Brazil’s far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro is pushing Latin America’s largest nation to the brink of catastrophe. In a country of over 210 million people, Bolsonaro’s inaction and outright denial of the real threat that the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic presents is risking the premature and unnecessary death of hundreds of thousands of people. With the stakes so high, Bolsonaro is facing unprecedented opposition from millions of Brazilians as pressure builds for him to resign as president.
The prospect of coronavirus spreading uncontrollably through Brazil’s favelas (slums) is truly harrowing. A combination of poor infrastructure, a lack of clean running water, and the overcrowded conditions in these areas provide a fertile environment for coronavirus to spread quickly and potentially cause a humanitarian disaster. Every day that Bolsonaro refuses to implement the preventative measures needed to contain the virus is risking catastrophe and putting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in danger. In this life and death situation, the people of Brazil urgently need international solidarity as they resist this highly dangerous approach.
You can read the full article – ‘Bolsonaro is leading Brazil to coronavirus catastrophe’ – hereon The Canary, where it was first published on 2 April 2020.
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