Detergent, the New Hydroxychloroquine of the Brazilian Far Right

In the middle of the pre election campaign, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva arrived in the United States for a meeting surrounded by political and diplomatic expectations. Predictably, the opposition rushed to attack the closed door meeting with the administration of Donald Trump, as if international diplomacy were nothing more than Instagram livestreams or TikTok debates. This is precisely the problem with the contemporary far right, confusing foreign policy with spectacle, and strategic negotiation with digital provocation.

The outcome of the trip, however, dismantled part of the hysterical narrative promoted by the most radicalized sectors. Both Lula and Trump publicly expressed satisfaction with the progress made in discussions regarding trade tariffs and other sensitive issues on the bilateral agenda. Trump even praised the Brazilian leader, something that certainly caused discomfort among Bolsonaro supporters who spent years selling the fantasy that only they possessed some kind of privileged alignment with Washington.

But Lula’s international agenda does not stop with the United States. Before that, he was in Europe participating in the summit of progressive leaders. Weeks earlier, he traveled across Asia meeting with important members of the BRICS. Amid Brazil’s deeply polarized domestic scenario, there is one reality impossible to hide, Lula remains a charismatic, influential, and respected leader throughout much of the world. Under his leadership, Brazil once again occupies an important place on the international stage, recovering diplomatic relevance after years of ideological isolation, climate denialism, and institutional embarrassment.

Meanwhile, within Brazil itself, the far right seems increasingly immersed in a swamp of grotesque figures and delusional narratives. Influencers arrested or fined for spreading disinformation, businessmen involved in fraud, mayors under investigation, pastors associated with the misuse of public resources, political figures incapable of producing any serious debate about national development.

And now, we arrive at detergent.

Yes, detergent!

During the Covid 19 pandemic, former president Jair Bolsonaro openly defied the protocols of the World Health Organization by publicly campaigning in favor of hydroxychloroquine as a supposed treatment against the Covid virus. The problem was that the drug never demonstrated scientifically proven effectiveness against the coronavirus, being primarily indicated for other medical purposes rather than viral infections. Even so, Bolsonarism transformed hydroxychloroquine into an ideological symbol, ignoring scientific evidence, specialists, medical institutions, and international organizations. Science was replaced by militancy, and medicine by political propaganda.

Now, years later, history seems to repeat itself in an even more grotesque manner. Bolsonaro supporters have begun attacking the Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária after the agency notified an important detergent manufacturer over microbiological risks identified during technical inspections. Instead of discussing sanitary criteria or safety protocols, radical sectors of the far right began claiming that the agency was persecuting the company because of alleged donations to Bolsonaro’s campaign. The conspiratorial logic remains intact, any institutional action that contradicts their interests is immediately transformed into political persecution.

Detergent now seems to have become the new moral hydroxychloroquine of a movement that normalized absurdity long ago. And perhaps we should not even be that surprised. After all, we are speaking about the same political ecosystem that produced scenes of people defecating inside Brazil’s main democratic institutions, destroying public property, praying to truck tires on highways, and waiting for alien or military intervention as if politics were a low budget science fiction series.

In this context, drinking detergent almost appears coherent within the logic of this parallel universe. Perhaps they believe it might cleanse their throats, the very place from which they daily pour xenophobic, misogynistic, prejudiced, and deeply authoritarian rhetoric.

The tragedy of contemporary Brazil lies not only in political radicalization. It lies in the transformation of ignorance into collective identity, verbal violence into moral virtue, and ridicule into an ideological platform. The most radical wing of Bolsonarism has ceased to be merely a political movement, it has become a cultural phenomenon marked by the aestheticization of brutality and the glorification of stupidity.

While Lula travels among heads of state, negotiates economic interests, and diplomatically repositions Brazil, part of the far right remains occupied with transforming soap into a revolutionary instrument. Perhaps this is the greatest synthesis of Brazil’s current moment, a country divided between the attempt at institutional reconstruction and the permanent militancy of delirium.

In the end, detergent does not clean only dishes. For some, apparently, it also serves to wash away whatever little credibility they still have left.

Wesley Sá Teles Guerra is a specialist in internationalization, international cooperation, and paradiplomacy, with a solid academic background from internationally recognized institutions. He is the founder of CERES – Center for International Relations Studies in Brazil and currently serves as manager of the Triangular Cooperation Fund between Europe, Latin America, and Africa in Madrid.

Throughout his academic and professional career, he has pursued studies at the Centre de Promoció Econòmica de Barcelona in International Negotiations; at the Fundação Escola de Sociologia e Política de São Paulo in International Relations and Political Science; at the University of A Coruña (UDC), where he completed a Master’s degree in Social Policies and Migration; at the Massachusetts Institute of Business, earning an MBA in International Marketing; at the Universitat Carlemany, with a Master’s degree in Smart Cities; at the International University of Andalusia (UNIA), specializing in European Funds and Project Management; and he is currently a PhD candidate in Sociology at the National University of Distance Education (UNED).

He is the author of the books Cadernos de Paradiplomacia, Paradiplomacy Reviews, and Manual de sobrevivência das Relações Internacionais. He regularly participates in international forums on smart cities, global governance, and paradiplomacy, and has also served as a guest commentator for CBN Recife. He was a finalist for the ABANCA Academic Research Award and is a member of international networks and platforms such as CEDEPEM, ECP, Smart Cities Council, and REPIT, maintaining active engagement in international initiatives related to cooperation, innovation, and governance.