Brazil | The images of the famine crisis in Brazil trigger outcry:

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Photographer Domingos Peixoto has been covering Rio’s poverty, misery and bloody drug wars for three decades. Nevertheless, he was shocked when he discovered the people who collect slaughter waste.

Peixoto says he can not remember that there have ever been so many homeless people in the streets of Rio as now.

– I have not slept in two days. I try to process this, he says.

– People have to prepare their food with firewood, and this does not only apply to the homeless. Helsike, we have to find ways to convey these stories and see if we can help them, he says, according to The Guardian.

The corona pandemic has claimed 600,000 lives in South America’s most populous country. It is estimated that the number of starving Brazilians has increased by 19 million since the pandemic began. Countless Brazilians have plunged into poverty due to unemployment and rising food prices.

Three main reasons for the explosive poverty

Brazil expert and social geographer at the University of Oslo, Torkjell Leira, says there are three main reasons for the explosive increase in poverty. Firstly, the country’s economy is still doing poorly, secondly, Brazil lacks a structural policy to combat poverty and thirdly, the Bolsonaro government has gradually turned off the tap on social security schemes that came into place during the pandemic.

– Bolsonaro came to power partly due to a very deep economic crisis in Brazil. The starting point was that the people were dissatisfied with the authorities. The Brazilians had been looking forward to a new government, hoping that Brazil would finally get out of the ditch and return to a period of strong economic growth that they had in the early 2000s. But it has not happened, says Leira to Nettavisen.

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Leira says the pandemic is one of the main reasons for this.

– This is because Brazil is dependent on exporting raw materials such as minerals and agricultural goods. But much of the demand has gone down during the pandemic because the economic wheels have slowed down, he says.

– At the same time, Bolsonaro has done some good on the social side during the pandemic. He has started support schemes as social security for the very poorest families. But then this support tap has been gradually turned on again during the year. And this coupled with the fact that the economy is still stagnant, is the main reason why you see that poverty and inequality have exploded in Brazil, and that you suddenly see the need in the streets of Brazil much more clearly, says Leira.

– Only a decade ago, Brazil was a success story when it came to fighting poverty. Then the left pursued a conscious policy of poverty reduction and equalization of social inequalities, where tens of millions of Brazilians got better financially, says Leira.

– This is not the case with the current Bolsonaro government, which is much more right-liberal in its economic policy. But due to the pandemic, the government was almost forced to stimulate the economy with state funds, as Norway, the EU, the USA and many other countries in the world have done, he says.

– The hunger crisis has returned

The country’s controversial president Jair Bolsonaro has received massive criticism for his miserable handling of the corona pandemic. Senator Humberto Costa, who is on the left, recently said during a congressional hearing that the photos of the award-winning photographer reveal the social tragedy that is now unfolding in Brazil under Bolsonaro’s rule.

– Unemployment is rising. Inequalities are growing. Poverty is growing. The hunger crisis has returned. This is what the government has done with our country, he says.

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