‘Brazil must reform or become next Venezuela’

Bloomberg

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro pledged swift and sweeping measures to fix the economy and ward off what he said was a risk that Latin America’s largest nation turns into a Venezuela-style regime.
Plans to sell a large number of state-owned companies are nearly ready, and a proposal to be sent to Congress will bring “substantial” cuts to pension outlays and establish a minimum retirement age, Bolsonaro said in Davos. He said the approval of the pension reform investors are eagerly awaiting is practically certain as Brazil’s financial situation gives it little choice.
“There’s an awareness in Brazil that the reforms are vital for the federal entities to continue operating,” he said. “Brazil has to work out. If not, the Left will return and we won’t know Brazil’s destiny, maybe it’ll become more like the regime that we have in Venezuela.”
In the wake of the worst recession on record and years of corruption scandals, Bolsonaro’s tough campaign talk on law and order as well as his promise of a clean government had resonated with a population deeply disillusioned with traditional parties.