Barsil: De Ja Vu

BRAZIL

Déjà vu

Brazil’s Supreme Court greenlit an investigation into President Jair Bolsonaro, accusing the leader of interfering with federal police probes, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.

The 60-day probe will investigate allegations of corruption and obstruction of justice by Bolsonaro and will likely plunge the country into a political crisis as it grapples with an escalating outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

Last week, popular Justice Minister Sergio Moro resigned after accusing the president of firing the country’s top police official to hinder investigations into his family and his supporters.

Two of Bolsonaro’s sons are under investigation for embezzlement.

Bolsonaro denied the allegations, adding that it is within his power to choose the nation’s police chief, who serves at his pleasure.

Moro’s departure has split the president’s conservative support base. Meanwhile, his accusations could form the basis for an impeachment trial against Bolsonaro.

If such a proceeding were to occur, Bolsonaro could become the country’s third president to be removed from office since the end of Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1980s, most recently in 2016.

Is Imagination The Cure For Isolation?

https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2020/04/23/is-imagination-the-cure-for-isolation?utm_campaign=the-economist-today&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_source=salesforce-marketing-cloud&utm_term=2020-04-23&utm_content=article-link-8

Ecuador: Nowhere To Rest

ECUADOR

Nowhere to Rest

The coronavirus is creating few tragedies worse than Ecuador’s.

A few weeks ago, Eduardo Javier Barrezueta Chávez told the Guardian that authorities in the city of Guayaquil were leaving the dead body of his father and others in the street. In temperatures higher than 86 degrees, their lack of action was threatening to kick off a second public health crisis during the pandemic.

Little has changed since then.

The virus has hit Guayaquil worse than anywhere else in Latin America, reported the New York Times. Hospitals and other services are overwhelmed. The country’s system of funeral homes and mortuaries has collapsed. There is a shortage of coffins.

“They are not only dying from (COVID-19),” said Mayor Cynthia Viteri. “People with diabetes, hypertension, heart disease are dying from a lack of medical attention because the hospitals are saturated with the critically ill – there aren’t places where women can give birth without getting infected.”

Cars line up outside emergency cemeteries to bury their dead, reported Reuters. Some keep the bodies of their loved ones in their homes for days. That could potentially spread the virus, according to a study on corpses infecting medical examiners in Thailand. An Ecuadoran reporter spoke to the Committee to Protect Journalists about how her cousin bought formaldehyde to cover up the smell of her late uncle’s body in their living room.

Others have taken to burying their loved ones in public parks, not only because of a lack of space but due to financial constraints, VICE News reported. The government has promised to bury the dead individually but progress has been slow.

Indigenous folks who can leave Guayaquil, the country’s largest city and its financial center, are flocking to their remote villages in the Amazon, Al Jazeera wrote. Others are self-isolating to avoid spreading the virus to their families.

Making matters worse, as Bloomberg explained, are Ecuador’s “serious co-morbidities” of foreign debt, plunging oil prices, inveterate poverty and political polarization. The country uses the US dollar, too. The greenback keeps the economy stable in turbulent times but ties the hands of policymakers who might print money to keep the economy going during crises.

The pandemic, meanwhile, has forced mining and other important industries to produce less when Ecuador desperately needs foreign cash.

And Ecuador is only at the beginning.

W

Brasil: Freedom Of Infection

BRAZIL

Freedom of Infection

Hundreds of people – including the president – took to the streets of the capital, Brasilia, Sunday demanding the army intervene to reopen the country, Al Jazeera reported.

The protest follows others over the weekend in which demonstrators in major cities demanded state governors resign over lockdown measures to contain the pandemic, the broadcaster reported separately.

President Jair Bolsonaro set off a furor last week by firing his health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who had been promoting isolation measures to curb the outbreak. Meanwhile, polls show Mandetta is far more popular with the public than the president.

Bolsonaro has been a fierce critic of the stay-at-home policies, arguing that they would harm the economy.

The country of 211 million has the highest number of confirmed cases in Latin America with more than 37,000 infected and more than 2,400 deaths.

Barsil: Gangs To The Rescue

BRAZIL

Gangsters to the Rescue

Drug gangs have imposed curfews in the “favelas” (slums) of Rio de Janeiro.

They had to – no one else was doing anything.

Out went the “baile funk” dance parties, drug markets and other hallmarks of the so-called City of God slum, which registered its first case of the novel coronavirus in late March.

“We’re imposing a curfew because nobody is taking this seriously,” gangsters told residents via loudspeakers, according to MercoPress, the South Atlantic news agency. “Whoever is in the street screwing around or going for a walk will receive a corrective and serve as an example. Better to stay home doing nothing. The message has been (delivered).”

Contrast that clear and forceful policy with the advice of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has criticized self-isolation measures designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus, Reuters reported.

It’s become so troubling, that Facebook and Twitter, breaking with their policy of not interfering with free speech on social media recently deleted some of Bolsonaro’s posts because they spread disinformation that could harm people.

In one post, Bolsonaro claimed the drug hydroxychloroquine was an effective treatment for the virus, wrote Tech Crunch. President Trump has also touted the drug, which American officials have permitted doctors to prescribe even as they said they lack definitive proof that it works. In another, CNET explained, the Brazilian president questioned whether social distancing worked, contradicting global public health recommendations.

Bolsonaro has become the boss of the coronavirus-denial movement, wrote the Atlantic magazine. Describing the virus that has caused a worldwide crisis as a “little flu,” he’s organized rallies of his supporters. Brazilians, he claimed, “never catch anything” even when they dive into sewage. He thinks the pandemic is just media shenanigans. He also noted, “We’re all going to die one day,” the Associated Press reported. That last assertion is incontrovertible, of course.

The president is clearly worried about the economy tanking, destroying livelihoods and perhaps his political fortunes, too, Slate reported.

Postponing action might turn out to be catastrophic, however. Bolsonaro brought an infected aide to Florida to meet Trump, Foreign Policy magazine wrote.

Unlike Trump, though, many Brazilians, including those in slums, don’t have access to clean running water or proper medical attention. Brazil held its famous Carnival in late February, meaning the virus had an opportunity to circulate in a massive pool of revelers who then dispersed to different corners of the sprawling South American nation of just over 200 million. Outbreaks are starting to appear. On Tuesday, the country recorded more than 12,000 cases and 582 deaths.

In a Washington Post op-ed, University of Bath Anthropologist Rosana Pinheiro-Machado, a native of Brazil, noted that Brazilians have taken to banging pots and pans outside their windows in protest against Bolsonaro’s head-in-the-sand approach. She called for his impeachment.

Some say that is not mere fantasy anymore.

When it is gangsters taking control to ensure public safety, people should question why that is, say analysts. Brazil, which has seen years of turmoil, doesn’t necessarily need another political crisis. But if one is necessary to deal with the pandemic, it might be in order.

W