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This Saturday protests with caravans of vehicles were registered in at least 50 cities in Brazil, which called for a political trial to dismiss President Jair Bolsonaro, whom they held responsible for mishandling the pandemic that has his country as the most affected in America Latin. The president’s approval ratings suffer their worst decline since the start of his administration in 2019, according to a national poll published on Friday.
The popularity of the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, falls drastically and thousands ask that he be removed from office. With caravans in vehicles and even bicycles, about 50 cities demanded that Congress discuss an impeachment in order to remove him.
The protesters’ displeasure focuses on the fact that the president has denied the seriousness of the pandemic, despite the fact that he himself contracted the virus, an approach that they consider responsible for Brazil continuing as the third most affected country globally and the first in number of deaths and infections in Latin America.
Last week an opposition bloc had already asked that the head of state be subjected to a political process to remove him from the Executive, essentially due to the severe health crisis in Amazonas, where a collapse in the hospital system and in cemeteries is registered, in addition to the shortage of oxygen for the most serious patients, connected to mechanical respiratory systems.
“With these caravans we show that it is possible to go to the streets to protest despite the pandemic. This government has already committed too many crimes against the Brazilian population and we cannot remain quiet,” said union leader Carmen Foro, general secretary of the Central Unitaria de Los Trabajadores (CUT), the largest union center in the country.
Protesters demand the resumption of subsidies
In addition, activists are calling for the government to resume the delivery of subsidies distributed last year by 66 million unemployed and informal workers, whose situation is now more precarious amid the second wave of the outbreak.
“As if the record level of unemployment was not enough, the president extinguished emergency aid, which was the only source of income for thousands of workers,” said the organizers of the protest, called by social networks.
The subsidy was approved by Parliament last March for a value equivalent to about $ 110. That figure was cut in half last October and the last payment was made in December, as the 2021 budgets do not contemplate the continuity of these aid.
Brazil, with 210 million inhabitants, registers 8,816,254 accumulated infections and a total of 216,445 deaths, according to the independent count from Johns Hopkins University.
Bolsonaro’s approval drops dramatically, but 53% of those polled do not support his removal
Bolsonaro faces the worst rates of his popularity since the start of his government in 2019, according to the Brazilian press. His level of disapproval rose from 32% last December to 40% who called his performance bad or terrible in a Datafolha poll released on Friday.
Just under a third of those surveyed rated Bolsonaro’s government as good or excellent, compared to 37% in the previous poll.
But at the same time, and despite their declining support, 53% of those interviewed are against Congress initiating a process to remove the head of state, a slight increase compared to the 50% who disapproved in a previous poll. .
Likewise, supporters of impeachment fell to 43% after standing at 46%.
These results represent a severe blow to the far-right leader and the anger of Brazilians increases amid the slowness in the vaccination process. Although it began last weekend, there are few vaccines for the country with one of the largest populations in the world. On Friday, the nation received, from India, two million doses of the injection developed by Astrazenada and Oxford.
“Counting the doses of Butantan (a research institute in the state of Sao Paulo) and those of India, there is not enough vaccine and there is no certainty when Brazil will have more or how much,” said Mário Scheffer, professor of preventive medicine at the University of Sao Paulo. That shortage “will interfere with our short-term ability to achieve herd immunity,” he concluded.
With Reuters, AP and EFE
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