A reporting trip to Brazil to learn how it fought off a democratic threat.
This is an edition of Field Notes, a behind-the-scenes at how one of our journalists reports out a story on location. They detail their trip in a timestamped diary format and take you along with them as they report their story. This article originally appeared in the Vox Explainer, our members-only newsletter about how we make our journalism.
Today, we have an edition of Field Notes, a reporter’s log from senior correspondent Zack Beauchamp. He recently took a trip to Brazil for a series of stories about how it maintained its democracy in the face of an authoritarian ruler.
Hello, Vox Members!
I’m Zack Beauchamp, and I took on the terrible burden of going to Brazil in January (sarcasm should be obvious) to report on the state of its democracy.
In 2018, Brazil elected Jair Bolsonaro, a longtime Congressm member who openly pined for the country’s toppled military dictatorship, to the presidency. Bolsonaro attempted to rule as an unbound executive in the way that US President Donald Trump currently is, but Brazil’s institutions — including a previously divided Supreme Court and a Congress dominated by the center-right — actually worked to stop him. He then attempted an outright coup, but was stopped; he’s currently in jail on a 27-year sentence.
I was in Brazil trying to figure out how this happened: why Brazil has responded to a democratic threat so much better than its older and wealthier cousin to the north. That’s the main story, which you can read! This is an accounting of my impressions on the ground: what it was like there, what I saw, and some of the folks I met.
The stories from this reporting trip are part of a Vox series, America After Trump. Read the whole series here.
—Zack Beauchamp, senior correspondent
THURSDAY, JANUARY 8
I arrived in the capital of Brasilia a little bit after midnight local time on the 8th, after a full day of traveling (Canada, where I live, is not exactly super close to Brazil). After an unfortunately truncated sleep, I got up and met my fixer Luis to attend the president’s ceremony marking the third anniversary of the January 8 attacks — in which Bolsonaro supporters ransacked the legislature, presidential office, and Supreme Court building.
We had a lot of interesting conversations there; got a real sense of how supporters of Lula (the incumbent president) see the world. But my most indelible memory of that day is actually lunch at the presidential office building’s cafe, where a woman who may or may not have been a lawyer sat down at our table, complained about all the corruption in Brazil’s political system, and then snuck out and stuck us with her bill.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 9
Brasilia doesn’t have the best reputation as a city among Brazilians, and there’s good reason for that. Built in the 1960s, it has some interesting modernist architecture but is infected by the car-centric, anti-pedestrian thinking of the area. It is sorely lacking in the dense, walkable neighborhoods that mark nearly all of the world’s great cities. When I met Tião Viana, a former senator and governor from Lula’s party, we sat down in the lobby of my hotel — there just weren’t great other options nearby.
But I ended up spending much of Friday in the neighborhood I found most an exception to Brasila’s ruling logic: Asa Norte. It’s a pretty place with a bunch of neat restaurants and bars. I went from meeting a political scientist at an indie book store cafe to having a drink at a board game themed bar with a friend who works as foreign correspondent in Brazil, both within about a block of each other.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 10
Continuing with the food-and-drink theme, I kicked off the morning by meeting a political consultant at a truly excellent coffee shop. Brazil is one of the world’s premier coffee-growers, and its best coffee shops show that off wonderfully. This particular location, hidden in the lower level of a strip mall, served a cup of coffee with an entire explanatory note about where and how the beans were produced. It was as good as it looks.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 11
This was our internal travel day: Luis and I flew from Brasilia to Rio de Janeiro, which is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever been to. The weather was a lot hotter than Brasilia, but I wasn’t complaining — I’m a hot-weather person who happens to live in Canada! The 90-degree heat gave me life.
One neat thing about Rio is that a lot of the places where people work and have meetings are often pretty close to the places you’d want to visit as a tourist. The walk from my hotel to a meeting with a leading expert on Brazil’s military took me on a little tour through Copacabana, the neighborhood adjacent to one of Rio’s most famous beaches.
MONDAY, JANUARY 12
Have I sufficiently communicated that Rio rules? Well, then let me reiterate: Rio rules. If you get a chance to go there, you should.
This was the day I got truly acquainted with the city, going to various different areas for meetings by various different modes of transportation (subway, Uber, a LOT of walking). During a subway ride in the upscale Ipanema neighborhood, I saw a mural with an inscription from a famous Brazilian journalist celebrating the Carnaval bloc (a rough equivalent to a Mardi Gras krewe) called Sympathy Is Almost Love. What was interesting was how he noted that the group began parading during the pro-democracy protest movement that helped usher in the end of the military regime in 1985, illustrating how the memory of authoritarian politics is still shaping Brazilian society.
Rough translation:“Hello, Ipanema bourgeoisie!”
With this carnival battle cry,subtly ironic and good-humored,the bloco Sympathy Is Almost Lovesets out from this Squareand has paraded through the neighborhood since 1985,the year of the Diretas Já campaignfor the country’s re-democratization.
Different in its greeting to revelers, in its name,in its music and even in its color combination —yellow and lilac — Sympathy’s trademarkis the discreet charm of its originality.
—Zuenir Ventura
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 13
Probably my favorite day of the whole trip. Two noteworthy memories.
First, we went to Bolsonaro’s neighborhood: a nouveau-riche place called Barra da Tijuca in the far west of the city, which he had represented for many years in Congress. By luck, we ran into one of his longtime neighbors — a man named Paolo — outside the president’s gated community! Paolo graciously spent an hour standing on the street with us, explaining why he supported the former president and opposed the current government. I learned a lot.
At night, I met the political scientist Carlos Pereira — one of the main characters in my piece — for some Caipirinhas, Brazil’s national drink, in a hilly neighborhood in Rio I hadn’t spent much time in prior. We had a blast!
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14
My flight back to Canada wasn’t until 9 pm, so it was another full day of work. But Luis and I had time for a celebratory final lunch at a place called Arp Bar, an upscale restaurant located on the border between Copacabana and Ipanema. It’s located at a corner with an expansive view of the water and the beach, a perfect sendoff for Rio (including one final Caipirinha!) before getting on the red eye back home.
Read Zack’s stories from this reporting trip:
How one country stopped a Trump-style authoritarian in his tracksWhat Brazil got right that America got wrong.
How to stop a dictatorI spent months studying how authoritarians like Trump lose. The answer is shockingly simple.
🎧 How to stop a dictatorLessons from the defeat of the "Trump of the Tropics."
Reporter extra: How does democracy survive an authoritarian ruler?Zack Beauchamp reflects on his trip to Brazil and why he thinks its democratic system held.
And read more from the America After Trump series here.