The scarecrow of Brazil

A clash of crises exposes Brazil's vulnerability. Unfortunately, the social inaction that fails to stop Bolsonaro will, in fact, cost dearly. Regardless of the voracity of the virus and Bolsonaro's blatant and calculated inaction, the historical social disparity is as strikingly evident as the winding line separating the colors of the Negro and Solimões rivers. The dominant class, 20%, considers itself protected from the pandemic and observes isolation with safety and comfort. This is very different from 60% of the population, more than 120 million Brazilians, for whom the conditions are the opposite: in transportation, sanitation, work, education, income, leisure, culture, and housing—all of which are, at the same time, structural problems that need to be solved.

Added to this is a society blindly led by a ruler who has already proven inept, reckless, and utterly at the service of the ruling class. Despite satisfying the segment that profits from the crisis, Bolsonaro is detrimental because he provokes international distrust regarding Brazil's democratic stability. Foreign investors have no interest in a place where the president and his son openly declare, without any sanctions so far, that there will be a democratic rupture in the country. This capital wants to be where due respect for democratic institutions is observed, labor is cheap, and there are tax incentives. Bolsonaro is the scarecrow that prevents Brazilians from entering other countries and scares away investment in Brazil. The international community is appalled by how the president is conducting the coronavirus response.

Brazil doesn't have a president, but an ostentatious and willful vector of transmission of a virus against which the fight has taken a back seat. Society is focused on not tiring of being horrified by Bolsonaro, who is the embodiment of disaster and decimation. Brazil has reached the 30 deaths desired by the president, who advocated for a civil war during an interview. If it were another government, perhaps we would be talking about the results of its efforts in confronting the pandemic, such as the allocation of resources to the working class, to micro, small, medium and large businesses. But no, we are forced, incredulously, to acknowledge that tens of millions of Brazilians are, at this very moment of this brief reading, not knowing what they will eat throughout this day.

For the left, Bolsonaro is nothing new. They have denounced his political stances since before his absurd, yet fatal, presidential candidacy. Bolsonaro grew in the shadow of the silent and self-serving omission of the commercial press, the voice of the ruling class. They openly supported the election of chaos and now don't know what to do with it. The media gave space and spotlight to about 30% of uninformed or self-serving followers of Bolsonaro. They should have the dignity to recognize their role and dismantle the bogeyman plaguing Brazil. However, they will not do so because that is not the ethics of their master's voice. To support the economic agenda, they pretend not to see and not to smell a president who has chosen the nation as his enemy and who will not rest until he destroys it. This is the ideology of the ruling class, which sees Brazil as nothing more than a commercial outpost, with abundant wealth and cheap labor.

The proposals submitted by the government are, as a rule, detrimental to the working class. The logic is to serve the interests of just over 20%. Within this group, there are those who support him and those who tolerate him, to keep Paulo Guedes at the forefront of the destruction of Brazil's capacity to once again plan and create strategic companies, such as Petrobras, Banco do Brasil, Caixa, and Eletrobras. After handing over the development interests of other nations, nothing will be left for the nation to rebuild its sovereignty. Brazil has a president who adopts measures that harm the country and Brazilians. The press doesn't show this because its owners have an interest in this process of handing over the country. This is the ruling class, and it is for them that Bolsonaro works.

The ruling class has never stopped treating Brazil like a large farm. Bolsonaro embodies this spirit and demonstrates, every day, that he doesn't care about the lives, predominantly of the poor, consumed daily by the coronavirus. Something is very wrong when the fight against the pandemic and the accountability the government owes to Brazil are overshadowed by the selfish and destructive vanity of a president who places it above everything and everyone. We have reached a point where, even without Bolsonaro, any rational, logical, and humanitarian measures taken now will be insignificant compared to what the president's genocidal negligence has already caused. Impeachment of Bolsonaro is urgent, lest the crisis deepen even further. Out with Bolsonaro.