RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Thousands of Brazilians took to the streets on Sunday to demand the indictment of President Jair Bolsonaro, who is under fire for running his government over COVID-19, which he stole across the country, and claimed more than 216,000 lives.
Horned cars marched through the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and dozens or more other cities, while other protesters marched on foot, some shouting, “Get out of Bolsonaro!”
Sunday’s protests were convened by conservative groups that once supported the president, while Saturday’s protests had come from the left.
“When Bolsonaro arrived, we voted for his proposals, which we found interesting, but the current situation with the pandemic is terrible,” said Meg Fernandes, a 66-year-old engineer who joined a protest on Sunday. Rio.
She said she was particularly alarmed by the situation in the northern city of Manaus, where there is a waiting list for intensive care beds in the hospital and a lack of medical oxygen.
“I was already disappointed last year, but now with the situation in Manaus, I think (this government) needs to stop,” she said. – Pa, Bolsonaro.
Thomaz Favaro, a political analyst at Control Risks, said Bolsonaro faces a low risk of prosecution, although that could change if his allies lose a Feb. 2 vote to lead the lower house.
“Bolsonaro’s base in Congress is unstable, but it is robust,” he said, although it could be affected by the president’s marked popularity.
However, he said the indictment would be “a nuclear option that would change the country’s political trajectory.”
Bolsonaro – who is halfway through his four-year term – has faced renewed criticism in recent weeks for both the Manaus crisis and delays in launching Brazil’s immunization campaign against COVID-19. The president has long resisted blocking measures against the new coronavirus, arguing that the economic damage would be more serious than the disease.
Brazil’s attorney general, Augusto Aras, on Saturday asked the Supreme Court to open an investigation into Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello over the crisis in Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas. Aras quoted a document as saying that the ministry was aware of a possible lack of oxygen on January 8, but did not start sending additional supplies until January 12.
A new Datafolha poll from January 20-21 showed that support for Bolsonaro fell to 37% from 31% in December, the biggest one-month drop since the beginning of his administration. The number that gave him poor results increased from 32% to 40%. The margin of error was two percentage points.
“We demand the indictment of Bolsonaro because it is not just a crime committed by him. How he treated the pandemic – He spent money on ineffective remedies instead of investing in vaccines and oxygen, ”said Tiago Sussekind, a 21-year-old law student who joined Saturday’s protest in Rio.
The weekend demonstrations call for an increase in Bolsonaro’s dismissal, although most analysts believe it is unlikely to occur.
Carlos Ayres Britto, the former president of the Brazilian Court, the former presidential candidate Ciro Gomes and even the singer Chico Buarque demanded that the president be indicted for his response to the pandemic. A leading newspaper, O Estado de Sao Paulo, also published an editorial on Friday calling for the indictment.
——
AP journalist Diarla Rodrigues contributed to this report.