By Eric Nepomuceno on December 27, 2020.
If 2020 has been the year of the plague, the year that was not, may 2021 at least bring us some light in this air of darkness. The year of the plague has taken a little more than 190 thousand Brazilians as of December 24. And then yesterday to 192 thousand.
This is, however, a number contested by reputable researchers and health institutions who according to studies carried out, the number of deaths from Covid is more likely at least 220 thousand, as a result of failures in notifications.
Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica have already started their vaccination programs. Tomorrow, Argentina announced that it will start vaccinating. Other Latin American countries announced that the procedure is imminent.
In Brazil, provincial governors, without any coordination from the national government, are trying on their own to reach emergency agreements with pharmaceutical laboratories around the planet.
Meanwhile, right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro remains immobile. He refuses the gravity of the situation which means he refuses reality.
Some governors say that they will start vaccinating in January. Others say “as soon as possible”.
But the truth is that we are arriving at 2021 without even having syringes and needles to attend to the 210 million Brazilians.
On the night of the 24th – Christmas Eve – Bolsonaro, the Apprentice of Genocide, made a long broadcast (one hour and twenty minutes) on social networks.
He did as he does every day, unleashed homophobic, misogynist phrases, along with offenses to adversary governors and criticism to the members of the supreme court of justice.
He lied terribly. He emphatically denied reality.
He disdained the covid vaccine, warning of its dangers. He reiterated that he will not be vaccinated, arguing – once again against medical and scientific evidence – that since he contracted the coronavirus, he is definitely immunized.
And he announced full of pride that the way Brazil faced the covid is a “world reference” in front of the pandemic.
It was the only time that he told the truth. It was necessary to clarify that Brazil is, yes, a reference, but an irremediably negative one.
Five days from now, 2021 begins.
The picture that emerges is not at all encouraging. The economy managed to balance out in a few sectors, grew in a few others, and has not been the total disaster feared and announced at the beginning of the pandemic, but it still remains particularly worrisome.
In February, elections will be held for the president of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. To ensure a base that will support him in his projects, Bolsonaro launched an old habit of Brazilian politics, which he had sworn to abolish from the country: the explicit purchasing of votes by distributing posts and budgets in exchange for support.
Parties from the center, right and left, in spite of their profound differences, united on a platform to confront the president’s onslaught.
Since the vote is secret, there will be betrayals on both sides. It is considered that, in case he reaches a secure majority in Congress, Bolsonaro will try to advance with a series of projects that, besides meaning a hard step backwards in accomplishments reached in the last many decades, will serve to further corrode the image of the country in the global scenario, with the consequent of the reversal of investments.
The main targets of their initiatives are to reduce the protection of indigenous communities, the elimination of social projects inherited from leftist governments, the legalization of initiatives that violently attack the environment, and to open the doors for the population to acquire arms.
Source: Resumen Latinoamericano, translation North America bureau