Bolsonaro’s conviction brings vindication for some Brazilians who lost loved ones to COVID-19
SAO PAULO (AP) — Simone Guimaråes, a 52-year-old retired teacher in Rio de Janeiro, lost at least five relatives to Covid-19: her husband, her sister, two brothers-in-law and her grandchild’s godfather. He also lost friends and neighbors.
He woke up on Saturday with the news that the Brazilian Supreme Court had made this decision. Preventive arrest of former President Jair BolsonaroWho does he blame for his losses? Bolsonaro intends to flee days before his 27-year inauguration, a judge claims prison sentence Allegedly attempting a coup after losing the 2022 presidential election Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“This is a small start to getting justice,” he said. “Impunity must end at some point. We have endured too much in his case.”
Social media was filled Saturday with posts remembering the lives lost to COVID-19, even though the legal case in which the Supreme Court convicted Bolsonaro in September had nothing to do with the former president’s pandemic response.
Guimaraes followed every vote in Bolsonaro’s trial. While he was in the hospital with his sister in 2021, Bolsonaro, who was president at the time, imitated patients who were out of breath.
“I pressed my forehead against my sister’s forehead. She said, ‘I can’t breathe,'” Guimarees recalled. Later his sister died. “I don’t even dare say your name.”
Like many other Brazilians who lost relatives to the disease, he now feels implicitly vindicated. They say Bolsonaro’s conviction and imprisonment purifies their souls without providing justice for their suffering.
“I am very afraid that these convictions for crimes related to the coup will reduce convictions for other crimes committed during the pandemic,” said Diego Orsi, a 41-year-old translator who lives in Sao Paulo, the country’s largest city. “I think the Nuremberg trials convicted the Nazis of invading Poland, not of genocide.”
We grow up and then we fall apart
Orsi grew up alongside his cousin Henrique Cavalari. They were like brothers. In old family photos, the two are seen blowing out birthday candles together.
Cavalari introduced Orsi to rock bands when he was a teenager. However, they differed from each other politically. While Orsi described himself as a progressive, Cavalari supported Bolsonaro.
“My uncle always leaned to the right, and my cousin grew up with that mentality as well,” Orsi said. “He is convinced that there is nothing to worry about during the pandemic, that social distancing restricts freedom and that the priority should be to protect the economy.”
Cavalari ran a motorcycle repair shop and was a staunch Bolsonaro supporter. He could not afford to close his shop, and the far-right leader’s rhetoric resonated with mechanics who attended his rallies even during the deadliest months of the epidemic.
In June 2021, Thousands of supporters of the president We rode a motorcycle with Bolsonaro in Sao Paulo. That same month, Cavalari died due to complications from COVID-19. He was 41 years old.
Orsi wasn’t 100 percent sure if Cavalari was at the motorcycle rally, but said his cousin had attended similar events before.
“He was newly married, he was paying the rent for his job. He needed money,” said Orsi, reminding that he could not visit Cavalari in the hospital’s intensive care unit because only first-degree relatives were allowed. “But I was told that one of the last things he said was to warn his parents to be careful that the disease was serious.”
Orsi’s family, like the rest of Brazil, is divided, and Orsi believes Bolsonaro’s conviction will not change public opinion or reconcile the other families.
Feelings of grief and revenge
Bolsonaro denied wrongdoing during his trial. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the legal team’s appeal, but another appeal could come this week. Before his arrest on Saturday, he had been under house arrest since August.
“I would have preferred him to be arrested for allowing 700,000 Brazilians to die, many of whom could have been prevented perhaps by accelerating the vaccine rollout,” Orsi told The Associated Press. “But the fact that he is tried and convicted of other crimes cleanses our soul. It gives us the feeling that justice has been served.”
Brazil has had more than 700,000 deaths attributed to Covid-19 since 2020; this was the second highest death toll in the world after the United States.
Epidemiologists at the Federal University of Pelotas estimated that 4 out of 5 of these deaths could be prevented in 2021 if the Bolsonaro administration supports containment measures and accelerates vaccine purchases.
Bolsonaro’s government has ignored repeated calls to sign additional vaccine contracts. He publicly questioned the safety of vaccines and mocked contract terms; He once suggested that Pfizer recipients would have no legal recourse if they “turned into crocodiles.” Brazil faces vaccine shortage and doses were released in phases based on age and health risk.
Cavalari died just a few weeks before he was eligible to receive the first dose, Orsi said.
The same thing happened to the father of Fábio de Maria, a 45-year-old teacher living in Sao Paulo.
“When he was hospitalized, he was about 15 days away from being eligible for the first vaccine,” De Maria said. “This delay proved fatal to him and others.”
His father died in May 2021 at the age of 65. De Maria blames Bolsonaro and other officials he believes were complicit, but said the former president’s conviction did not bring justice.
“A lot of people think he’s right, and I don’t blame them. Bolsonaro has stirred up a lot of anger in a lot of people, including me,” he said. “But I do not believe that justice has been achieved for those who died from Covid-19, because that is not the reason why Bolsonaro was convicted.”
Reaching a political turning point
The pandemic has marked a shift in Bolsonaro’s popularity. During his 2022 campaign, which he lost to Lula, television ads replayed footage of Bolsonaro mocking patients struggling to breathe, a common Covid-19 symptom, and featured comments disparaging the victims and their families.
“Bolsonaro lost because of his denialist stance during the pandemic. The gap was very narrow,” said Eduardo Scolese, political editor of the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper during Bolsonaro’s term and author of the book “1461 Dias na Trincheira” (“1461 Days in the Trenches”).
The federal government was expected to coordinate Brazil’s early response, but Bolsonaro has consistently downplayed the crisis, Scolese said.
“No one knew how long this would last. Experts called for distance as they joined the crowd,” Scolese said.
Bolsonaro lost control
While the Brazilian leader resisted public health measures, state and local governments implemented their own measures. The dispute reached the Supreme Court, which ruled that states and municipalities can enact distancing, quarantine and other health rules.
“That’s when Bolsonaro lost control. He started to believe that everyone was against him, especially the Supreme Court,” Scolese said.
One in October 2021 Senate committee recommends impeaching Bolsonaro For acts and omissions during the pandemic, including quackery, incitement to crime, misuse of public funds and crimes against humanity.
The case lay dormant until September, when Supreme Court Judge Flávio Dino ordered the police to expand the investigation. The case is ongoing and has been sealed.
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Eléonore Hughes reported from Rio de Janeiro.
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