Brazilian Senators are pushing for the President, Jair Bolsonaro, to be charged with various crimes regarding his inadequate response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. This announcement came after 6 months of careful deliberation and investigation by a specialized committee, whose primary focus was to analyze the Government’s response to the pandemic. The committee, made up of 11 Senators, procured over 1,000 documents and 60 testimonies which “abundantly demonstrated that the federal government was silent and chose to act in a non-technical and reckless manner” in handling this public health crisis. With a vote of 7-4, the committee endorsed a report which calls for the prosecution of Bolsonaro, alongside 77 other individuals and 2 companies. The finalized report charged Bolsonaro with a total of 9 crimes including charlatanism, misuse of public funds, falsification of private documents, and crimes against humanity. President Bolsonaro claimed complete innocence to the accusations brought against him and went further to criticize the committee and its work as a “joke”.

These charges carry  a heavy weight but they aren’t without merit. Brazil has recorded more than 600,000 deaths from  the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming the second largest death toll globally, behind only the United States. Despite this, Bolsonaro continuously made flippant and dismissive comments regarding the pandemic. For example, he constantly compared the deadly virus to the flu and claimed the dangers of the virus were “exaggerated”. While his comments are certainly distasteful and harmful, both his actions and the actions of his administration truly display the basis for charges outlined in the Senate endorsed report. 

Bolsonaro has infamously rejected national lockdowns and other restrictions as advised by International Health Organizations to deter the spread of the virus. He went so far as to label mayors and governors who enforced such lockdowns and other safety measures as “criminals”. Backed by his Ministry of Health, Bolsonaro persisted that Hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug, and other cocktails of drugs serve as a valid treatment for Covid-19, despite numerous scientific studies that disprove this. The Ministry of Health had also failed to acquire and distribute adequate amounts of oxygen despite a forewarning of a surge from an oxygen supplier. The administration decided instead to continue pushing the use of various cocktails of drugs to combat the surge in critical cases. In order to continue pushing this narrative, Bolsonaro and other political allies used various social media platforms to spread this agenda which only further propagated the conspiracy theories and false information spread about the pandemic. Bolsonaro’s administration stood firmly behind the unproven remedies for COVID-19, even once vaccines were becoming widely available. In fact, the administration had 100 ignored emails from Pfizer, who had offered vaccines to Brazil at half the price it had charged the United States. The vaccine campaign was belatedly launched in Brazil following a deal made by the São Paulo state governor, which secured Chinese- based vaccines. 

This brief overview of the Bolsonaro administration’s response to the pandemic helps to highlight the case behind the crimes brought against Bolsonaro. However, the decision on whether or not action is taken will be made by the Brazilian Prosecutor General, Augusto Aras. Aras was appointed by Bolsonaro and is expected to protect the President by failing to open an investigation. If action isn’t taken by Aras, there are still two methods by which action could be brought against Bolsonaro. The first would be to begin the request for an impeachment proceeding against Bolsonaro. This would not be the first attempt at impeachment against Bolsonaro, as there have been more than 100 other requests to pursue impeachment. The other option, introducing the case to the International Criminal Court, is less concrete and doesn’t offer a succinct path to implementation.

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