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RIO DE JANEIRO – Anti-government protesters took to the streets in more than a dozen cities across Brazil on Saturday as the country’s confirmed death toll from COVID-19 rose to more than half a million – a tragedy many critics blame on President Jairer’s attempt Bolsonaro reduce disease.
Thousands gathered in downtown Rio de Janeiro waving flags bearing slogans such as “Get out of Bolsonaro. Government of hunger and unemployment.”
“Brazil is experiencing a major setback. The country was an exemplary vaccination country in the world. We have widely recognized the institutions, but today we are in a sad situation,” said Isabella Gulgor, a 20-year-old student who joined the protest in Rio.
Other demonstrators carried posters that read “500,000 deaths. It’s his fault”, referring to Bolsonaro.
Similar rallies were held in at least 22 states or 26 states of Brazil, as well as in the Federal District, Brasilia. It was promoted by left-wing opposition parties, encouraged by the decline in Bolsonaro’s polls as the presidential race approaches next year.
“Get out of Bolsonaro, genocide,” shouted protesters in Rio, some wearing T-shirts or masks bearing the image of former leftist president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva – who leads Bolsonaro in some opinion polls.
In Sao Paulo, protesters threw red balloons in honor of the victims of the virus
Bolsonaro’s supporters have often taken to the streets over the past month, in large part because many agree with his rejection of restrictions aimed at stifling the coronavirus and anger that lockdown measures have hurt businesses.
Critics say such messages, as well as Bolsonaro’s promotion of unproven treatments such as hydroxychloroquine, have contributed to the high death toll and a slow vaccine campaign that fully vaccinated less than 12% of the population. The country of about 213 million people records nearly 100,000 new infections and 2,000 deaths daily.
Demonstrators protest against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the Corona virus
“For the left, putting their followers on the streets is a way of dressing Bolsonaro in the elections,” said Leandro Concentino, a professor of political science at Inspire University in São Paulo. “But at the same time, they are contradicting themselves and losing the rhetoric of preserving healthcare, because they are causing the same conglomerates as Bolsonaro.”
Saturday’s rally came a week after Bolsonaro led a massive motorcycle parade in Sao Paulo, although his allies and opponents differ widely on the scale of the event.
“Bolsonaro needs to show that he maintains significant support to give a message of strength to those investigating his government’s actions in Congress,” Consentino said.
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