Bolsonaro described as “clowning” the commission that asked to indict him for crimes for his management in the pandemic

President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday called the investigative commission “clowning” that recommended indicting him for crimes such as “crimes against humanity” for his management of the pandemic and added that his actions harmed Brazil.

“Anyone with a little discretion knows that that was a clown,” he said in an interview with Jovem Pan radio.

“The ICC (Parliamentary Investigation Commission) caused harm, not to me, who am here to receive as well (…). But for outside of Brazil, the image is terrible. They believe that we are living a dictatorship, that I am arresting journalists, that I killed people in (the pandemic) of the coronavirus, “he added.

The president also warned that the ICC’s findings could discourage “investing” or “doing tourism” in Brazil. “That hurts us all, it impacts the Stock Market, it impacts the dollar,” he said.

On Tuesday, 7 of the 11 senators who investigated the government’s management of the pandemic endorsed the text presented by Senator Renan Calheiros last week, in which he recommended indicting the president for a dozen crimes, including “crimes against humanity “, Favoring an epidemic that resulted in death and” charlatanism. “

It also asks to indict 77 other people, including several ministers and former ministers, three of the president’s children and two companies.

After the presentation of the report, the president received the support of former US President Donald Trump, who said that “Brazil is lucky to have a man like Jair Bolsonaro working for the country.”

For six months, the ICC analyzed the actions and omissions of the government during the pandemic, which left 606,000 dead; They investigated the death of dozens of patients due to the lack of oxygen in Manaus, irregularities such as the “deliberate delay of the government to buy vaccines” and the existence of a “parallel cabinet” of doctors who advised the president.

They also raised suspicions of corruption in the purchase – not made – of the Indian vaccine Covaxin and uncovered the scandal of Prevent Senior, a health operator for the elderly accused of using patients as “human guinea pigs” to test ineffective drugs without their consent. and to make up the number of deaths from coronavirus.

This Wednesday, the senators delivered the final report to the attorney general, Augusto Aras, considered an ally of the president, and announced that they will hand it over to various organizations -such as the Federal Police, the Court of Accounts or the International Criminal Court- for the investigations to continue. and eventually press charges.

Although it could have serious political and judicial consequences, analysts agree that the impact of the ICC decision in the short term will be “symbolic”, because Bolsonaro still has sufficient support in Congress to avoid an “impeachment” and they see it unlikely that the Attorney General decides to impute it. (I)