Daily Times

Brazil’s new right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, signed a deal Monday to open a base to US satellite launches as he appealed for warm relations with Donald Trump on a visit to Washington. The outspoken conservative, who will meet Trump at the White House on Tuesday, has ideological affinities with the US leader and has broken Brazilian precedent by heading to Washington, not Argentina, for his first official trip abroad. Promoting a business-friendly approach after more than a decade of socialist presidents, Bolsonaro signed an agreement with US companies on technical safeguards to allow commercial satellite launches from the Alcantara base in the northern Brazilian state of Maranhao. “We should be thanking God for the recent change of ideology in Brazil,” Bolsonaro said at the US Chamber of Commerce. “We want to have a great Brazil, just like Trump wants to make America great.” Alcantara is an ideal location as it lies near the Equator, decreasing fuel needs by 30 percent.

Published in Daily Times, March 20^th 2019.