Bolsonaro ignored by state governors amid anger
at handling of Covid-19 crisis
Even former allies are refusing to obey the Brazilian
president’s calls for people to go back to work
Dom
Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Wed 1 Apr
2020 11.00 BSTLast modified on Wed 1 Apr 2020 11.01 BST
Brazil’s
president Jair Bolsonaro is facing a growing backlash over his handling of the
coronavirus crisis, with the state governors responsible for more than 200
million of the country’s 210 million people refusing to follow his commands
over the pandemic.
Bolsonaro
has repeatedly played down the dangers of Covid-19 and last week urged
Brazilians to get back to work – in defiance of advice from the World Health
Organization and his own health ministry.
But his
exhortations have been largely ignored by politicians and the general public.
Just three
of Brazil’s 27 states, home to 5.7 million people, have relaxed social
isolation measures as coronavirus cases continue to rise – Brazil has 5,717
confirmed cases and 201 deaths. A study showed almost 60% of Brazilians are
staying at home.
João Doria,
the governor of Brazil’s most populous and economically important state, São Paulo,
has maintained a strict quarantine and this week openly defied Bolsonaro,
telling its 44 million citizens: “Do not follow the guidance of the prseident.”
Wilson
Witzel, Rio de Janeiro state’s rightwing governor, has also refused to back
away from strict social isolation measures.
“So far
I’ve been asking, now I am giving an order: don’t leave your home,” Witzel told
his state’s 17 million residents on Monday as he extended Rio’s shut down for
another fortnight.
Witzel, a
one-time Bolsonaro ally, went on to suggest the president’s behaviour could
land him a trial at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
Only the
rightwing governors of the Amazon states of Rondônia and Roraima, both
Bolsonaro allies, have followed the president’s lead by relaxing restrictions
on shops and businesses. In Roraima’s capital Boa Vista and Rondônia’s capital
Porto Velho many – but not all - shops are open and there are people on the
streets.
Ciro Gomes,
a prominent leftwing politician from north-eastern Brazil, told the Guardian
that in order to save thousands of lives, the country now needed – and was
starting to witness – “an extensive campaign of civil disobedience initiated by
governors, mayors, the overwhelming majority of religious leaders and the
media”.
Gomes
admitted the loss of many lives was now inevitable – but such a mutiny against
Bolsonaro could help lessen the scale of the tragedy and represented “an act of
protection for the Brazilian people”.
Bolsonaro
has described coronavirus as a “little flu” and claimed his athletic background
would protect him from it. “You have to face it like a soldier on the
battlefield,” he told Rede TV on Monday. The previous day he told reporters:
“We’ll all die one day.”
The
president has argued the damage caused by shutting down Brazil’s economy will
be worse than that caused by the virus, and has also suggested state governors
were inflating the numbers of coronavirus victims to justify restrictive
lockdown measures.
But as well
as facing a rebellion from regional chiefs, Bolsonaro now also appears
increasingly isolated from his own cabinet.
On Tuesday
the Folha de São Paulo newspaper reported that justice minister Sérgio Moro,
finance minister Paulo Guedes, Mandetta and military officers in the government
had formed a block opposing the president’s stance.
“Bolsonaro
has put himself into self-isolation,” said José Álvaro Moisés, a professor of
political science at the University of São Paulo.
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