Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro Makes TIME 100 List of 2019’s Most Influential People

By Jack Arnhold, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been declared one of the year’s 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine.

Bolsonaro’s profile, written by TIME editor at large Ian Bremmer, describes him as a “complex character” who represents “Brazil’s best chance in a generation to enact economic reforms that can tame rising debt.”

It also calls the Brazilian president a “poster boy for toxic masculinity,” and “an ultraconservative homophobe” who is “intent on reversing Brazil’s progress on tackling climate change.”

In addition to Bolsonaro, twenty-six other leaders made this year’s list, including US president Donald Trump and far-right Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini.

Pope Francis, congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and climate change activist Greta Thunberg were also included in the political section of the list.

With this nomination, Bolsonaro joins the likes of former presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (selected in 2004 and 2010) and Dilma Rousseff (selected in 2011 and 2012), as well as of the former judge and current minister of justice Sergio Moro (nominated in 2016).

Other famous Brazilian luminaries who have made the list include judge Joaquim Barbosa (2013), soccer player Neymar (2017), and scientist Celina Turchi (2017).

First published in 1999, TIME’s 100 annual list is similar in style to its former “Person of the Year,” first published in 1927. The list is neither an endorsement or a popularity ranking, but a measure of influence.