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Thousands of Brazilians took to the streets on Saturday to protest the Jair Bolsonaro administration’s response to the pandemic that has killed nearly half a million people in the country – more than anyone else after the United States.
On the second day of demonstrations in less than a month, anti-Bolsonaro mobilization is gaining momentum amid the spiraling curve of Covid-19 infections, while only 11% of 212 million Brazilians have been fully vaccinated, according to local media.
The Brazilian president, who has undermined the pandemic and resisted containment measures, is under a congressional investigation as his administration lagged behind in getting vaccines but pushed to use ineffective drugs such as chloroquine.
Teacher Paula Queiroz, 46, said the pandemic was “a loss: friends, joy and hope for the future”. Despite this, she took to the streets of President Vargas Avenue, in central Rio de Janeiro, using “humor as a weapon” in what she called the “president’s lack of response” to the coronavirus. Queiroz dressed as a critic of Dr. Ness Yamaguchi, who she called a “pseudo-scientist who advised Bolsonaro” to adopt ineffective drugs.
Demonstration in Rio de Janeiro against President Bolsanaro. Photography: Flavia Milhorance
I’m dressed as Dr. “Chloroquine, which was a complicit in these 500,000 deaths,” Queiroz said, while wearing a sign that mimics the drug packaging with sayings like “free medicine” and calling for Bolsonaro’s removal and imprisonment, “chloroquine.”
In contrast to Bolsonaro supporters, who took to the streets in demonstrations last year, anti-Bolsonaro demonstrators refrained from gathering and preferred to bang pots from their homes. However, as the average death toll continued to rise to 2,000 a day, public outrage increased.
Banner from a demonstration in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday. Photography: Flavia Milhorance
“The reasons given by this government under the leadership of this plague called Bolsonaro make me go out of the house,” said Oswaldo Pinheiro, a 75-year-old retired engineer. “I, even at this age, will fight against this genocidal government, with no respect for the poor. As long as there are other rallies I will attend.”
Pinheiro went to the protest in Rio with his two daughters, Deborah and Barbara Amado. “He was vaccinated and we realized at the first protest that everyone was wearing masks and that we could stay away from each other,” Deborah said.
Last Saturday, Bolsonaro and his supporters demonstrated from his motorbike in the streets of Sao Paulo, a reference to an increasingly polarized political scene as the 2022 elections approach. The president was fined for failing to wear a mask in violation of local restrictions and was saying he would not vaccinate against Covid-19.
Protesters in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday. Photography: Flavia Milhorance
The anti-Bolsonaro demonstrations that occupied Brazil’s largest city were called by social movements and political parties opposed to his government. Political science student Tayan Souza, 22, and her friend, Dolla Juliana Candido, 32, wore LGBTQIA+ flags.
“I think it is important that we show our resistance as a gay black woman,” Souza said, to which Candido added, “LGBTs are also very threatened in Bolsonaro’s government, and we are here to define who we are and that we must vaccinate the population and fight the epidemic properly.”
Sarah John da Silva, an elementary school teacher, sat on the sidewalk, with her two children, Estella, 4, and Helena, 8. Silva said, while the girls held home-made banners. “They have to learn that when there were actions against the president we would fight in the street to get him out.”
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