Brazilian President Impeachment Crisis

Religious leaders have even stepped up amid a move in Brazil calling for the impeachment of President Zaire Bolsonaro.

According to the Brazilian media on the 26th (local time), Catholic and Protestant leaders submitted a request for impeachment to the House of Representatives, saying that President Bolsonaro was unable to fulfill his responsibilities, such as responding to the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) in a comfortable manner and increasing damage by ignoring quarantine. did. The request for impeachment was signed by 380 religious figures, including Catholics, Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist leaders.

Religious leaders such as Brazilian Catholics and Protestants submitted requests for impeachment of President Zaire Bolsonaro. [로이터=연합뉴스]

Pastor Homi Benke, the representative of the Brazilian Christian Church Council, said, “The government has shown total incompetence in the response to Corona 19.” . It is unusual in Brazil for religious leaders such as Catholics and Protestants to demand the impeachment of the president.

Currently, the corona situation in Manaus city in northern Brazil is getting worse.

A graffiti that synthesized the coronavirus with President Zaire Bolsonaro is drawn on a wall in Brazil. [EPA=연합뉴스]

Brazil’s Health Minister Eduardo Pajuelu said that it is difficult to secure beds in Manaus. Here, medical oxygen runs out and patients die without treatment. To make matters worse, it has spread to the mutant virus. According to a report published in the scientific journal Science, 76% of Manaus residents were estimated to be infected with the COVID-19 mutant virus.

In Brazil (population 210 million), cumulative confirmed cases are approaching 9 million.

According to the Brazilian Ministry of Health, the number of cumulative confirmed cases as of the 26th was about 8.93 million (third in the world). The cumulative death toll is about 210,000, the second largest in the world. In recent years, Brazil’s death toll per day is around 1,000 every day, excluding weekends.

Medical staff taking care of patients in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Manaus City, Brazil. [AFP=연합뉴스]

Due to the successive failure to respond to the coronavirus, there is increasing pressure on the Minister of Health, Pajuelu to resign. In the Brazilian House of Representatives, there is also a move to pursue a national investigation into the Minister of Health and Minister Pajuelu.

Complaints against President Bolsonaro have accumulated due to the worsening corona situation. Like former US President Donald Trump, he underestimated the severity of Corona 19 and dismissed it as “a type of cold.” Earlier this year, they enjoyed playing in the water with’no masks’ with vacationers, ignoring social distancing and entangled themselves with criticism.

He is still opposed to the use of the vaccine, even though he and his family have been confirmed and recovered from Corona 19. It even shocked the international community by making an absurd claim that “if you get a corona vaccine you can turn into a crocodile.”

Masked pedestrians walking through the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil on January 22 [신화=연합뉴스]

There have been 62 requests for impeachment against President Bolsonaro, who has reached his third year in office. In February of last year, before the corona crisis began in earnest, there were 7 cases, but the number of confirmed coronavirus and deaths increased significantly, and requests for impeachment rose rapidly.

According to the results of public opinion polls released on the 23rd, in the evaluation of the Bolsonaru government’s performance of state affairs,’negative’ was 40%, ahead of’positive’ (31%).

A vehicle demonstration in Brazil demanding the impeachment of President Zaire Bolsonaro took place on the 24th. [로이터=연합뉴스]

On the 24th, thousands of citizens came into the city of Brasilia and held a vehicle demonstration demanding the resignation of the president. According to AFP, vehicle demonstrations were also held in about 20 other cities, including Sao Paulo.

It is up to the Speaker of the House of Representatives to initiate the procedure for impeachment of the Brazilian president. For the presidential impeachment to take place, more than two-thirds (342) of the 513 members of the House of Representatives and more than two-thirds (54) of the 81 members of the Senate must approve. Earlier, local media reported that 102 of the recent House of Representatives agreed to the impeachment, 29 opposed, and 382 did not disclose their position.

Reporter Seo Yujin [email protected]