage au coup d’État militaire de 1964, faisait polémique. 

Face aux critiques, le président brésilien, ancien capitaine de réserve, avait même paru faire marche arrière, affirmant jeudi qu’il ne s’agissait pas de fêter mais juste de se souvenir de cet événement, point de départ de deux décennies de dictature (1964-1985). 

Vendredi, une juge fédérale de Brasilia avait ordonné l’interdiction de toute commémoration.

Mais dès le lendemain, une autre magistrate de la cour d’appel brésilienne a annulé cette décision. 

Dimanche 31 mars, jour du 55e anniversaire du coup d’État, le palais présidentiel a ainsi pu diffuser une vidéo “qui évoque [cette date] comme un moment de l’histoire où l’armée ‘a sauvé’ le Brésil” de la menace communiste, relève le journal O Globo.

Brazil military takes up coup commemoration at Bolsonaro's behest

Brazil’s armed forces on Sunday paid tribute to a 1964 coup leading to a two-decade dictatorship, after far-right President Jair Bolsonaro - who argues that military intervention saved the country from communism - reversed an 8-year-ban on celebrations.

. . . .

The move has stirred debate and underscored Bolsonaro’s support for a military government that executed hundreds, tortured thousands, shuttered Congress and left most Brazilians with dark memories of the period.

The military has not been allowed to observe the 1964 coup since 2011, when former President Dilma Rousseff, a one-time leftist guerrilla who was imprisoned and tortured under the dictatorship, ordered an end to events marking the date.

Brazil’s Defense Ministry said the armed forces will not hold public commemorations on Sunday. Bolsonaro is traveling abroad, but scheduled an event at the presidential palace on Friday to mark the anniversary with top military brass.

Bolsonaro, a retired Army captain, has long praised the 1964-85 military government and often said its biggest mistake was not killing enough leftists. 

Early in his political career [That would be early in the 1990s. PV] he said on the floor of Congress that he was “in favor of a dictatorship” and that Brazil would “never resolve grave national problems with this irresponsible democracy.”

He's way further out on the right than I thought.

It's one thing to chose a capitalist dictatorship as a lesser evil (if it is a lesser evil) to avoid a Communist takeover.

It's quite another to flat out prefer dictatorship to representative government.

Rather surprising that the US media did not call more attention to just how far right he is when reporting on his White House visit in March.

'Trump of the Tropics': Five things you should know about the Brazilian president's visit with Trump

Not a word about his attitude towards dictatorship and democracy.

Does Trump know any of that?

Would he have been briefed?

Is it part of what he likes?