Brazil

By Paul Antonopoulos It is only natural for many people to think Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro testing positive for COVID-19 is a karma for his insistence on minimizing the risks of the disease and a near non-existent management of the pandemic that has led to the death of more than 67,000 Brazilians. But from the perspective of political manoeuvring in Brazil, by receiving a positive test result could also work in Bolsonaro’s favor as his popularity plunges because of his handling of the pandemic. The pro-American leader could use the contagion to his advantage, and if all goes well, he will become the embodiment of the argument he has been defending since the beginning of the pandemic – the virus is nothing more than a “minor flu” that passes in a few day...

 By: Alvaro Michaels The resignation of health minister Nelson Teich, on 15 May, in protest at the preposterous medical suggestions of President Bolsonaro, less than a month after his predecessor was sacked, has shaken Bolsonaro’s position. The previous minister, Luiz Mandetta, refused to back Bolsonaro’s demands that shops and schools reopen. With more than 24,500 reported Covid-19 deaths (27 May), in a country where such reporting is hopelessly inadequate, Bolsonaro has sought to keep everyone working, whatever the personal cost. His contempt for workers’ lives is undeniable; when asked about the deaths he replied, ‘So what?’ The Covid-19 outbreak has dramatically exposed capitalism, and so its ruling classes, to a simple choice: protect workers or force them to work, irrespectiv...

 Brazil, with some 210 million inhabitants, is the seventh most populated country in the world. Brazil's government stopped publishing the total accumulated COVID-19 deaths and infections, in an attempt to hide the real extent of the disease in Latin America's largest country. RELATED: Brazil: Health Workers Protest Against Bolsonaro After months of criticism of President Jair Bolsonaro's handling of the pandemic, the government decided to withdraw a Ministry of Health website, which provided daily figures on deaths and infections. The site was launched a while later, but totals of infections by state and for the entire country no longer appeared. Now the website only shows the figures for the previous 24 hours. The national press has claimed that Brazilian statisti...

The far-right President Jair Bolsonaro threatened to pull Brazil out of the United Nations agency. Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro threatened to withdraw his country from the World Health Organization (WHO) if this United Nations agency maintains its current "ideological bias" in the strategy to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. RELATED: Democracy Defenders Are Pot-User Terrorists, Bolsonaro Says "The U.S. left the WHO and we are analyzing to do the same. Either the WHO works without ideological bias or we are going to withdraw as well," said Bolsonaro, although he did not explain the political behavior that the international organization supposedly has. Regarding epidemiological measures, however, the Brazilian president has expressed on multiple occasio...

On Thursday, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro urged business leaders to push for lifting lockdown orders in financial center Sao Paulo to help the economy. Latin American countries on Saturday reported a further increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths, as some are gradually reopening their economies. RELATED: Puebla Group Discusses Peace in Colombia and Pandemic Crisis Brazil reported a total of 15,633 deaths from COVID-19 and 233,142 confirmed cases, after 816 more patients died of the disease and 14,919 infections were detected in the past 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry. Sao Paulo, the most populous state, was hit the hardest, with 4,688 deaths and 61,183 confirmed cases, followed by Rio de Janeiro with 2,614 deaths and 21,601 cases, and Ceara with 1,614 death...

 -  The announcement by the Workers' Party (PT) comes after the resignation of Brazil's Health Minister, Nelson Teich, less than a month after taking office. The Workers' Party (PT) of Brazil will present a formal petition to initiate an impeachment against the far-right President Jair Bolsonaro for his mismanagement in the face of the health crisis that the country is going through due to COVID-19. RELATED: Brazil Second Health Minister Quits, Deepening COVID-19 Crisis In a statement, the left-wing party reported that its executive commission "decided to submit to the Chamber of Deputies a collective impeachment petition against President Jair Bolsonaro."  The PT also noted that the request will also be supported by social movements, civil society organiz...