“What Are You Afraid Of? Face It,” Says Bolsonaro About Coronavirus Deaths

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – President Jair Bolsonaro suggested on Friday, July 31st, during a visit to Bagé, in Rio Grande do Sul, that people should face Covid-19, given that “you are all going to catch it one day”, he said. Over 91 thousand people have already died because of the coronavirus in the country.

“I’m in the risk group. I’ve never been neglectful. I knew one day I’d catch it. Unfortunately, I think almost all of you will catch it someday. What are you afraid of? Face it,” said the President, after causing a crowd, taking off his mask and picking up children as he passed through the city to inaugurate a civic-military school and hand over the keys to low-income housing.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for the deaths. People die every day from a variety of causes. It’s life. My wife is now infected. After almost a month since I caught the virus, she caught it,” Bolsonaro added.

Despite the lack of scientific evidence of chloroquine’s efficacy in treating Covid-19, Bolsonaro again showed the public a box of the drug.

The President was welcomed in Bagé with a reference to the military dictatorship (1964-1985), a period that left more than 400 opponents dead or missing.

The Ford Landau vehicle used by former dictator Emílio Garrastazu Médici (ruled from 1969-1974) was waiting for Bolsonaro at the city airport, where his plane landed at around 11:30 AM.

The Landau, with a 1972 license plate, was donated to the city. Médici was born in Bagé. During the dictatorship, he banished politicians and appointed state governors. The Medici government was marked by torture and death.

Recently, when launching the Safra Plan (government-financed agricultural stimulus), Bolsonaro honored Médici, generally recognized as the most violent president in the Brazilian dictatorship.

“I want to pay a tribute to someone who, in the past, provided all this to us, President Emilio Garrastazu Medici. He came up with the concept of creating EMBRAPA (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation) and sending farmers’ children out of Brazil to seek the best in the world,” he said.

Bolsonaro visited Bagé to inaugurate a facility under the National Civic-Military Schools Program (PECIM). In the São Pedro elementary school, the President listened to a poem recited by a ‘prenda’, as women in the traditionalist movement are called. Afterwards, a piper improvised rhymes in homage to the President.

Along with Minister of Regional Development Rogério Marinho and Institutional Security Cabinet Augusto Heleno, Bolsonaro had lunch with the military in the 3rd Mounted Rifle Regiment.

After lunch, which was closed to the press, the President symbolically handed over 1,164 homes from the ‘Minha Casa Minha Vida’ (My Home, My Life) program. The housing developments received R$87.3 million in federal investments.

The program was developed during the administration of ex-president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Construction in Bagé began in 2017, under the government of Michel Temer.

This week, Bolsonaro visited another project that had begun in past administrations, those of Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer: a pipeline extension of the São Francisco River, in São Raimundo Nonato, Piauí.

In June, Bolsonaro was in Ceará to inaugurate once again a stretch of the São Francisco River transposition, in Penaforte, Ceará, a work also initiated during earlier leftist governments.

Source: Folha de S.Paulo

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