Jair Bolsonaro drove a motorcycle trailer with a crowd of supporters at the gates of a third wave of COVID

The President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, He again led a motorcycle caravan this Sunday in Rio de Janeiro as cases of COVID-19 begin to rebound and specialists are warning of the possible arrival of a third wave of the pandemic in the coming weeks .

The leader of the Brazilian far right traveled for over an hour some of the most emblematic points of the city of Rio de Janeiro, where he went to participate in the motorcycle rally, considered a showing support at a time when government popularity is at a minimum.

At one point on the trip, Bolsonaro, without a mask, stopped his motorbike in the middle of a road to take photos and greet his supporters, resulting in a cluster of hundreds of people.

After a half-hour ride, the motorcycles stopped for a few minutes and Bolsonaro, with his helmet but no mask, stood in front of his vehicle to greet the crowd. The cries of “Myth!” (the president’s nickname among his supporters) were heard amid the roar of the engines.

The procession started from the Olympic Park which hosted the 2016 Olympic Games and traveled for an hour and a half about 40 km along the beaches of Rio, mainly the very touristy Ipanema and Copacabana.

The mayor of Rio de Janeiro believes that between 10,000 and 15,000 people participated in the event, for which 1,000 police officers were activated in order to “guarantee the order and the safety of the population during the act”.

Bolsonaro was precisely fined this week by the government of Maranhão after participating in a public act without a mask and causing crowds. The amount of the sanction will be fixed after the president has presented his defense, for which he has about 15 days.

Bolsonaro, one of the leaders most in denial about the severity of the virus, had already led a similar biker rally two weeks ago in Brasilia, amid the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, which leaves a daily average of 1900 dead.

The specialists fear the arrival of a third wave in the coming weeks, at a time when the country is again recording an increase in infections after the end of restrictions imposed by governors and mayors to control the epidemiological curve.

Added to this is the slow vaccination process recorded in the country, with only 20% of the population immunized with both doses, and the identification of the Indian variant in the state of Maranhão, in the northeast.

At the end of April, the far-right president said he was waiting for a signal from the people to end restrictions taken locally by mayors or governors to try to curb the spread of the coronavirus, hinting that he might even deploy the ‘army. Since, Protests in favor of Bolsonaro took place every weekend, without realizing any physical distancing.

A week ago, the Head of State came on horseback to attend a demonstration of farmers in Brasilia.

The agent seeks to re-mobilize its most extreme fan base at a time when his popularity is at its lowest since coming to power in 2019. The latest polls show him losing to former leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da silva in the presidential election in 2022.

A parliamentary committee of inquiry in the Senate was activated three weeks ago to examine government “omissions” during the health crisis and received damning testimony during its first hearings.

(With information from EFE and AFP)

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