Brazil's Bolsonaro attacks coronavirus lockdowns as supporters take to streets

[Judi Lynn]

APRIL 19, 2020 / 5:06 PM / UPDATED 3 HOURS AGO

Maria Carolina Marcello, Leonardo Benassatto
2 MIN READ

BRASILIA/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday again attended a public rally and attacked lockdown measures meant to fight the coronavirus, as supporters of the right-wing leader joined political motorcades around the country.

Brazil has more cases of the new coronavirus than any other country in Latin America. On Sunday, confirmed cases rose to 38,654 with 2,462 deaths.

Bolsonaro, who was not wearing a face mask, addressed a crowd of a few hundred in Brasilia, many of them wearing Brazil’s yellow-and-green soccer jersey.

His brief address, which was punctuated by the president coughing, touched on talking points that have become his usual rallying cry.

He called those in attendance “patriots” and said they were helping defend individual freedoms that he said are under threat by lockdowns imposed by authorities at the state level.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-brazil/brazils-bolsonaro-attacks-coronavirus-lockdowns-as-supporters-take-to-streets-idUSKBN2210V1?rpc=401&

(You might want to take a look at the photo of Bolsonaro at the link. I think it looks VERY much like Hitler without a mustache!)

[Newest Reality]

1. Brilliant!

There should be a club for the self-extinction minded in the world.

"Hey, we are having a pandemic and it's spreading. People are getting very sick and dying. What should we do?"

"Oh, I know. Let's gather together in large groups, march and protest for our rights. It's a perfect time to show the PTB we mean business! We can call it the last gasp of freedom."

[tblue37]

2. Coughing, huh? nt

[Judi Lynn]

4. I can only hope! He could use some time without a microphone. Thanks. n/t

[Eugene]

3. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro denounced for joining pro-dictatorship rally

Source: The Guardian

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro denounced for joining pro-dictatorship rally

Far-right president deemed ‘deplorable’ for flouting social distancing rules again – while coughing repeatedly – to bolster protests amid coronavirus

Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Mon 20 Apr 2020 15.05 BST
Last modified on Mon 20 Apr 2020 20.25 BST

Former presidents, politicians and newspaper editorial boards have lined up to denounce the “moronic” and “anti-democratic” behaviour of Brazil’s far-right leader after he hit the streets to egg on protesters demanding a return to military dictatorship.

As the number of deaths caused by Covid-19 rose to nearly 2,500 on Sunday, Jair Bolsonaro left his presidential palace in Brazil’s capital, Brasília, to fraternize with flag-waving radicals.

Among the demands their banners listed were an end to the social distancing measures opposed by Bolsonaro, the closure of Brazil’s congress and supreme court, and a re-run of a dictatorship-era decree used by military rulers in the late 1960s to suffocate their political opponents.

At one point – snubbing social distancing rules for the umpteenth time since the coronavirus crisis began – Brazil’s paratrooper-turned-president clambered onto a truck to address the hundreds-strong assembly.

“The era of roguery is over. Now it’s the people who are in power,” Bolsonaro proclaimed outside the Brazilian army headquarters, coughing repeatedly as he spoke.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/20/jair-bolsonaro-dictatorship-rally-protest-brazil-president-denounced