Brazil senators have concluded that Jair Bolsonaro should be charged for nine crimes, including charlatanism, malfeasance and crimes against humanity in the final report of their probe into the government’s handling of the pandemic.
A Senate commission presented its report after six months of heated hearings and discussions, which included testimony from the four men who served as health ministers since the start of the pandemic, Bolsonaro allies and foes, companies that pushed for unproven early treatments and Covid patients.
Bolsonaro is almost universally blamed for Brazil’s erratic handling of the pandemic, dismissing it as just a flu, shunning face masks and vaccines and encouraging his supporters to ignore restrictions imposed by states and cities to halt the spread of the virus. The country has more than 600,000 deaths from the disease, second only to the U.S. globally, and counts more than 21 million cases.
The official report accuses the president of ignoring scientific evidence, acting with “obvious disregard” for people’s lives, as evidenced in the “deliberate delay” in the purchase of vaccines. It also says he worked “strongly” to disseminate fake news about the pandemic. The deputy in charge of the probe, opposition Senator Randolfe Rodrigues, said the charges presented could carry a maximum sentence of 78 years behind bars -- though it’s unlikely Bolsonaro would be jailed while serving his term. “With this behavior, the government, which had a legal duty to act, agreed with the death of millions of Brazilians,” said an excerpt of the document presented by Senator Renan Calheiros, the probe’s rapporteur. “Bolsonaro’s administration unquestionably undermined public health.”
The probe also suggested indictments of 67 other people and companies, including current and former ministers, doctors who prescribed ineffective drugs and three of Bolsonaro’s sons -- senator Flavio, lawmaker Eduardo and councilman Carlos -- for encouraging crimes by spreading fake news.
Senators still have to vote on the report, which is expected to happen next week. The Senate cannot propose formal lawsuits against Bolsonaro, but rather suggest charges to the prosecutor general, Augusto Aras. Aras, who was appointed by the president, can then decide whether to pursue or drop the charges. An investigation of the cases could potentially lead to an impeachment request, though that’s seen as highly unlikely -- lower house Speaker Arthur Lira, who is the only person authorized to initiate such proceedings, is a Bolsonaro ally who has been sitting on dozens of requests for months.
The report had previously been expected to accuse Bolsonaro of more serious offenses, including murder by omission. But those charges were dropped at the last minute amid intense backlash among senators that the rapporteur had overreached.
Bolsonaro, one of the only global leaders who has refused to get vaccinated, has amped up his confrontational style during the pandemic. As deaths and cases were piling up, he frequently made headlines with comments like “everyone dies, what do you want me to do?” and “Brazilians jump and dive in open sewers and nothing happens.” He pushed unproven drugs including hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as a solution to the outbreak, while casting doubts on vaccines and government data and bashing lockdowns.
Early in its probe, the Senate honed in on the government’s delay in acquiring vaccines, which led to a slow and late start of immunizations in Latin America’s largest economy. The investigation uncovered that Bolsonaro’s administration had ignored repeated offers from Pfizer Inc. to buy shots in 2020. Accusations of alleged corruption in vaccine contracts were also part of the probe.
The immunization efforts have since picked up. Bolsonaro, who is up for re-election next year, has seen his popularity slide to record lows amid the pandemic and its ensuing economic toll. Inflation that’s surged past 10% amid soaring food and fuel costs have further eroded his standing, and the leader is trailing former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, his main political rival, in most voter polls so far.
In congressional probes in Brazil, “everything or nothing can happen,” said Antonio Carlos de Almeida Castro, a criminal lawyer who has worked for years for dozens of investigated politicians. In this case, he said, people will be frustrated if nothing happens -- which he thinks will be the case. “The lower house speaker doesn’t have to put an impeachment to a vote, and the prosecutor general has no obligation to accept the charges,” he said. “The charges will be in the hands of two people with imperial powers who may simply do nothing.”
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