As Brazil prepares for a presidential run-off, the opposition attacked President Jair Bolsonaro on Saturday, calling him “depraved” for implying that a group of Venezuelan girls he visited in their house were prostitutes.
On October 30, Bolsonaro will face left-leaning former president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva in the second round of a presidential election. Both candidates have stepped up their assaults in the lead-up in anticipation of a tight race.
Bolsonaro talked about meeting a group of Venezuelan girls during a visit to a disadvantaged neighborhood in Brazil’s capital city last year in an interview with local media regarding the state of Venezuela.
The president said he had asked a group of “three or four very pretty 14 or 15-year-olds” if he could “come in your house”, where he found “15 or 20 girls” getting ready “to earn a living.”
The leader of Lula’s opposition party, Gleisi Hoffmann, quickly slammed Bolsonaro’s comments as “depraved” and “criminal,” while Senator Randolfe Rodrigues, coordinator of Lula’s campaign, expressed “disgust.”
Bolsonaro has repeatedly said that Brazil would suffer the same fate as Venezuela if Lula wins the election.
According to polling organizations, Lula has a lead over the president.
In the interview, Bolsonaro said: “I parked my motorcycle on a street corner, took off my helmet and started looking at the girls, three or four very pretty 14 or 15-year-olds, dressed up as you might be on a Saturday in a neighborhood community.
“There were 15 or 20 girls (in the house), all Venezuelans aged 14, 15, getting ready on a Saturday. Why? To earn a living,” he said. “That’s what you want for your daughter?”
In response to the criticism, Bolsonaro claimed that he had entered the house in the company of others and with the help of a video team.
