Brazilians take to the streets to demand the impeachment of Bolsonaro | Crowds march as corruption pushes ahead over their handling of the pandemic

Thousands of Brazilians demonstrated again this Saturday in the streets to demand the impeachment of the president Jair Bolsonaro, with the novelty of the opening of the investigation ordered yesterday by the Supreme Court of Justice for the offense of prevarication with which the president is accused of having knowledge of a case of corruption in the purchase of Covaxin vaccines and for not having denounced him to the authorities.

This is the third day of protests in recent weeks against the government, which faces growing pressure from a parliamentary inquiry into alleged omissions in handling the pandemic, which has already claimed more than half a million lives in Brazil.

For 47-year-old doctor Patricia de Lima Mendes, who was attending an event in central Rio de Janeiro, the Executive is primarily responsible for the high number of deaths. “There are over 500,000 lives killed by this government, due to flawed decisions, ‘fake news’, lies, and now this absurd corruption scandal over vaccines,” he said.

Other state capitals such as Belem (Pará), Recife (Pernambuco) and Maceió (Alagoas) also recorded protests with banners indicating “Genocidal Bolsonaro”, “Impeachment ya” and “Yes to vaccines”.

During the first two months of hearings, the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (ICC) set up by the Senate focused mainly on the delay in reaching agreements with pharmaceutical companies for the purchase of vaccines, while that Bolsonaro has promoted the use of ineffective Covid-19 drugs like hydroxychloroqiuna and criticized social distancing measures.

Last week, the testimony of an official of the Ministry of Health changed the direction of the investigations by declaring to have undergone last March an “atypical pressure” to finalize the purchase of three million doses of the Indian vaccine Covaxin, which , according to him, showed signs of irregularities, including a price much higher than that paid by Brazil for any other vaccine.

Civil servant Ricardo Miranda, brother of Bolsonarist deputy Luis Miranda, claimed to have personally transferred the suspicions to Bolsonaro, who allegedly promised to take the case to the federal police, which he apparently did not do. This led to the opening on Friday of an investigation by the general prosecutor’s office against the president. The question is whether or not Bolsonaro has committed the crime of procrastinating, allegedly failing to report suspected wrongdoing.

The Federal Supreme Court has upheld the decision ordering the federal police to take charge of questioning the president on this contract which was suspended this week, after the explosion of the scandal, and three months after the meeting at Government House during of which Miranda He told Bolsonaro about the irregularities.

The Covaxin scandal was the first to explode in June and was followed by another in which the American company Davati, dedicated to medical supplies, denounced a logistics director at the Department of Health for asking for a dollar in bribe. of wine for each AstraZeneca vaccine offered. outsourced, in a contract that has never been executed.

The opening of the investigation comes in addition to the “super demand” for impeachment for 123 violations of the Constitution presented by opposition deputies, from both right and left, to Congress.