Brazil now has the highest daily death toll from the coronavirus in the world, the economic recession deepens and the president, his sons and most loyal supporters are under investigation for corruption and political influence. A ferocious Jair Bolsonaro digs in further and flirts with military intervention.
More than a thousand new deaths are reported every day, victims of the disease that he puts away as ‘the flu’. Brazil is currently the largest hotspot of the pandemic after the US; some 40,000 Brazilians have now died from the effects of the coronavirus, and the number of confirmed infections is growing rapidly.
Brazilian President Bolsonaro shrugs. People just die once, he said recently. “We are sorry for all the deaths, but this is everyone’s fate after all.”
The far-right Brazilian president is arguing with state governors about ending lockdowns (he’s in favor), is not socialdistancing, and is promoting unproven drugs. His government earlier this month decided to stop publishing any totals of confirmed corona infections and deaths.
At the same time, the President tries to keep himself and his family out of the sight of investigative authorities.
Bolsonaro sees himself as surrounded by enemies of the established order that he fights as a populist. The former paratrooper and his closest advisors have always been high on the military dictatorship that ruled the country between 1964 and 1985, but now that he is under great pressure from multiple directions, that rhetoric is getting sharper edges.
Eduoardo Bolsonaro (35), the third son of the president and member of the Brazilian House of Representatives, recently predicted a “breaking point” for Brazilian democracy in an interview with a popular blogger. “It is no longer a question of whether, but when that will happen,” he said.
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Eduardo Bolsonaro. (Photo: ProShots)
President is trying to protect his sons
It was not the first time that the President’s four sons had caused a commotion. They have turned out to be magnets for controversies and scandals, just like Dad. His attempts to hold their hands over his head only make him politically more vulnerable.
Flávio Bolsonaro (39), the eldest son, is a senator for Rio de Janeiro. He is accused of fraud and has close ties to the paramilitary death squad that was responsible for the brutal murder of black city councilor and LGBTI activist Marielle Franco in 2018.
President Bolsonaro fired federal police officers charged with investigating Flávio and tried to replace the Rio police chief with a loyalist. Because of problems with “management and productivity,” said the president. That break with the tradition that the head of state does not directly interfere in the composition of the police summit went too far for the Supreme Court. Bolsonaro was whistled back.
Carlos (37), son two and Rio city councilor, is said to have used the same eclipse trick as Flávio and is also under investigation. Also, like his younger brother Eduardo, he has been accused of spreading fake news on social media, where he has many followers.
Supreme Court is thorn in Bolsonaro’s side
The biggest brake on the President’s agenda is the Brazilian Supreme Court. That condemned the government’s “statistical coup” last Tuesday and ordered the daily corona figures to be published again.
The Supreme Court also ruled last month video recording of a cabinet meeting that featured a cursing and rampant Bolsonaro. “I’m not going to sit around and wait for them to screw up my family or a friend of mine for fun,” he said.
A third blow that the chief justices dealt to the president was the decision that the investigation into the spread of fake news and libel campaigns against the Supreme Court, in which his sons Carlos and Eduardo Bolsonaro figure prominently, could proceed.
The federal police raided six states and confiscated computers, telephones and documents. Some of those addresses were linked to Bolsonaro’s influential allies.
The president and his colleagues were enraged. They compared the raids to Kristallnacht and called the media Nazis. The National Security Adviser, retired General Augusto Heleno, warned of the “unpredictable consequences for national stability” and Bolsonaro appeared before the cameras with a tie printed with assault rifle images. “We don’t get a day like yesterday. Enough!” he said. “We’ve reached the limit!”
Departure of justice minister accelerated political crisis
The issues surrounding the presidential offspring have been going on for some time, but they gained momentum after the departure of Justice Minister Sérgio Moro in late April.
Moro was judge of Operation Carwash, one of the largest anti-corruption investigations in global history. In the run-up to the 2018 presidential election, he took former left-wing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva out of the running by putting him in jail, paving the way for Bolsonaro, who presented himself as an anti-corruption agent during the campaign.
It gave Moro heroic status among the President’s loyal right-wing supporters and a place in his cabinet.
The 47-year-old former judge gave a forty-minute speech, which struck like a bomb. He resigned because of Bolsonaro’s “unacceptable and inappropriate” interference with the Brazilian federal police, he said. The president is said to have entrusted the minister with the intention to replace the director general of the federal police in Rio with someone he knew personally and who could immediately call to obtain information from confidential police reports.
The Supreme Court announced it would investigate whether Bolsonaro was abusing his office by attempting to dismiss the chief of police. If that can be proven, impeachment proceedings against the President are possible next steps.
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The resigned Brazilian justice minister, Sergio Moro. (Photo: ProShotS)
Ministerial revolving door in Bolsonaro’s cabinet
Justice Minister Moro was the second popular administrator within a month to leave the field. A few weeks earlier, Bolsonaro fired Health Minister Luiz Mandetta for openly opposing the government’s position in the corona crisis – a point of concern that Moro believed was also a concern.
Mandetta’s successor Nelson Teich argued with Bolsonaro about reopening the economy and using the malaria drug chloroquine against the coronavirus. He didn’t last as a minister for a month. Bolsonaro appointed a general, Eduardo Pazuello, as a temporary replacement.
Polls unfavorable for Bolsonaro
Bolsonaro’s popularity has plummeted, recent polls say. Just under 40 percent of Brazilians support the president’s policies – the lowest score since taking office. A third of the electorate can be counted among its strong supporters, but more and more grumbles can also be heard in that corner.
That seems to be mainly due to Bolsonaro’s corona approach. A majority of respondents say they believe the abuse of power surrounding the police chief’s intended dismissal, but do not believe that the president should be impeached for that.
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Supporters of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro demonstrate in São Paulo on May 3. (Photo: ProShots)
Fear of military intervention
Critics of Bolsonaro are concerned about his flirtation with the armed forces. Half of the ministers in the current cabinet now have a military background and some three thousand active military personnel have taken up administrative positions.
A classic coup is thought unlikely, but his opponents do not rule out the possibility that the President will use the military to sideline the Supreme Court or parliament if they threaten to knock him out of the saddle.
Others say that Bolsonaro is particularly vocal in trying to mobilize his supporters – about a third of the electorate. They are more concerned that the President and his supporters are eroding democratic institutions.
“How does a democracy die?” asked former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2002) in an interview with El País. “It doesn’t have to be a military coup. The president himself can acquire extraordinary powers.”
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