MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Bolsonaro holds a “patriots” meeting and challenges lockdown measures
Bolsonaro, (not wearing a face mask), addressed a crowd of a few hundred in Brasilia, many of them wearing Brazil's yellow-and-green soccer jersey. Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday again attended a public rally and attacked lockdown measures meant to fight the coronavirus, as supporters of the right-wing leader joined political motorcades around the country.
Brazil has more cases of the new coronavirus than any other country in Latin America. On Sunday, confirmed cases rose to 38,654 with 2,462 deaths.
Bolsonaro, who was not wearing a face mask, addressed a crowd of a few hundred in Brasilia, many of them wearing Brazil's yellow-and-green soccer jersey.
His brief address, which was punctuated by the president coughing, touched on talking points that have become his usual rallying cry.
He called those in attendance “patriots” and said they were helping defend individual freedoms that he said are under threat by lockdowns imposed by authorities at the state level.
“Everyone in Brazil needs to understand that they are subject to the will of the people,” Bolsonaro said.
Protesters in Brasilia chanted slogans against the country's Supreme Court, which has upheld state-organized lockdowns, and against Congress, whose opposition lawmakers have also defended quarantines.
Some of the protesters also called for a return to authoritarian measures used during Brazil's last military regime, known as AI-5.
In Sao Paulo, Brazil's richest and most populous state, Bolsonaro supporters have been demanding that governor Joao Doria resign because he has been a staunch supporter of shelter-in-place measures.
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Read all commentsChicureo,
Apr 20th, 2020 - 11:23 pm +4“This is Hell, but we just don't recognize it yet...”
I'm glad to hear that you are taking it easy during the lock down. I'm trying to make the best of it but have lots of things that I simply miss. There's definitely a limit on what you can do living in an apt. It does have a nice balcony though, but I'm forbidden by law to cook anything with an open fire out there. Oh well, that's hell enough for me!
Now seriously, why do you think it'll be hell? Do you see the world slowly sliding into socialism because of the pandemic? I certainly feel that is what they want to accomplish over here.
@imoyaro
Apr 21st, 2020 - 04:14 pm +3Good to hear from you too! Hope you are safe right where you are.
@Chicureo
I'm glad that you are being able to carry out your farming remotely. Not so lucky over here. It's just amazing to see how the retail industry has so much impact overall. Since our current software clients are mostly retailers we've just been able to invoice as little as 20% of what we were expecting.
25% unemployment is just around the corner. Fortunately we've been able to pay our dev. team this month and we've already set aside some emergency financing for next month as well. And that'll be it I guess if activity does not pick up by June. It had never crossed my mind that 2019 would ultimately turn out as the worst year to found a startup.
Even if by June things start to move a bit, we still run the risk of hyperinflation exploding like it never did before.
Anyway, just keep on trying to lift up the spirits. Not quite I guess after all my rants.
Salud! Prost! Cheers!
God, all these idiots protesting in Brazil and the US!
Apr 20th, 2020 - 07:35 am +2If your society can't survive a temporary shutdown then your society has some faults that your political system can't fix even when everything is going well. This poisonous American idea that the individual should be put above society has obviously spread within Brazil and will damage the country as much as it has damaged the US over the past several decades.
Relaxing restrictions will not lead to the economy bouncing back. Both the US and Brazil are in for a terrible recession because their federal governments believe that the market should control the prosperity of everyone. This doesn't work. Neoliberalism eats itself as it requires more and more laws and protections to operate “unencumbered”.
Thankfully some of us live in countries where we will start to live the lockdown soon, not because people have some idiot notion of liberty or patriotism but because we listened, sacrificed and conquered the problem as a societal whole and not a collection of selfish individuals that try to step over others.
Brazil (and the US) is in for 2 years of a rolling pandemic because they can't defeat a virus that doesn't care about politics. My life will be back to normal in about 2-3 months.... maybe sooner, while the imbeciles in this picture will have a disrupted life until there is a vaccine probably in late 2021.
So, so glad we don't have a president.... seems to attract a lot of idiots that no one can get rid of.
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