Party of former president Lula rejects decision to host Copa América in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazil’s Workers’ Party (PT), led by former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on Monday rejected the country’s hosting of the Copa América soccer tournament that was originally scheduled to be held in Argentina and Colombia.

“We learned that President Bolsonaro authorized the holding of the Copa América here in Brazil! Is he serious? In the middle of the pandemic, the arrival of the third wave, risk due to lack of beds and supplies and with slow vaccination? Unbelievable!” said PT president Gleisi Hoffmann on social networks.

Bolsonaro’s government has not yet pronounced itself on the South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) decision that Brazil will be the new host of the Copa América, starting next June 13, even though the pandemic continues out of control.

However, the organization thanked Bolsonaro, the government, and the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) for “opening the doors of this country to what is today the safest sporting event in the world”.

The leader of the Democratic Labor Party (PDT), Ciro Gomes, has echoed the criticisms of the PT, ideologically aligned with Argentina’s president Alberto Fernández, who refused to allow his country to host all the matches of the Copa America due to the critical health situation, similar to the one Brazil is going through.

“The question is not whether you like or dislike soccer – I love it! The question is not to play with the lives of Brazilians and not to do demagogy in exchange for the death of innocents,” he said on his Twitter profile.

Gomes, a former presidential candidate in 2018, asked a parliamentary committee now investigating the management of the pandemic in the country to call to testify the president of the CBF, Rogério Caboclo, among other sports authorities.

“The Covid CPI has to act preventively and summon the president of the CBF and the sports authorities to know what care will be taken for the realization of the Copa América,” he stressed.

With 462,000 deaths and 16.5 million infected, Brazil is the Latin American country most affected by the coronavirus; it ranks second in the world in the number of deaths, after the United States; and the third in cases, behind the Americans and India.

In the last seven days, Brazil has reported an average of about 62,000 infections and 2,000 deaths associated with Covid-19 in the country. After a few weeks of stability, the number of infected people has risen once again.