What coronavirus? Brazil cabinet video triggers outcry
On April 22, Brazil was fast becoming a new coronavirus flashpoint, but President Jair Bolsonaro and his cabinet barely mentioned the pandemic in a video-taped meeting that has triggered outrage and fueled a potentially explosive investigation.
Indeed, one of the few mentions of COVID-19 in the video — released Friday as part of a probe into whether the far-right president obstructed justice by firing the federal police chief — was when the environment minister said the government should take advantage of the distraction created by the pandemic to relax the country’s environmental protection rules.
Littered with obscenities, insults, tirades and potentially incriminating statements, the video triggered outcry in Brazil, where many questioned the government’s policy-making amid a pandemic that has killed more than 21,000 people here.
“It’s two hours full of swear words and delirium, derision and disrespect for the country. Brazil is going through its worst crisis in decades, and the president never mentions the pandemic as a problem that concerns him,” wrote respected columnist Miriam Leitao in newspaper Globo.
“The absence is shocking.”
The video’s existence emerged when popular justice minister Sergio Moro resigned two days after the meeting, accusing Bolsonaro of inappropriate “political interference” in the federal police.
Police are reportedly investigating multiple cases involving Bolsonaro and his inner circle, including allegations his son Carlos, a Rio de Janeiro city councilor, oversaw a fake-news campaign to benefit his father.
In the video, Bolsonaro rails against the federal police for failing to give him information and says, “I’m not going to wait for them to fuck my family and friends.”
