Over the past six months, he has been working in a committee of inquiry of the Brazilian Senate to analyze who has been the one that has so favoured the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country. The nearly 1,200 page report, presented on Wednesday, points out that extreme right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro is one of those responsible and is charged with crimes against humanity because he did not "intentionally" take steps to curb the health emergency and the government acted "slowly". On 26 October, they will be voting whether or not they accept the report, so it is not certain that they will be put to trial.

The Commission denounces that this was a political decision: the aim was to achieve group immunity as quickly as possible in order to revitalize the economy as soon as possible. Another 65 people, including four ministers and three children of Bolsonaro, have also been identified as responsible for the violent incidents of recent days. He is accused of a total of nine crimes, including crimes against public health, prevarication, documentary falsehood, misuse of public money, media chatter and false information that incites citizens to commit crimes.

Since the beginning of the pandemic in Brazil, there have been at least 600,000 coronavirus deaths, the seventh country in the world in a proportional number of deaths. The investigation team has concluded that half of those deaths could have been averted during the last week. Among the main causes of crimes against humanity are the lack of previous purchases of vaccines and the promotion of ineffective drugs for COVID-19 (hydroxychloroquine). The report notes that the Brazilian Government delayed the distribution of the Pfizer vaccine for several months and instead decided to purchase an unrecognized Indian vaccine, but the agreement was later skipped due to suspected bribery.

Tension and discrepancies

Jair Bolsonaro is losing support in the country, especially in the scandals that have occurred since the beginning of the pandemic. The report presented by the Senate has placed even more emphasis on the political situation in Brazil and increased tensions. Proof of this is that, at the last moment, the commission has ruled out two crimes that it originally wanted to attribute to it: "mass murder" and "genocide" against the indigenous people of the Amazon. In fact, COVID-19 has hit the villages of origin especially and accused Bolsonaro of leaving them out of the vaccination plan and causing "a massacre." However, some members of the Senate acknowledged that the accusations were "too far away" and that there was a discrepancy in the committee between the two parties. The two crimes have therefore been suspended, as there have been no injuries.

The president has denounced that this is a "conspiracy" against him and has assured that the Brazilian Government "is not guilty of anything". He denies having committed irregularities during the pandemic. It will be difficult to judge Bolsonaro and go to jail, as the country’s attorney general is in favour of the president. However, accusations by the committee of inquiry have increased voices against him both in Brazil and internationally, and in view of the general election of 2022, it is most likely to lose leadership.