As Brazil reels from riots, Bolsonaro finds home in Florida
KISSIMMEE, Fla. (AP) — As Brazil reels from mobs of rioters swarming its seats of power, its former leader has decamped to a Florida resort, where droves of supporters flocked to cheer on their ousted president.
Devotees have traveled in recent days to the temporary home of Jair Bolsonaro, a gated community with towering waterslides, for a chance to see him. He signed autographs, hugged children and took selfies with adoring masses, some sporting “Make Brazil Great Again” shirts.
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“I will always support him,” said 31-year-old Rafael Silva, who left Brazil eight years ago and now installs flooring in central Florida, where he stood outside Bolsonaro’s rental home Monday. “He was the best for the country.”
By early afternoon, the handful of supporters in yellow jerseys dissipated as word spread that the divisive, hard-right leader was hospitalized with abdominal pain. His wife, Michelle, said on social media that he had been hospitalized for observation due to abdominal discomfort related to a 2018 stabbing that has led to multiple hospitalizations in the past. A photo published by Brazilian newspaper O Globo showed him smiling from his hospital bed. A hospital spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a phone call and text message.
Prior to Sunday’s angry storming of Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace, Bolsonaro had been seen repeatedly in this central Florida community, wandering a Publix supermarket’s aisles, dining alone at a local KFC and, most of all, surrounded by clusters of adoring fans.
Though the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said it received a request from the Secret Service to provide a police escort for Bolsonaro when he arrived and he was still a sitting president, he has not been surrounded by a noticeable phalanx of security.
“He will make himself right at home in Florida’s right-wing ecosystem of grifting and podcasting, finding allies with whomever thinks they can use him to advance their far-right agenda,” said Andy Reiter, a professor of politics and international relations at Mount Holyoke College who has researched foreign strongmen.
His new home, Encore Resort at Reunion in the suburbs of Orlando, is made up of furnished rental homes with foosball tables, screening rooms, Disney decor on the walls and Mickey Mouse stuffed animals on beds.
If it all seems too odd, the sight of the former leader of one of the world’s biggest countries wandering a gated community a stone’s throw from Walt Disney World in shorts, consider the history.
