RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The president of the Brazilian Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, authorized on Wednesday (14) the extension for 90 days of the period during which the committee investigates possible failures, omissions, and suspicions of corruption in the management of the coronavirus pandemic.
In early 2021, some 30 senators, the majority of whom are in opposition to the Bolsonaro administration, submitted a petition to the President of the Senate calling for a CPI to investigate (mis)management and omissions by the federal government in fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
The creation of this Covid CPI is a unique process, unparalleled in the world.
The high number of Covid-19 deaths in Brazil is repeatedly mentioned as the reason for establishing the investigative committee. To date, more than 535,000 people have died of Covid-19 in the country. The leftwing also likes to talk about genocide in this context.
In terms of deaths per million, however, Brazil is better off than, for example, Peru, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Bulgaria, and is almost on a par with countries such as Colombia, Argentina, Italy, or Belgium.
The majority of Covid CPI members are independent from or opponents of the current government.
The work of the Senate’s investigation committee, installed last April 27, was expected to end in August and will now be extended at least until November, as requested by a group of senators and endorsed by the head of the Upper House.
In recent weeks, allegations of high-level officials demanding bribes to approve contracts to purchase vaccines and of nebulous negotiations with suspicious intermediaries connected with these acquisitions have been aired.
One of the accusers interviewed by the Covid CPI, Congressman Luis Miranda, claimed that he discovered one of these corrupt practices and reported it to President Bolsonaro, who promised to take action to investigate the irregularity, but ultimately did not.
For such alleged omission, the Supreme Court authorized the Prosecutor’s Office to open an investigation against the president for dereliction of duty. This in itself has tarnished the image of the conservative leader, who won the 2018 elections with the promise to fight corruption, making harsh attacks on the illegalities discovered in the prior administrations of presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff.
“It’s been two and a half years without corruption. They want to charge me now with a crime of corruption even though not a single dose of these vaccines was bought,” said the head of state last Saturday in statements made to supporters in the southern city of Porto Alegre.
According to the president, the suspicious contracts were suspended by the supervising agencies because “we have a filter, we have control”, which prevented the purchase of vaccines in the investigated businesses.
On the allegation that he did not ask the police to investigate the corruption after being alerted to it by Congressman Miranda, Bolsonaro said that he could not take preventive measures based on this information.
“This is a fantasy story that only serves for three senators (members of Covid CPI) to promote themselves politically,” he said.
Before he was besieged by corruption allegations, Bolsonaro’s image had already deteriorated, due to his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, which was not approved by the international community.
He did not follow the mainstream narrative of Covid-19 control where isolation, containment, forced business closures, masks, and other preventive measures are the rule.