drives massive concentration amid second wave of coronavirus in Brazil

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, drove a huge biker caravan to Brasilia this Sunday, in a new mobilization of his supporters to support his government, under pressure for its questioned management of the coronavirus pandemic, which kills nearly 420,000.

Surrounded by a strong security operation, the 66-year-old president left the official Palacio de Alvorada residence with hundreds of motorcyclists to visit the center of the capital for an hour, in a call to commemorate Mother’s Day.

“We had a very serious problem last year, something that nobody expected, the pandemic, but little by little we are winning. You can be sure: as the supreme leader of the armed forces my army will never go to the streets to keep them inside, ”Bolsonaro told his supporters, who were concentrated outside Alvorada Palace after the visit.

At the end of the tour, Bolsonaro, a fervent critic of social confinement to deal with the pandemic, photographed himself, shook hands with dozens of followers -many among those who, like the president, did not wear the protective mask-, and thanked “support for a government that largely identifies with the army”.

“I am participating in the event to support all of this [el gobierno] has done over the past two years to save Brazil, ”said Carlos Toledo, 61, after the tour, in which many motorcyclists they carried the Brazilian flag, became a symbol of pro-Bolsonaro mobilizations.

Under the onslaught of a second wave of the pandemic, Brazil has become the country with the highest death rate in the Americas and in the southern hemisphere, although the rate of contagion se has declined in recent weeks.

On May 1, Bolsonaro supporters staged massive marches and motorized caravans in cities like Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, just three days before a Senate committee began investigating the government’s actions. deal with the pandemic in Brazil.

In his statement to the Senate on Tuesday, former minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta, dismissed from his post in April 2020 for having defended social distancing to contain the virus, said he had “systematically” alerted President Bolsonaro. on the “very serious consequences” of their positions in the face of the pandemic.

The next day, former minister Nelson Teich, who took over from Mandetta for nearly a month, said his resignation from the health portfolio was due to pressure from the president to prescribe chloroquine against covid-19, despite being an ineffective and potentially dangerous virus remedy.

May 19 the declaration is planned from the former Minister of Health, General Eduardo Pazuello, sacked in March amid strong criticism of his management, mainly due to Brazil’s delay in negotiating covid-19 vaccines.

On May 15, another major mobilization of government supporters is expected.

Source AFP and EFE

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