Thousands of Brazilians returned to the streets this Saturday to protest against President Jair Bolsonaro, as pressure against the government grows on suspicions of corruption in the negotiation for the purchase of vaccines against the coronavirus.
The ultra-right president will be investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office for allegedly not reporting alleged irregularities in these negotiations.
It is the third day of demonstrations against the government, which has been facing increasing pressure due to a parliamentary investigation into alleged omissions in the management of the pandemic, which has already left more than 500,000 dead in Brazil.
The largest marches were in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Brasilia, although other state capitals such as Belem (Pará, north), Recife (Pernambuco, northeast) and Maceió (Alagoas) also registered demonstrations with banners that read “Bolsonaro genocida”, “Impeachment already” and “Yes to vaccines”.
The protest this Saturday against the government of Brazil, in São Paulo. Photo: AFP
In the first two months of hearings, the Parliamentary Investigation Commission (CPI) installed by the Senate focused mainly on the government delay to seal agreements with pharmaceutical companies to purchase vaccines, while promoting the use of ineffective drugs against COVID – such as hydroxychloroquine – and Bolsonaro criticized the social distancing measures.
But since last week the testimony of an official of the Ministry of Health changed the focus of the investigations when declaring that last March he suffered “atypical pressure” to complete a purchase of three million doses of the Indian vaccine Covaxin that, in his opinion understand, it showed signs of irregularities, including a price much higher than that paid by Brazil for any other immunizer.
The official claimed to have personally transferred the suspicions to Bolsonaro, who would have promised to take the case to the Federal Police, something he apparently did not do.
Posters against Jair Bolsonaro for his management of the coronavirus pandemic. Photo: REUTERS
This motivated the opening on Friday of an investigation by the Attorney General against the president, who will find out whether or not Bolsonaro committed the crime of “prevarication”, by allegedly failing to report suspected wrongdoing.
The prosecution will have a term of 90 days to investigate the possible irregularities that the president may have incurred, the Supreme Court reported this Saturday.
That time was established by Judge Rosa Weber, a member of the Supreme Court who authorized the investigation, which must establish whether the president committed prevarication and other crimes in the negotiations for the purchase of the Covaxin vaccine, produced by the Indian pharmaceutical company Bharat Biotech. .
An image of Bolsonaro characterized with Adolf Hitler, in the Planalto Palace, the headquarters of the presidency in Brasilia, during a protest this Saturday. Photo: REUTERS
Other allegations that the ICC is investigating and that caused a stir this week came from a businessman who claimed to have received a bribe request of a director of the Ministry of Health while allegedly negotiating the sale of vaccines with the government, something that the official – who was removed from his position – denies.
Bolsonaro, who has been in power since 2019 and will possibly seek his re-election in 2022, denies that any act of corruption has occurred in his government and assures that the parliamentary commission is a “clown” to remove him from power.
The opposition presented this week a “super order of impeachment”, which condenses a hundred impeachment requests already presented before the Chamber of Deputies with more than 20 different accusations against the president.
Source: AFP and EFE
.
source https://pledgetimes.com/impeachment-ya-thousands-of-people-march-again-against-jair-bolsonaro-throughout-brazil/
Disqus comments