In a 2016 interview, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro claimed he was willing to eat human flesh. “I used to eat Indian, no problem at all,” the president bragged as he described a visit to an indigenous community where he was allegedly offered the opportunity to eat human flesh
Indigenous leaders in Brazil rejected the boast of Bolsonaro who said in a previous interview that he was offered to eat human flesh, as another lie from the president of Brazil who at the end of the month will run in the presidential elections. The Yanomami tribe that Bolsonaro visited claimed that they had never engaged in such acts. However, the footage of Bolsonaro’s cannibalism – first broadcast on his official YouTube channel six years ago – went viral on social media and was seen by Brazil’s opposition as further evidence of the president’s bad behaviour.
“Bolsonaro revealed that he will eat human flesh,” said a TV ad produced by Bolsonaro’s election opponent, Lula da Silva, after the revelations. Bolsonaro’s communications minister, Fabio Faria, called Lula’s ad “fake news” and claimed his words had been distorted. Bolsonaro’s lawyers demanded that the electoral commission ban the publication of the ad. Lula narrowly defeated Bolsonaro in the first round of Brazil’s presidential election last Sunday and hopes to finish the job when 156 million Brazilians vote in the second round on October 30.
The president told the New York Times journalist Simon about his visit to the Brazilian tribe. “It was that I was in Sorocoro, and an Indian died and they cooked him, they cook Indians, that’s their culture,” Bolsonaro allegedly claimed.
“Their bodies?” asked the journalist.
“Their bodies,” confirms Bolsonaro.
“But not to eat” answers the journalist.
“Yes to eat” Bolsonaro answers, “They cook it for two or three days and then eat it with a banana. I wanted to see an Indian cook but the guy said if you go, you have to eat it. I eat it, I said. But no one Another in my group didn’t want to go, so I didn’t go. But I would eat Indian food, no problem at all. That’s their culture.”
Yanomami leaders and anthropologists condemned Bolsonaro’s “delusional claims and prejudices.” They told the Brazilian media: “Our people are not cannibals, it does not exist and has never existed, not even among our ancestors,” one of the Yanomami tribe Junior Yanomi told a local newspaper.
“Bolsonaro is a compulsive liar”, Sonia Guajara tweeted, an indigenous leader who had just been elected to Congress. Lola denied spreading misinformation. “I saw the footage, it’s not an invention, we just want to let people know what our opponent is like,” he told supporters, and claimed that foreigners shun Brazil “for fear of cannibalism.”
Last Saturday, the Electoral Commission judge ordered Lula’s party to remove an ad that could damage Bolsonaro’s reputation and affect the “integrity of the election process.” The judge claimed that Bolsonaro’s words “referred to a specific experience in an indigenous community, which lives according to the values and morals that exist in this society”, but it was too late and the publication is circulating on social media in Brazil.