Brazil’s Bolsonaro warns that he may act by decree against Covid restrictions

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro warned on Wednesday, May 5, that he might issue a decree to guarantee citizens the “freedom” to “work” and “come and go”, which he claims are partially restricted by measures against Covid-19.

“No one can be happy if they do not have freedom,” said the president at an event on telecommunications, in which he again criticized the restrictions on the movement of people, already greatly relaxed but still in force in many cities in the face of a pandemic that has already killed more than 410,000 people in Brazil.

Bolsonaro alluded to demonstrations held last weekend by his supporters against those measures, and said that “the people are going to the streets” and “are willing to give their lives for freedom”, a claim to which his government will not be indifferent.

“In the streets, people are starting to ask the Government to issue a decree. And if I decree, it will be complied with, and it cannot be suspended by any court”, he declared in a clear allusion to the Supreme Court, which ratified the constitutional power of governors and mayors to suspend activities to contain the contagion of coronavirus.

“Where did it come from to give powers to governors and mayors to take us to misery, to steal millions of jobs, to not let people work, to prohibit going to church”, said the governor, who qualified his speech with his usual criticisms of the press.

“There are mayors who put people in jail because they are on the street, which forbids a family to go out on a boat, and the media do not denounce any of this,” he said.

According to Bolsonaro, “Brazil cannot be condemned to failure because someone gave governors and mayors some spurious powers” to decide that “working is a crime”.

The president also alluded to a Senate committee, created under pressure from the opposition, to investigate possible government omissions in the fight against the pandemic and insisted that it should focus on alleged cases of corruption with the purchase of medical equipment reported in regional and municipal administrations.

Also, as he has done on other occasions, he questioned the origin of Covid-19.

“It is a new virus. It is unknown if it was born in a laboratory or caused by a man who ate an animal. We know that there are bacteriological wars,” declared Bolsonaro, who pointed out, in a clear reference to China, that in this context, it should be observed, “which is the country whose GDP grew the most with the pandemic.”