Disorder and Regression: COVID-19 in Bolsonaro's Brazil
Source: https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2020/06/19/brazil-one-million-coronavirus-cases-matt-rivers-pkg-intl-vpx.cnn
By: JP Tavares
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the KCL Latin American Society or El Cortao.
Firing Health Ministers, threatening the supreme court and calling for the arming of his supporters; Bolsonaro appears to be flirting with the return of the dictatorship. His erratic and impulsive behaviours seem to be a vile attempt to keep his supporters mobilized, armed and angry.
In Bolsonaro’s own words, this might just be a “little flu”, but as of now, one Brazilian citizen dies of COVID-19 every minute, as death tolls surpass 1,400 per day. Meanwhile, the WHO has claimed that the country is the new epicentre of the epidemic. Even so, the utter scale of this tragedy was unwarranted, as no country has grossly mismanaged and under reported the pandemic as Brazil has. Likewise, the government’s priority has shifted to discrediting democratic institutions, while advancing with deforestation, and defending hydroxychloroquine as a weak and dangerous solution to re-open the economy.
The executive has politicized science and ignored the epidemic, claiming to be protecting the economy while ridiculing the WHO and insulting the efforts of governors and mayors who fought for social-distancing. One would ask, who in their right mind would actively pursue to worsen and underreport a pandemic? And as no efforts are made, what are they possibly busy or occupied with? Here’s a rundown.
Delegitimizing democratic institutions to protect his allies from persecution
Brazil’s controversial Sérgio Moro, the Judge responsible for the “Lava Jato” corruption trials, quit his job as Bolsonaro’s Minister of Justice. Moro announced his resignation as Bolsonaro sought to make a political interference in the Federal Police, by replacing its superintendent. He appealed to courts, claiming that the interference aimed to control an investigation which targets 29 of Bolsonaro’s allies for the illicit spread of fake news.
Moro’s evidence of a politicized interference relied on a recording of a closed Ministerial Cabinet meeting, which gathered Bolsonaro’s ministers to discuss their concerns and the pandemic. To assess his claim, Supreme Court Judge Celso de Mello released the footage of the meeting, uncovering far more than what was expected: These include calls for arming the population, imprisoning governors, closing the Supreme Court and making advances on deforestation and environmental deregulation. If anything, this meeting made the government’s attitudes clear, as their priorities lied closer to attacking democratic institutions, rather than solving this health crisis.
Bolsonaro’s rebuttal argued that Moro would have agreed to meddling, so long as he was appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court, further clouding the moral reliability of both political figures. However, Political Analysts like Cleyton Monte, argue that Judge Moro’s inability and failure of maintaining his image as an anti-corruption national hero, has led him to jump ship.
So how does a Ministerial Meeting, Fake News, and Coronavirus link together?
In the Ministerial Meeting, Bolsonaro claimed “I want the people to be armed! Armed people shall never be enslaved! (...) Why am I arming the people? Because I don’t want a dictatorship! And we can’t hold it any longer! Is that not true?”. Bolsonaro is partly referring to his inability to act independently, given a decision taken by the Supreme Court, which ruled that he could not interfere with State decisions over social distancing and quarantine. Reflecting this same attitude, Bolsonaro has attended rallies calling for the return of the AI-5, a decree from the past dictatorship, which institutionalized torture, closed congress, and gave full autonomy for the executive to interfere where it so pleased.
It seems that Bolsonaro’s interventions in the federal police, threats to the Supreme Court, and calls for armament, are all tactics to rally and radicalize his loyal supporters, known (jokingly) by the opposition as the “bolsominions”. To this end, it comes as no surprise that Bolsonaro recently transferred 83,9 million reais to his ministry of propaganda, all of which were diverted from crucial cash transfer programs. His image, alleged patriotism and fake news seem to be the only cornerstones that sustain his tightly knit electoral base, supporters which fanatically defend his plea to reopen the economy.
In attending these public events to defend his image and discredit the Supreme Court, he has downplayed the consequences of COVID-19, while convincing his supporters that any opposition to the executive are anti-patriotic, socialist coalitions against Brazil’s growth. The ‘downplaying’ of the pandemic is escalated by the severe under-reporting of COVID-19 deaths, in fact, notary offices have registered an increase of 1,035% in deaths by respiratory diseases, but not of COVID-19 (these values rise as high as 7,000% in states like Pernambuco). Together with the University of São Paulo, Epidemiologist Paulo Lutofo claims that deaths are 168% higher than reported in the city of São Paulo. If anything, these statistics suggest that the pandemic is being severely under-tested and under-reported in Brazil.
Tragically, the Brazilian cities which have suffered the most are dense, with a long history of marginalizing and clustering the poor to precarious living conditions in the hills, serving as a dangerous and unmanageable environment to contain the pandemic. Due to this, under-reporting and under-testing suggests that the pandemic has been far more dangerous than is made visible. What exacerbates this issue is Bolsonaro’s decree that declares civil construction, gyms, beauty salons and other non-essential services as “essential”, meaning that poorer workers from the favelas risk bringing the pandemic back to their communities. Reflecting this same spirit, Bolsonaro had blocked the entry of 68 ventilators into the state of Maranhão, claiming to desire to distribute them (although having left them idle for a month) until the decision was overturned by the Supreme Court.
Hypocrisydroxichloroquine, The Ministry of Health Merry-go-Round and Environmental Mayhem
Not only has the executive disregarded the pandemic, but many of Bolsonaro’s supporters take it a step further and claim that COVID-19 is nothing but a communist hoax (which is also a belief of Ernesto Araújo, the Minister of Foreign Affairs), or a plan to destabilize the Brazilian government. The irony, however, is that the same people which discredit the existence of the virus, argue for its treatment with hydroxychloroquine. This treatment is particularly controversial as there is no evidence that it may cure the virus, yet there are trials which point out that there are dangerous, and even deadly side-effects.
According to Luiz H. Mandetta, one of the former health ministers, Bolsonaro’s support of the controversial treatment is a weak attempt to create confidence and tranquility to re-open the economy. Mandetta further comments that it has become the executive’s habit to politicize science, and claims to have resigned due to his differences with Bolsonaro’s beliefs. Since the start of the Pandemic, Brazil has had 3 Ministers of Health. One was fired and one resigned, as Bolsonaro has actively demanded them to fight against social-distancing, while supporting the use of hydroxychloroquine.
This desperate attempt to restart the economy falls in line with Bolsonaro’s ultra-liberal rhetoric, backed by his right-hand man Paulo Guedes, and the environmental antichrist Ricardo Salles. The recording of the Ministerial Meeting also revealed that Salles, the minister of the environment, has used COVID-19 to make significant advances in environmental deregulation and deforestation. In fact, deforestation in the Amazon is 55% higher than it was at the same period last year.
Unsurprisingly, the COVID-19 crisis has been a useful distraction to further develop deforestation while threatening democratic institutions. Meanwhile, Bolsonaro’s faithful support for hydroxychloroquine seems to be a weak attempt to reopen a fragile economy, aiming to please his ‘empresariado’ supporters (business class), who are facing the economic difficulties caused by social distancing.
Bolsonaro’s three pastimes: de-legitimize, rally, repeat.
While the country battles with a pandemic that kills one brazilian per minute, Bolsonaro’s focus lies in protecting his allies, arming and uniting his electoral base, and ensuring a return to the economy. In protecting hydroxychloroquine and attending public events, Bolsonaro is downplaying the effects of COVID-19, while mobilizing a fanatic base to defend his weak plea to reopen the economy.
Seemingly, the priority has become a process of de-legitimizing the supreme court as his allies are investigated, while discrediting the instructions of scientific authorities to downplay the effects of COVID-19. The gross mismanagement of the pandemic has shown Brazil’s blatant commitment to a conservative tradition, claiming to protect the business community, at the clear cost of its health system, its democratic institutions and the Brazilian people.
References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJETL2NNFXE
https://www.conjur.com.br/2020-abr-30/moro-denunciado-comissao-etica-exigir-cadeira-stf
https://istoe.com.br/bolsonaro-defende-armar-povo-e-diz-ser-facil-dar-golpe/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/05/brazil-coronavirus-covid-19-virus-doctor
https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/27/americas/coronavirus-brazil-bolsonaro-timeline-intl/index.html
JP is a second year Political Economy Student at King's, who is particularly interested in Brazilian current affairs and economic policy.