Brazil’s left rises up against Bolsonaro with protests across the country despite Covid-19

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Thousands of Brazilians faced this Saturday, May 29, the fear of Covid-19 and took to the streets to protest against the government of Jair Bolsonaro, in a cry “for life” that resounded in the first mass marches registered throughout the country since the beginning of the pandemic.

Called by trade union centers, leftist political parties, and social movements, the protests took place peacefully in more than 200 cities throughout the country, with violent acts by the police recorded only in Recife, the capital of Pernambuco.

The protesters demanded the far-right leader accelerate the vaccination process in the country, and increase the amount of aid so that the poorest – those most affected by the pandemic – have a “dignified” income to face the crisis of the virus.

Armed with masks, alcohol gel, and placards, the demonstrators also called for a halt to the privatization of state enterprises and an end to budget cuts in universities.

Huge banners with the phrases “Bolsonaro Out!”, “Vaccine for all now! “Bolsonaro genocidal!” were the common denominator in the marches in all cities, as well as posters recalling the 460,000 deaths and more than 16.3 million contagions that have made Brazil one of the countries most affected by the pandemic.

The marches started early in cities such as Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, Belém, and Recife. However, by late afternoon demonstrations occurred in other cities such as Curitiba, Manaus, and Fortaleza, as well as in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous city, where the country’s largest march took place.

Despite the care taken by the demonstrators, crowds were recorded, mainly in the capitals where the marches were massive.

“Being in the streets to fight is an extreme act to say ‘enough’!”, said the Workers’ Party (PT), the party led by former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in its message inviting people to the marches.

The dilemma between the discourse of social isolation and the encouragement that the agglomerations would have with this Saturday’s marches came to oppose each other parties and leaders of the left in some regions of the country, as in Bahia, where Governor Ruy Castro, promoted demonstrations by car to avoid the contagions of Covid-19.

POLICE VIOLENCE

In Pernambuco, the Public Prosecutor’s Office issued the day before a recommendation to suspend the events scheduled for this Saturday to avoid the spread of the virus, something that the authorities tried to impose today by force in the streets of Recife, the state capital, where thousands of people went out to march.

Some demonstrators suffered eye injuries from rubber bullets fired to disperse the marches by the Military Police, as Efe was able to confirm. According to complaints from the demonstrators, the agents also used pepper spray and made arbitrary arrests.

The national mobilizations seek to erode support for the ultra-right leader and accelerate the investigations currently being carried out by a Senate investigative committee on possible omissions of the government in managing the pandemic. However, the possibilities of achieving impeachment of the president are still far off.

The so-called “Covid CPI”, created at the request of the opposition, which has seven of the committee’s eleven members, is trying to clarify whether the government has any responsibility for the lack of control of the health crisis in Brazil, which, according to specialists, is now threatened with a third wave.

Complaints made to the committee revealed that the government delayed the purchase of vaccines, acted slowly in the face of a lack of oxygen in the state of Amazonas, and promoted the use of chloroquine, an antimalarial drug with no scientific evidence of working to prevent or cure Covid-19.

Bolsonaro has been minimizing the seriousness of Covid-19, which he described as a “little flu” since the first case was registered in the country on February 26, 2020.