‘Super demand’ for impeachment for Bolsonaro after vaccine scandal

A group of more than 120 people -including the lder del PT, Gleisi Hoffmann but also right-wing parties, social movements, unions and associations– presented a “great demand” for impeachment for the president Jair Bolsonaro, charged with around 20 counts, in the middle corruption complaints related to the purchase of vaccines against coronavirus.

the vice-president Hamilton Mourao he said that “there is no place” for an impeachment request to succeed, in particular because of the approach of the presidential elections. “We will let the process continue and arrive in October of next year to see what happens,” he added.

At least vote is required 342 deputies to move the process forward, and it is likely that the ‘center‘-a bloc of parties to which the presidents of House of Representatives, Arthur Lira (Progressives) and the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (Democrats) – block again any process of Accused.

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So far, the group that animates the request for dismissal it has around 140 legislators. Beyond the evolution of the process, it is one of the strongest gestures against Bolsonaro in the Congress.

Although not binding, the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (ICC) who studies the management of government during the pandemic, complicated Bolsonaro more than I expected, revealing a series of corruption scandals, which could affect your chances of re-election.

COVAXIN

A few days ago, Luis Ricardo Miranda, Head of import at the Ministry of Health, complaints to the ICC “atypical” pressures to free the importation of the Covaxine, fingernail coronavirus vaccine developed by the laboratory Bharat Biotech from India.

The Senate is investigating the contract, which was signed in record time, although there is still not enough information from the vaccine Yes is not approved by the National health watch agency (Anvisa), although if he had authorized its importation on an exceptional basis and. Miranda also denounced other strange maneuvers such as the first prepayment attempt ylmediation by a company that was not included in the contract.

The Covaxine (US $ 15), besides, it had higher cost than others vaccines What Pfizer ($ 10), which was initially rejected by the government.

Miranda’s brother, Congressman Luis Miranda, also told the CPI that he had informed his own Bolsonaro irregularities last March. According to Miranda, Bolsonaro told him that he knew what was going on and that it had to be an arrangement of Roberto barros, former Minister of Health in the government of Michel Temer that now represents the government in the Chamber of Deputies.

Bolsonaro He also said he would ask the Federal shelf to open an investigation, but it never happened.

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After the scandal of Covaxine, the government has decided to temporarily suspend the 20 million doses ($ 321 million) while the Senate investigates the facts.

Bharat Biotech disengaged from any wrongdoing and stated that he had not received any payment for the vaccine, as the Brazilian government claims.

Anvisa has ended the request for emergency use of the vaccine, while the Brazilian prosecution and federal police have opened investigations.

ASTRAZENEC

Luis Paulo Dominguetti Pereira, who introduced himself as a representative of Davati Medical Supply in Brazil, told Folha de Sao Paulo that he had received a bribe request by Ministry of Health, when I tried to negotiate a contract for 400 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine. The proposal would have gone through the Logistics Director from the portfolio, Roberto Ferreira Dias.

Dominguetti had offered him the vaccines at the cost of u $ s 3.5 per dose; Dias told him that the only way to work with the ministry was for the company to accept “add” u $ s 1 per dose. Dominguetti said he refused.

The government fired Dias -which had been designated by Barros– today, after the case was made public.

Cansino

But Barros He is also involved in another scandal being investigated by Congress. Lawyer Barros, Flavio Pansieri -who was also a partner of his son-in-law- worked for Belcer Pharmaceutical, a representative of CanSino at Brazil.

Pansieri did attend a meeting with Anvisa last April to discuss the emergency approval of the Convidecia vaccine.

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the Ministry of Health signed a letter of intent to purchase 60 million doses (approximately $ 204 million) but recently CanSino informed Anvisa that he had broken off his relationship with Belcher -located in the commune of Maring, Paran, of which Barros was mayor – alleging reasons for conformity, according to Valor reported.

Pfizer and Coronavac

Last May, Carlos Murillo, former CEO of Pfizer in order to Brazil, told the ICC that the government had rejected an offer of 70 million doses of this vaccine.

Murillo said he approached the offer for Ministry of Health in August 2020 but received no response. The company repeated the proposal two more times, and then the lab’s global CEO himself gave a written offer to Bolsonaro, with a copy to the Chief of Staff, the Ministers of Health and the Economy, and the United States Ambassador to Brazil. The government never responded.

Six months later, in the chaos of the second hello and with problems in the vaccination campaign, Brazil closed a contract for 100 million doses.

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On the other hand, Dimas Covas, the director of the Butantane Institute (San Pablo) which locally produces the vaccine of Sinovac, Coronavac, told the ICC that the government rejected an offer of 100 million doses in October 2020.

The contract, delayed by political and bureaucratic obstacles according to Covas, was finally concluded in December (for 46 million) but it was too late to meet the initially planned delivery times. Another contract was signed in February for 54 million additional doses.