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Gabriela Sá Pessoa contributed to this report from Sao Paulo.

Beyond individual ties, the institution allowed clients to declare enslaved Black people as financial assets to guarantee loans that built the economy — one example of how “slavery is central to Brazil’s formation,” said Thiago Campos Pessoa, one of the historians.

“Executive support is crucial, … but this reform succeeded because there is consensus that the current system has reached its limit, is increasingly unviable and is slowing down business in Brazil,” Pessoa said.

“When a multinational operates in Brazil, it needs 20 to 30 times more accountants than in other countries. Brazil has the highest compliance cost in the world,” Pessoa said.

Bolsonaro has been making a “destructive and illogical” attempt to frame the reform as an endeavor of only the executive branch, according to Samuel Pessoa, an economist at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, a university and think tank.