For the last three Brazilian election cycles, billionaire sugarcane magnate Rubens Ometto has been the country’s biggest campaign donor.
The controlling shareholder of the Cosan bioethanol conglomerate, he has dished out BRL 8.8 million (USD 1.63 million) of his own fortune this year to fund the electoral bids of candidates and parties across the ideological spectrum — but overwhelmingly of allies of current far-right President Jair Bolsonaro.
The biggest individual beneficiary of Mr. Ometto’s munificence is Tarcísio de Freitas, Mr. Bolsonaro’s former Infrastructure Minister and the president’s candidate for the São Paulo state government. His campaign dele received a total of …