Attempted Coups. Aging Left-Wing Incumbents. Which Country Are We Talking About?

Mr. Winter is the editor in chief of Americas Quarterly.

How self-obsessed — how quintessentially American — to believe that our political rhythms could dictate those of a country as large and idiosyncratic as Brazil.

For the first half of my career as a journalist and an analyst following Latin American politics, this was my message to U.S. audiences: Brazil, the world’s seventh-most-populous nation, with a landmass greater than the continental United States, governed by a Portuguese-descended monarchy in the 19th century, a military dictatorship for part of the 20th and a vibrant if often messy democracy in the 21st, would always dance to its own drummer.

But then, starting around a decade ago, the Brazilian echoes of........

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