experts estimate that the figure could be as high as 30 per cent in Brazil. 40 years ago, 90 per cent of Brazil was Catholic.


Evangelicals were key to the recent election victory of Jair Messias Bolsonaro. According to a poll from Datafolha, nearly 70 per cent of Brazilian Evangelicals cast their vote for the former army captain and far right candidate whose election slogan was: “Brazil above everything; God above everyone.”


In Colombia, there are 10 million evangelical followers in a country of 48 million people. In Chile, as the gap between rich and poor continues to widen, evangelicals are gaining ground just as they are in Argentina, where evangelical churches have proliferated everywhere and Spanish speaking preachers give sermons (often with a Brazilian accent) on cable television.


Evangelicals are also part of a core pillar of the


current administration in Guatemala. Jimmy Morales an evangelical Christian, comedian and famous actor, won the presidential election in 2018. In Costa Rica, although he ultimately lost to centre-left opponent In February 2018, Alvarado Muñoz, an evangelical pastor, emerged as the winner of the first round of Costa Rica’s presidential election in 2015. Even in Mexico, where the power of the Roman Catholic Church has not been eroded to such a degree as other countries, the evangelical party, the Social Encounter Party, allied itself with Andrés Manuel López Obrador and helped him get elected in 2018.


But long before the rise of evangelism, the church had played a fundamental role in shaping gambling policy, especially in Brazil. For decades, Brazilian lawmakers have avoided the issue of legalising casinos out of fear of alienating their Roman Catholic base. Indeed, President Eurico Gaspar Dutra banned casinos in the mid-1940s, many say due to the influence of his wife,


Carmela Teles Leite Dutra, who was herself a devout catholic.


Underpinning the Gaming Act of 1946 is the argument that the religious moral tradition of the Brazilian people is contrary to the practice and exploitation of games of chance. The ban came just after the Quitandinha Palace had been inaugurated in Petrópolis, which would have been the largest casino in Latin America. According to the Brazilian Senate News Agency, before the ban there had been 70 casinos in the country, employing more than 50,000 workers.


Documents held in the Senate Archives in Brasilia show that the majority of senators and deputies also sided with the president at the time. “It may be argued that, with the closing of gaming in casinos and luxury hotels, tourism will disappear,” said Deputy Antero Leivas. “To which I answer that, if Brazil depends on the proliferation of gambling and addiction to be known and visited, I prefer that we are forever


WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS P23


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146