A Brazilian Senate committee Tuesday voted to approve a report recommending President Jair Bolsonaro be charged with a raft of criminal indictments, including crimes against humanity over his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, per AP.
Bolsonaro has become the face of a right-wing approach to the pandemic that includes repudiating vaccines and masks and resisting lockdowns and other mitigation measures. The Senate report holds him personally responsible for half of the country’s 600,000 deaths.
The vote comes after a six-month investigation by an 11-member committee investigating Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic.
The committee recommended 12 charges for Bolsonaro, including inciting crimes, charlatanism and misuse of public funds.
It also recommended he face charges for the genocide of indigenous people and two counts of “crime of responsibility.”
Sen. Renan Calheiros, the report’s lead author, accused Bolsonaro after the vote of being “on the side” of dictators, such as Adolf Hitler, according to Reuters.
“The chaos of Jair Bolsonaro’s government will enter history as the lowest level of human destitution,” Calheiros said.
Bolsonaro has repeatedly flouted restrictions meant to curb the virus’ spread, despite surging cases and his country having the second-highest tally of COVID-19 deaths in the world.
He has advocated for hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the virus despite a lack of evidence.
Read more at Axios.
{Matzav.com}
Bolsonaro has been dubbed “The Trump of the tropics”.
Like Trump, he is a highly controversial figure.
He was elected after left wing anti-Israel governments ruled Brazil for many years, leaving it a giant, crime-ridden mess. His leftist opponents demonize him, as they did Trump. But he has greatly warmed ties with the USA and Israel.
We should be more deliberate and not jump to conclusions based on reports in the liberal media without carefully reviewing the evidence and hearing the other side as well.