'Hunger has returned': Covid piles further misery on Brazil's vulnerable
Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Thu 22 Jul 2021 06.00 EDT
Many blame President Jair Bolsonaro’s failure to handle the pandemic and to provide adequate support for those in need
Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Thu 22 Jul 2021 06.00 EDT
Even before coronavirus, life was a struggle on Regeneration Street, a rubbish-strewn skid row on the north side of Rio de Janeiro.
Cadaverous crack addicts probe dumpsters for scraps of food; crestfallen down-and-outs sprawl on soiled mattresses and rugs.
“I wouldn’t wish this on anyone,” said Marcus Vinícius de Mello, a jobless 49-year-old waiter who is one of the street’s roofless dwellers and, like many here, struggling with drugs. “No human being deserves to go through this.”
The Covid pandemic has piled further misery on what was already one of Brazil’s most depressed and vulnerable addresses, leaving its residents, like millions of fellow citizens, hungry and afraid.
More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/22/brazil-rio-coronavirus-hunger-poverty
