RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, said this Saturday, April 10, that the country is living in a “dictatorship” due to the restrictions that some regions of the country have implemented to prevent Covid-19 contagions; he compared them to the “freedoms denied” by the “regime” of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.
The statements were made during a visit of the right-wing leader to a favela located in Brasilia’s outskirts, where several Venezuelan citizens live due to the economic and social crisis in the neighboring country.
“You are also living in Brazil, an experience that seems a bit like a dictatorship, with this stay-at-home policy,” the Brazilian president assured during the meeting, which was broadcast on social networks.
“Brazilian people, look what you have and what you can lose,” Bolsonaro said while pointing to the Venezuelans. “They left the regime that, little by little, took away their freedom,” he said.
“Brazil is not going to become a Venezuela, rest assured of that,” he pointed out.
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Without wearing a mask, the Brazilian president again criticized the measures that reduced mobility in some regions of the country and said that Brazil is “reaching the limit” since these policies only seek to “suffocate” the economy.
Bolsonaro, 65, has a different perspective toward the Covid-19 pandemic than most other leaders. Since the arrival of the virus in the country more than a year ago, he has strongly questioned the measures of social isolation imposed to a greater or lesser degree by the governors of the 27 Brazilian states.
“I have the power to force a ‘lockdown’ throughout Brazil, just by using my pen, but it will not be done. (…) “Our Army will never force Brazilians to stay at home – never! Our army (will not do) anything against your individual freedom,” the president emphasized.
With nearly 350,000 deaths due to Covid-19 and more than 13.3 million infected, Brazil is one of the countries most affected by the pandemic today.