Leer en Español
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro warned Wednesday that the country “is a powder keg” due to restrictive lockdown measures adopted by governors and mayors.
“Brazil is at the limit. I am waiting for the people to give a signal,” declared the president, who said that the policy of “closing everything” puts the country in front of “the imminence of having some serious problems” in social matters.
Bolsonaro made these statements in a brief meeting with a group of supporters, a day after the Senate, by decision of the Supreme Court, agreed to install a commission to investigate the “omissions” that the government may have incurred in the fight against the pandemic, which is going through its worst phase in the country.
According to official data, in little more than a year, Brazil has accumulated almost 360,000 deaths and 13.6 million contagions, with the pandemic curve in full ascent and hospitals on the verge of collapse.
Bolsonaro showed a report according to which about 125 million Brazilians (almost half of the population) have food problems and attributed this situation to confinements.
“There are people in suits and ties who do not want to see that and believe that life is to be at home, with telework, and don’t care about common people”, said the president, who pointed out: “I am not threatening anyone, but I believe that soon we will have serious problems.”
Bolsonaro also asked “to respect the virus, which kills”, but he also said that “it seems that now heart problems and many other diseases are over in Brazil. Now everything is Covid.”
He also assured that he does not intend to and cannot “interfere” in the work of the parliamentary commission that will investigate the management of the pandemic, but insisted that governors and mayors should also be subject to inquiries.
He cited multimillion financial resources sent by the federal government to states and municipalities and assured that in “some places” many governors and mayors “made a party out of it”, adding that he considers “arbitrary” certain “acts” of the Supreme Court and of the Parliament itself.
