"Real democracy is food on the table, the ability to plan your life, the ability to walk on the street without getting mugged," he continued. Indeed, a recent public opinion survey in Recife, one of Brazil's poorest coastal cities, reported that 70 percent of respondents thought that food was more important than democracy.

Mr. Bolsonaro, who graduated from military school in 1973 (the midpoint of the last period of military rule) is now 38, a first-term congressman with an unruly shock of black hair that falls over his forehead. In one sense, he is only the latest incarnation of Brazil's long-running authoritarian temptation; over the last century, Brazil has lived under formal democratic rule for only about 25 years. But there is a new twist. Today a new and less odious model for Latin American authoritarianism has emerged in Peru's President, Alberto K. Fujimori.

Faced with congressional deadlock last year, Mr. Fujimori, a civilian, ordered the Peruvian Army to close the country's Congress and its courts. One year later, Mr. Fujimori rules with a compliant, one-chamber Congress.

"I sympathize with Fujimori," the Brazilian congressman continued. "Fujimorization is the way out for Brazil. I am making these warnings because the population is in favor of surgery."

Political surgery, Mr. Bolsonaro continued, would involve closing Congress for a defined period of time and allowing Brazil's President to rule by decree.

The justification for a such a constitutional break, he said, would be "political corruption" and Brazil's inflation, which is now running at 30 percent a month.

With Congress often deadlocked in battles among its 21 parties, Brazil's press has displayed an increasing fascination with the Fujimori model. In the last month, Brazilian newspapers, magazines and television news programs have carried long interviews with the Peruvian leader.