It was due to his management of the pandemic and it was asked to suspend the president’s access to his social media accounts for citing false information about the covid
A Brazilian Senate commission on Tuesday approved a report that recommends indicting Jair Bolsonaro for serious crimes such as “crimes against humanity” for his management of the pandemic, and asked to suspend the president’s access to his social media accounts for citing information fake about covid.
As expected, 7 of the 11 senators who investigated the government’s management endorsed the text presented by Senator Renan Calheiros last week, and which also asked to incriminate 77 other people, including several ministers and former ministers, three of the president’s children already two companies.
After six months of tense sessions in a small room of the Senate in Brasilia analyzing the actions and omissions of the government, the Parliamentary Investigation Commission (CPI) approved the report that recommends indicting the president of a dozen crimes, among them “crimes against the humanity ”, favoring an epidemic that resulted in death and“ charlatanism ”.
At the end of the vote, the senators held a minute of silence in tribute to the more than 606,000 deaths from covid in Brazil.
From the beginning of the health emergency, Bolsonaro minimized the pandemic, defended ineffective drugs, such as hydroxychloroquine, and raised doubts about the efficacy of vaccines.
Initially, the senators delved into the responsibilities for the serious oxygen shortage that caused the death of dozens of patients by suffocation in Manaus, but later they delved into irregularities such as the “deliberate delay of the government to buy vaccines” or the existence of a “Parallel cabinet” of doctors who advised the president.
They also raised suspicions of corruption in the purchase – not carried out – of the Indian vaccine Covaxin, which earned Bolsonaro the opening of a judicial investigation for “prevarication” for not having denounced the case.
And they investigated the connections between the government and private health operators. There, the scandal of Prevent Senior jumped, an operator for the elderly reported to use patients as “human guinea pigs” to test ineffective drugs without their consent and to mask the number of deaths from coronavirus.
It is a “political report, without legal basis (…) The biggest scandal is a purchase of vaccines that was not carried out,” reacted Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, one of the president’s sons, also accused in the report.
The responsibility for the pandemic “belongs to many people, there are many accused, but it is mainly the president, that ‘serial killer’, who is obsessed with death,” said Calheiros.
The ICC does not have the power to make formal complaints.
But the report, with dozens of moving testimonies, will be sent to different bodies that can bring charges, such as the attorney general’s office or an international court.
Although it could have serious political and judicial consequences, analysts agree that its short-term impact will be “symbolic”, because Bolsonaro still has enough support in Congress to avoid an ‘impeachment’ and they see it unlikely that the attorney general will decide to impute it.
The popularity of the president, who assures that he is “not to blame for anything”, is at its lowest level since he assumed the presidency in 2019, due to the pandemic but also to the economic crisis, and the polls for 2022 show it behind of former leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The ICC senators also asked the Federal Supreme Court (STF) and the attorney general to suspend Bolsonaro’s access to his Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter accounts until further notice, after last Thursday he mentioned in a live connection false information about the coronavirus.
Specifically, Bolsonaro, a great adept of social networks where he has more than 40 million followers, cited false news about alleged official British government reports that “suggest” that those fully vaccinated are developing the AIDS disease “a lot faster than expected ”.
The video was later removed from Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. The video platform also decided to suspend Bolsonaro’s channel for a week.
The spread of false news is another crime attributed to the president in the report.
In August, the STF decided to investigate him for crimes of “slander” and “incitement to crime” for reasons related to his questioning without evidence of the electronic voting system in Brazil, among others.
Political scientist Mauricio Santoro sees it unlikely that this Tuesday’s request will succeed.
“I am skeptical. If we are based on the case (of Donald) Trump, we would have to see something very serious, like the invasion of the Capitol, for something like that to happen, “he told the AFP Santoro, alluding to the decision of Twitter and Facebook to exclude the former US president from their networks after those riots. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
