Communist Party of Brazil
Brazil – Pandemic and Capitalist Crisis
In Brazil, since the coup over President Dilma in 11 2016, there has been a systematic attack on the democratic rule of law and the promotion of social chaos. The Bolsonaro government, installed in 2019, completely aligned the country with the US strategy and led Brazil to isolation on the international stage. During the last six months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the domestic context has become even more unstable, with a profusion of facts and contradictions that literally play on people’s lives.
In the pandemic, Brazil leads, behind only the United States, the ranking of the number of dead Walter Sorrentino with 130 thousand lives lost and more than 4 mil(Vice-President and International Relations lion people infected, behind the USA and India. It is Secretary) more than the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean together, although we have just over a third of the total population. Among the several factors that spread this insidious infection, one of them is that, in Brazil, it was promoted by the federal government an open sabotage against social isolation, with the widespread and unscientific prescription of chloroquine, inciting the false contradiction between saving the economy and not life. During the crisis, two health ministers were dismissed and today the Ministry is militarized, with a general as interim minister. The president misinforms the population, minimizes the pandemic, and discourages the use of masks and social isolation, essential for the preservation of life. Even against a vaccine that does not even exist yet, Bolsonaro is already preaching discredit. Another crisis experienced is that of the economy and its profound social consequences. The pandemic brought about an abrupt supply and demand shock, overcoming a pre-existing economic depression, with three years of recession and of stagnation. Unemployment reaches 13% and more than 700 thousand companies, mainly small ones, went to bankrupt due to the fact that the Bolsonaro government, contrary to what was done in most countries, did not use the resources of the national State to protect companies and preserve jobs. GDP fell 1.5% in the first quarter and 9.7% in the second quarter of year, with an estimated drop of up to 8% in the year. In the last few days, we have experienced a dramatic inflationary situation in essential items of the Brazilian basic food basket, such as rice and beans. The government proved to be incapable of guaranteeing the country’s food sovereignty, allowing the shortage and imbalance of stocks for import during the pandemic. This situation constitutes a picture of national tragedy and, before it, what the appalled Nation sees is
