Taking office in January, Mr. Bolsonaro’s government set about systematically dismantling all state agencies that enforce environmental protection and indigenous rights, empowering illegal ranchers, loggers and miners. As of October, the Ministry of Agriculture had approved 382 new pesticide products, many of which are banned in Europe and have been deemed highly hazardous. Two months ago, after a mystery oil spill polluted more than 1,000 miles of the country’s most beautiful beaches in northeast Brazil, the government inexplicably implied Greenpeace might have been responsible. (As far as I know, no one has pointed the finger at Brad Pitt, yet.)

Want more? A group of Brazilian lawyers and former ministers are seeking to indict Mr. Bolsonaro at the International Criminal Court for encouraging the genocide of indigenous people and for failing to protect the forests they depend on. According to the Indigenous Missionary Council, an advocacy group connected to the Catholic church, there were by September of this year 160 invasions of indigenous reserves by those seeking to exploit their resources. During the whole of 2018, there were 109.

This government has also approved a pension reform that will increase social inequality: Rural workers, women and the poor will be hardest hit. (That’s not just my opinion; the French economist Thomas Piketty, among others, thinks so too.)

There aren’t any silver linings. For a president who ran on the promise of fighting corruption, Mr. Bolsonaro is remarkably surrounded by scandal. One of his sons, Flávio, a federal senator, is being investigated for embezzlement and money laundering. Another, Carlos, a councilor in Rio de Janeiro, has been implicated in improprieties relating to his council office. And Mr. Bolsonaro’s third son, Eduardo, was nearly appointed ambassador to the United States; his only credentials were having flipped burgers as an exchange student in Maine, and having visited Colorado once. “I don’t think it’s nepotism,” said President Trump, who endorsed the nomination. (The idea was later discarded.)

Many members of the cabinet — the ministers of tourism, economy, agriculture, environment, security and health among them — are also reportedly involved in corruption scandals. Mr. Bolsonaro’s own chief of staff, Onyx Lorenzoni, admitted he pocketed slush funds from a company in 2014. The confession never led to an investigation; the justice minister Sérgio Moro explained that Mr. Lorenzoni had already acknowledged his past errors and apologized. (Most importantly, he got a tattoo with a Bible verse on his arm.)