RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and most dangerous opponent of President Jair Bolsoinaro for the elections in 2022 lamented the tragic mark of 500,000 deaths from Covid-19 in the country, reached this Saturday, June 19, which he described as “genocide”.
“500,000 deaths from a disease that already has a vaccine, in a country that was already a world reference in vaccination. That has a name, and it is genocide,” said Lula, who has hinted at his possible candidacy in next year’s elections after recovering his political rights.
The Workers’ Party (PT) leader lent his solidarity to the Brazilian people amid the silence of President Jair Bolsonaro, who has made no mention of the 500,000 deaths caused by the coronavirus.
Who did speak out was his Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, who lent his solidarity to all the relatives of the victims of coronavirus, a disease that has already left half a million dead and 17.8 million cases. “I am working tirelessly to vaccinate all Brazilians in the shortest possible time and change this scenario that has been devastating us for more than a year,” he declared.
The Minister of Communications, Fabio Faria, for his part, regretted that the 86 million doses of the covid vaccine applied in the country or the 18 million “cured” of the disease are not commemorated.
“The tone is always ‘the worse, the better’. Unhappily, they support the virus,” he added, referring to “politicians, artists, and journalists.”
The provocation of genocide is aimed directly at Lula’s biggest rival for the presidency in 2022 – the incumbent Jair Bolsonaro.
According to Britannica, genocide is defined as follows:
“Genocide, the deliberate and systematic destruction of a group of people because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race. The term, derived from the Greek genos (“race,” “tribe,” or “nation”) and the Latin cide (“killing”), was coined by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-born jurist who served as an adviser to the U.S. Department of War during World War II.”
In contemporary international law the crime of genocide is part of the broader category of “crimes against humanity,” which were defined by the Charter of the International Military Tribunal (Nürnberg Charter).