Jair Bolsonaro, President of Brazil
The Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPI), which investigated in the Brazilian Senate the management of covid-19, approved the final report, this Tuesday, and asked for 80 indictments for crimes during the pandemic, among them the President.
By seven votes to four, the final report prepared by rapporteur Renan Calheiros was approved, thus concluding the work of the CPI, which over the course of six months heard dozens of people and investigated signs of numerous irregularities, ranging from the defense of ineffective drugs against the disease by the Government, even possible cases of corruption in the negotiation of vaccines.
The following voted in favor of the report: Eduardo Braga (MDB-AM), Humberto Costa (PT-PE), Omar Aziz (PSD-AM), Otto Alencar (PSD-BA), Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede-AP), Renan Calheiros (MDB -AL) and Tasso Jereissati (PSDB-CE).
Voted against: Eduardo Girão (Podemos-CE), Jorginho Mello (PL-SC), Luis Carlos Heinze (PP-RS) and Marcos Rogério (DEM-RO).
The final version of the report, with 1279 pages, recommends the indictment of the Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro, for the commission of nine crimes.
The head of state was attributed the crimes of malfeasance; quackery; epidemic resulting in death; infringement of preventive sanitary measures; irregular employment of public funds; incitement to crime; falsification of private documents; crime of responsibility and crimes against humanity.
According to the final report, Bolsonaro “repeatedly encouraged the population to violate social distancing, opposed the use of masks, promoted crowds and tried to disqualify the vaccines”.
The document also included a request for Bolsonaro be “suspended” indefinitely on social networks, one of the principal’s main communication tools and which he has used to disseminate misinformation about the pandemic, as a false relationship between covid-19 vaccines and the development of AIDS.
Before the session, Renan Calheiros commented on this recent direct from Bolsonaro, having called the President a “serial killer who has a death compulsion and continues to repeat everything he has done before”.
Among the political figures who were not spared by the CPI rapporteur there are three children of the President – senator Flávio Bolsonaro, federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro and councilor Carlos Bolsonaro – who were accused of inciting crime.
Between the 80 indictments requested, two were against companies that signed contracts with the Ministry of Health (Necessary Medicines and VTCLog) and 78 were against people, including the head of State, ministers and former ministers of the current Government, deputies, businessmen, doctors, employees the governor of Amazonas, among others.
The opinion of the CPI will now be forwarded to different public bodies, such as the Chamber of Deputies, the Federal Police, the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU), the State Public Prosecutors, the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), the Federal Public Defender’s Office (DPU) and the International Criminal Court (ICC), in the latter case due to alleged crimes against humanity.
According to the Brazilian version of Deutsche Welle, in the case of the Head of State, investigating and denouncing him for the seven common crimes mentioned in the document would depend on the Attorney General of the Republic, Augusto Aras. The charges of crime of responsibility could lead to a request for removal, which depends on the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira.
If the Attorney General of the Republic does not take the initiative to proceed with the investigation, senators can file a subsidiary public criminal action with the Supreme Court, which allows interested parties to request the opening of a criminal action when the Public Ministry had the opportunity to do so. this, but did not, explains the same media.
“The CPI, after six months of work, ends its work with the report approved by the collegiate and now it is a new stage, forwarding it to the competent bodies so that we can do justice to the Brazilian people“, said goodbye to senator Omar Aziz, president of the CPI.
Aziz also pointed out that the CPI on the Pandemic managed to counteract the Government’s denial and bring political debate to Brazilians.
The senator also argued that the CPI found that Bolsonaro never intended to vaccinate the Brazilian population and said that “there has not been a single word of support and solidarity for the nation’s greatest leader” in the face of 600,000 more deaths caused by covid-19.
The President’s senators allied with the President refuted the thesis that Bolsonaro was responsible for the worsening of the pandemic in Brazil and cast separate votes in which they asked for an investigation into the actions of governors and mayors.
After proclaiming the result of the vote on the report, Omar Aziz responded to a request from Senator Eliziane Gama and asked for a minute of silence for the victims of the pandemic.
Brazilian opposition calls for removal of Bolsonaro
The opposition to the Brazilian government celebrated the approval of the report and called for the removal of Bolsonaro.
“Urgent! The CPI report has just been approved. ‘Impeachment’ and jail for Bolsonaro! It is the duty of the deputies continue the courageous work of the senators and put all the pressure to vote for the ‘impeachment’ of Bolsonaro. The crimes of responsibility of the President have killed hundreds of thousands of Brazilians and the Chamber cannot remain silent”, defended on Twitter the congressman Marcelo Freixo (Partido Socialista Brasileiro).
Ciro Gomes, who ran in the 2018 presidential election against Jair Bolsonaro and who should run again in 2022, also asked for the immediate removal of the current president.
The Workers’ Party (PT), political formation of former President Lula da Silva, which is appointed by polls as the winner of the next presidential elections against Bolsonaro, considered the session “historic” which resulted in the approval of the CPI report and demanded that the head of state “answer” for the crimes of which he is accused.
The leader of the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL) bench in the Chamber of Deputies, Talíria Petrone, also spoke about the committee’s opinion: “May all those who are guilty be held accountable”.
Federal deputy Ivan Valente (PSOL) asked the PGR to “not prevaricate” and accept the indictment requests made by the senators.
“Report approved! 80 indicted, including Bolsonaro and three sons, ministers and former ministers, ‘government’ parliamentarians, doctors from the parallel cabinet, ‘bloggers’ and businessmen who spread fake news. The PGR cannot ignore the serious accusations”, he appealed on Twitter.
“It was not omission that led to 605,884 deaths. It was the intentional action of those who ran Brazil in that period that led to this terrible mark, which is marked, which is recorded in history as one of the most macabre moments in the life of this young country called Brazil”, defended, in turn, the senator Rogério Carvalho (PT).
With over 606,246 deaths and 21.7 million infected by covid-19, Brazil is, in absolute numbers, one of the three countries most affected by the pandemic in the world, together with the United States and India.
