Do everything to turn the page as quickly as possible. Above all, do not leave the terms “Crimes against humanity”, “intentional negligence”, “Inexcusable delays” to settle for a little longer in public opinion. Jair Bolsonaro had a strategy ready, Wednesday, October 20, to try to forget the publication of the damning report of the parliamentary commission of inquiry (ICC) in the Senate on the management of the pandemic.
The president spent the day presenting his new social program, created to replace the legendary Bolsa familia (“family grant”) set up fifteen years ago by his opponent, ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said Lula. As if by a miracle, the program Auxilio Brasil (“help Brazil”), announced for months, was revealed the same day that “The disastrous and criminal management of the pandemic by the Bolsonaro government” was all over the media.
This time, however, it is not certain that the parade of the president of the extreme right works. A social program, as welcome as it is, can hardly make us forget that nearly 127,000 deaths due to Covid-19 (out of 604,000 deaths to date) could perhaps have been avoided if the Head of State had acted differently. Accused of having “Deliberately exposed” Brazilians at a “Mass contamination” by the Covid-19, Jair Bolsonaro said to himself “Guilty of absolutely nothing”. “We know we did the right thing from the start”, he insisted, during an official ceremony in the state of Ceara (northeast).
The final report of the ICC, presented Wednesday, however, designates it as “The main responsible for the mistakes of the government during the pandemic”. In addition to the “crime against humanity”, which can be tried at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, the rapporteur, the centrist Senator Renan Calheiros, has retained nine charges ranging from “charlatanism” to “incitement to crime ”, including“ breaches of sanitary measures ”and“ prevarication ”.
“Parallel cabinet”
This conclusion, based both on scientific work and a detailed analysis of the president’s attitude, should compel justice to act. For the time being, the senators are nevertheless lucid about the meager chances of soon seeing the president in the box of the accused. “Jair Bolsonaro benefits from immunity and is today protected by the public prosecutor, who remains one of his best allies. But this immunity is not eternal and our work is addressed to Brazilian and international justice, explain to World the Senator of the Workers’ Party, Humberto Costa. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the International Criminal Court will receive a copy of this report. We now wish to create an observatory of this commission in the Senate to support judicial inquiries. “
You have 68.68% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.