Posh-looking drivers in expensive cars honk their horns on a Rio de Janeiro seafront and blare their approval of a vendor selling green-and-yellow Brazilian flags outside President Jair Bolsonaro’s former home.

Welcome to Barra da Tijuca, the neighborhood known as “Brazilian Miami,” a bastion of support for the far-right incumbent who defeated leftist ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010 ).

Known for its upscale shopping malls, gated communities and luxury condominiums with expansive views of the emerald coast, Barra voted strongly for Bolsonaro in the first round of voting on Oct. 2, when Lula received 48 percent of the vote nationally, versus 43 percent for Bolsonaro incumbents.

In Barra, Bolsonaro won 50 percent of the vote versus 37 percent for Lula – a preference visible in the profusion of Brazilian flags fluttering from the balconies of the west side quarter, a symbol adopted by the president’s supporters.

“People here in Barra are very much in line with Bolsonaro ideologically. The majority of people support him because there are a lot of business people,” says Felipe Fontenelle, a 58-year-old entrepreneur who owns a communications security company and has interests in two restaurants.

Lula, he warns, represents “communism”.

Developed in 1969 by renowned modernist urban planner Lucio Costa, Barra experienced a demographic boom in the 1980s, becoming a magnet for celebrities, politicians and socialites seeking a haven from the city’s violence.

Today it is home to around 135,000 people and its elite status was cemented when it was chosen as the site for the Rio 2016 Olympic Village.

“It’s a neighborhood for the nouveau riche, especially for people who believe in the idea of ??the self-made man: that you work hard and succeed,” says sociologist Paulo Gracino Junior of Candido Mendes University, calling it an enclave of executives, professionals and military-grade brass.

He points out that it’s also the home of ex-cop Ronnie Lessa, a convicted arms dealer who is the prime suspect in the 2018 killing of black LGBT activist and Rio councilwoman Marielle Franco.

Lessa and Bolsonaro lived on the same street.

Bolsonaro, then a congressman representing Rio, moved to Barra with his family in the 2000s.

They still own the house they bought in Vivendas da Barra, a gated community behind a concrete wall with barbed wire.

The private condo has become a rallying point for Bolsonaro supporters.

Retired attorney Mirian Rebelo and her son Rodrigo, a dentist, were visiting Rio from southern Santa Catarina state and stopped to take selfies. Both wore Tommy Hilfiger t-shirts and sunglasses.

“I love the President’s focus on family. And he doesn’t mince his words. He speaks his mind,” says Mirian, 65.

“Every country deserves a Bolsonaro,” says Rodrigo, 41, and praises the president’s “tough action against corruption and the ideology of evil.”

Cacalo Matarazzo, a lawyer and jiu-jitsu teacher who lives next door to Bolsonaro’s condominium, says he counts the president as his friend.

“Everyone here knows him well. He even invited me over for coffee before his inauguration in 2019,” says the stern, edgy 73-year-old after proudly showing off a series of photos of himself with Bolsonaro on his phone.

“But it’s not just about Bolsonaro, it’s about a man fighting to build a better Brazil.”

Matarazzo isn’t a fan of Lula, who makes a cameo among the Bolsonaro merch on sale outside the door.

There the veteran leftist, who was imprisoned in 2018 on controversial corruption charges that have since been dropped, appears as an inflatable doll in a prison uniform.

“Thief! Scum! Son of a bitch!” Matarazzo spits on the former president’s picture.