MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil: Senate to investigate Bolsonaro's handling of the pandemic

The Senatorial commission will look into “actions and omissions of the federal government” regarding the covid-19 crisis, Pacheco explained. (Photo: Sérgio Lima)

Brazil's Senate Tuesday created a Parliamentary Investigation Commission (CPI) to evaluate President's Jair Bolsonaro's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, it was announced.

Senate Speaker Rodrigo Pacheco said the commission has been entrusted with “investigating the actions and omissions of the federal government to face the pandemic in Brazil and, especially, the deterioration of health in Amazonas with the lack of oxygen for hospitalized patients in the first months of 2021.”

The commission will also be able to investigate irregularities in states and municipalities, provided that “it only limits the inspection to the resources that the Government gave to the states...”

Senator Eduardo Girao has requested the CPI investigated the role of governors and mayors, which exceeds the body's prerogatives. But in can investigate the sending of federal resources to these governments, it was explained.

Meanwhile, Bolsonaro insisted he was “not a dictator” for criticizing governors who mandated quarantines and insisted, from his Twitter account, that it was the other way around: governors were “prototypes of dictators” for imposing “cult prohibitions, curfews, expropriation of real estate [and] travel restrictions.”

“I was not the one who closed the shops. I wasn't the one who made you stay at home, either. I do my part,“ Bolsonaro stressed as he pointed out there were more and more people who ate only ”soup“ because their income was affected due to the social isolation implemented by various state and municipal governments.

”People complain because their jobs are terminated. Who made them stay at home? It wasn't me. Who gave all that power to the states and municipalities to do all this?”

Gleisi Hoffman of the opposition Workers' Party (PT) said on Tuesday that the “crimes of responsibility” that Bolsonaro would have perpetrated justify “an impeachment” and argued that “Bolsonaro must be removed” from the government as soon as possible and for this, “Congress must be pressured” to approve the impeachment. But Pacheco insisted “this is not the time for impeachment in Brazil.”