Saturday, April 11, 2020
Brazil’s president called COVID-19 ‘a little flu.’ Now his supporters are rebelling
ANA IONOVA, KATE LINTHICUM. Los Angeles Times. April 9, 2020
RIO DE JANEIRO — Supporters of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stood by him as he insulted women and racial minorities, praised the country’s former military dictatorship and defended the use of torture.
But more and more are drawing a line at his stance on the coronavirus.
Bolsonaro has dismissed COVID-19 as “a little flu” and has criticized media coverage of the pandemic as “hysteria.” Twitter recently deleted two of his tweets that it said spread misinformation about the disease.
He has brazenly contradicted the social distancing guidelines of his own health officials, urging Brazilians to attend large protest rallies and to return to work to prevent economic fallout.
It is costing him politically, isolating him from several influential governors who once embraced his policies, and even members of his own Cabinet.
“Don’t follow the president’s directions,” Joao Doria, the governor of Sao Paulo, urged Brazilians, accusing Bolsonaro of putting people’s lives at risk.
Voters are also angry.
For weeks, residents of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo have leaned out their windows each night to bang pots to protest against Bolsonaro. A recent poll shows a majority of citizens believe he is impeding the fight against the virus.
“I think he’s becoming more isolated by the minute,” said Sergio Praca, a political scientist at Getulio Vargas Foundation, a think tank in Rio de Janeiro. “Bolsonaro’s strategy is alienating people.”
A right-wing nationalist and close ally of President Trump, Bolsonaro won power in 2018 by positioning himself as a straight-talking political outsider who would stamp out crime and corruption.
His response to the pandemic echoes his skepticism about climate change and his rejection of global efforts to mitigate damage to the Amazon rainforest.
It also calls to mind the early reactions of other populist leaders to the coronavirus, including Trump and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, both of whom initially insisted that widespread quarantines were unnecessary and not worth the risk to the economy.
But unlike Trump and Lopez Obrador, who have both come around to recognize the severity of the crisis, Bolsonaro has continued to lambaste social isolation efforts, even as the death toll in Brazil nears 700 and health experts warn it will soar when the virus takes hold in poor, densely packed neighborhoods.
Brazil’s governors have imposed strict isolation measures, suspending schools, public transportation and closing restaurants, shops and beaches. Twenty four of Brazil’s 27 states have enacted similar restrictions.
Their defiance is striking, because traditionally governors, especially in remote states, have stayed out of national politics.
Bolsonaro has criticized their efforts, dismissing the governors as “job killers.”
He has also publicly clashed with his own health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who has implored Brazilians to ignore the president’s advice.
“Please follow the directions of your state governors,” he said in a recent televised address.
“None of my ministers are unfireable,” Bolsonaro warned in response. “Mandetta has to listen to the president more.”
Bolsonaro backed away from his threat after senior military figures intervened, according to media reports. On Monday, Mandetta said he expects to keep his job.
Mandetta, who delivers daily updates about the progression of the virus, has become a well-liked political figure. His approval rating shot up by 21 points to 76% since the onset of the crisis, a survey by polling firm Datafolha showed over the weekend.
The same poll put Bolsonaro’s approval rating at 33%.
Gabrielle Oliveira, a 25-year-old sales consultant who lives in Rio de Janeiro’s north zone, said she voted for the president in 2018 but has been gradually become disillusioned with his policies.
“During this crisis, I made up my mind,” she said. “Finally, I can say I made a mistake with my vote.”
“The attitudes that he’s assuming during this crisis have made me think, ‘What’s going on in his head?’” she said. “He prefers to enter into controversy through unnecessary debates rather than doing something like other countries are doing.”
Still, some of his most loyal supporters gathered across Brazil over the weekend, demanding the end of social isolation and the reopening of businesses.
In some cities, fewer than a dozen people showed up. But much larger groups, clad in the yellow and green that have become synonymous with Bolsonaro’s base, gathered in Sao Paulo and in front of the seat of government in Brasilia.
Marcus Almeida, a 33-year-old soldier from Rio de Janeiro, said he continues to back Bolsonaro even though he wishes the leader would take the coronavirus more seriously.
“I believe there’s massive polarization in the country,” Almeida said. “In this polarization, the one who I support the most is Bolsonaro. He’s the one sitting in the president’s chair ... even though there’s a lot of garbage coming from his mouth.”
Brian Winter, vice president for policy at the Council of the Americas think tank, said that Bolsonaro has been following the patterns of populist leaders.
“They all have a general anti-establishment streak that says that if the media is saying one thing, the truth must be the opposite,” he said. “That can be really dangerous during a global pandemic.”
He said it is too soon to know the long-term impact of COVID-19 on Bolsonaro’s bid for reelection in 2022 or the future of populism around the world.
“Depending on how things go it may enable a new generation of autocrats who promise greater security and therefore health by encouraging people to sacrifice their freedoms,” he said. “Or this may help prove to a new generation why good leadership is important and why having good leaders who embrace democracy and science is a path to success.”
Brazil's Amazonas state warns its health system overwhelmed by coronavirus
Bruno Kelly. Reuters. April 10, 2020
MANAUS (Reuters) - Brazil’s Amazonas state warned on Thursday that its health system has been overwhelmed by the coronavirus epidemic, with all intensive care beds and ventilators already taken as a result of the outbreak.
As the virus spreads across the country from its epicenter in Brazil’s wealthiest city of Sao Paulo, it is highlighting the huge discrepancies in healthcare provisions in this continent-sized country.
Manaus, a city of 2 million in the heart of the Amazon rainforest and the capital of Amazonas, has been particularly hard hit, with 800 confirmed cases. The state as a whole has had 40 deaths out of around 900 confirmed cases.
Manaus is the only city in the state with intensive care units (ICUs).
Rosemary Pinto, head of the state health system, pleaded for people to heed social distancing orders aimed at shutting down all but essential activities.
“There are still too many people in the streets,” she said at a news conference.
“Families are sitting out on chairs in front of their homes. There are lines at the banks, including elderly people who are at risk, and that is why so many are dying,” she said.
The crisis led the state governor to replace his health secretary on Wednesday.
“Most of the cases are concentrated in Manaus, but when the virus spreads to the interior of the state and reaches the indigenous communities, it will be a catastrophe,” said Marcelo Ramos, a federal lawmaker representing Amazonas.
Health experts and anthropologists have warned of the danger of the pandemic decimating Brazil’s 850,000 indigenous people because they have no immunity to external diseases and live in communal homes where social distancing is not possible.
So far, the indigenous health service Sesai has reported only six cases of coronavirus among indigenous people.
Four of them are on the upper reaches of the Amazon river near Peru and Colombia, one case is in Manaus, and one reported on Wednesday involves a Yanomami 14-year-old who is stable in an intensive care unit in Boas Vista, capital of Roraima state.
Lula' Says Bolsonaro a Disaster Amid Pandemic
AP. April 8, 2020
SAO PAULO — In home isolation just months after his release from jail, Brazil’s former leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Wednesday that President Jair Bolsonaro needs to change his dismissive approach to the new coronavirus or risk being forced from office before the end of his term in December 2022.
The former president known as Lula said in an interview with The Associated Press that Bolsonaro’s defiance of calls for social distancing hamper the efforts of governors and mayors to contain the virus.
He also argued Brazil may need to print money to protect low-income workers and keep people at home, a proposal sure to raise concern in a country with a history of hyperinflation and a sliding currency.
Da Silva, who governed between 2003 and 2010 at time when Brazil's economy was strong, acknowledged that Bolsonaro is unlikely to heed growing opposition calls to step down and that there are not enough votes in congress for impeachment.
“Brazil’s society might not have the patience to wait until 2022, though,” da Silva said in a video call. "The same society that elected him has the right to remove this president when it notices he is not doing the things he promised. A president who has made mistakes and is creating a disaster. Bolsonaro, at this moment, is a disaster.”
Some people in several regions that voted massively for Bolsonaro in the 2018 elections are disillusioned with him, banging pots outside their homes in regular protests in the last two weeks. The president's downplaying of the outbreak puts him at odds with almost all of the country's 27 governors.
About 800 people have died from the COVID-19 disease in Brazil so far, and there are almost 16,000 confirmed cases, the most in Latin America. Brazil expects a peak in virus cases in late April or early May.
Last week, da Silva praised Sao Paulo Gov. João Doria, a former ally of the president, for imposing restrictions designed to curb the spread of the virus. Bolsonaro, who frequently refers to da Silva as a “former inmate,” then said in a radio interview that he feels embarrassed when conservative politicians who have turned on him during the crisis receive praise from the leftist leader.
“I am just recognizing those who have done a more effective job,” da Silva said, adding that Doria will remain a political adversary.
Da Silva, a 74-year-old cancer survivor, is in isolation with his girlfriend and two dogs in the city of São Bernardo do Campo, on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, since returning from a trip to Europe. He said he has not had any symptoms of the virus, nor been tested, and is meeting very few politicians. Most of his conversations are now online.
The former president said his 580 days in jail have helped him cope better with health recommendations to remain home. He is free while appealing corruption and money laundering convictions, which he says are politically motivated.
“I trained spiritually to live well. It is not easy to live in 15 square meters, seeing family once a week,” he said. “Now I am at home with my girlfriend Janja living with me. It is much better. I have space, people to talk to all the time.”
Bolsonaro has challenged recommendations of the World Health Organization and of his own health ministry on social distancing and other measures to curb the virus. He has repeatedly called COVID-19 “a little flu.”
Former president da Silva believes Brazil might need to print money to avoid the closing of businesses and social chaos. Brazil's economy has suffered since 2015, with about 12 million people unemployed and three times as many people in the informal sector and working gigs.
“Those who need liquidity at this moment are poor people. They need it to buy soap, hand sanitizer. That’s who needs liquidity, not the Brazilian financial system,” he said. “To beat the coronavirus we need more state, more action from public authorities, from making new money and ensuring it reaches the hands of the people.”
Da Silva's prescription runs counter to the ideology running through Bolsonaro’s administration, led by the University of Chicago-trained Economy Minister Paulo Guedes. After his appointment, he promised to shrink both the size and influence of the state through vast privatizations and by reining in state bank lending.
Since the outbreak, there has been some recognition of the need to provide financial relief. Among other things, state bank Caixa Economica Federal slashed interest rates on overdrafts and credit card installments, and the government allowed people to withdraw the equivalent of one month’s minimum wage from retirement accounts. It also approved monthly payments of $117 to help keep low-income workers afloat, which are expected to begin Thursday.
Still, it isn’t enough, da Silva said. He added that support for possibly printing money isn’t radical, but rather a necessary measure in a desperate circumstance.
“In a time of war you do things that aren’t normal because what matters is survival," he said. "The coronavirus is an invisible enemy whose shape we know, but we still don’t know how to defeat it.”
Brazilian leftist politicians of different parties, including da Silva's Workers’ Party, published a letter last week calling for Bolsonaro’s resignation over his management during the pandemic. The former president didn't sign it, but said his views are clear.
“There’s no way out with Bolsonaro if he doesn’t change his behavior,” he said. “It would be much easier to apologize, admit he was wrong, tell the Brazilian people that he is sorry.”
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