Either Brazil ends with Bolsonaro, or Bolsonaro ends with Brazil.
"Since Brazil hasn't ended yet, everything indicates that the leafcutter ants have been exterminated. The plague that is now afflicting the country is another one. More destructive than the leafcutter ants – both literal and metaphorical. Either Brazil ends with Bolsonaro, or Bolsonaro ends with Brazil," says Alex Solnik, of Journalists for Democracy.
By Alex Solnik, columnist for 247 and member of Journalists for Democracy
The French botanist Auguste Saint Hilaire, during his six-year stay in Brazil between 1816 and 1822, wrote a multi-volume book – “Voyages dans l'interieur du Brésil” – which became famous for one phrase:
"Either Brazil ends the leafcutter ant problem, or the leafcutter ant problem ends Brazil."
He was referring to a literal leafcutter ant and the problems it caused to Brazilian agriculture, especially in Minas Gerais.
The phrase caught on.
Years later, in 1915, the writer Lima Barreto put it in the mouth of the protagonist of his "Triste fim de Policarpo Quaresma" (The Sad End of Policarpo Quaresma).
The leafcutter ant, in that context, transcended the malevolent insect. It was a metaphorical leafcutter ant.
In 1928, Mário de Andrade adapted the phrase in his masterpiece, "Macunaíma":
"Too many leafcutter ants and too little health are the ills of Brazil."
Since Brazil hasn't ended yet, everything indicates that the leafcutter ants have been exterminated.
The plague that is afflicting the country now is of a different kind.
More destructive than that of leafcutter ants – both literal and metaphorical.
Either Brazil ends with Bolsonaro, or Bolsonaro ends with Brazil.
(Learn about and support the project) Journalists for Democracy)
* This is an opinion article, the responsibility of the author, and does not reflect the opinion of Brasil 247.