Bolsonaro fires popular health minister after dispute over coronavirus response (Dom Phillips, in The Guardian)
Jai Sen
Thursday, April 16, 2020
Viruses in movement…, Brazil in movement…, Power in movement…
[A further report, on what appears to be an apparent reversal of recent earlier reports (‘Brazilian President Bolsonaro Is Out Of Power, Replaced By General Netto’, by Emir Sader, Brazil Wire, at https://popularresistance.org/bolsonaro-out-of-power-replaced-by-general/) (and also at https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/bolsonaro-s-rupture-with-health-minister-emblematic-of-diminishing-stature-1.4223364) But what may also be ‘developing news’… :
Bolsonaro fires popular health minister after dispute over coronavirus response
Luiz Henrique Mandetta defended physical distancing
Far-right president has downplayed impact of coronavirus
Dom Phillips, in The Guardian
“I have just received notice of my dismissal from President Jair Bolsonaro,” Mandetta tweeted on Thursday. “I would like to say thank you for the opportunity that was given to me, to manage our health service … and to plan our fight against the coronavirus epidemic, this great challenge that our health system is about to face.”
Speaking shortly after Mandetta’s exit was announced, Bolsonaro claimed the separation had been “a consensual divorce” – but signaled dissatisfaction with his former minister’s position on the economic impact of coronavirus.
“I know … life is priceless. But the economy and jobs must return to normal,” Bolsonaro said, as he introduced his new health minister, Nelson Teich, an oncologist who was CEO of a group of private clinics and is now a partner in a medical service consulting outfit.
Mandetta’s sacking has been anticipated for weeks, as Bolsonaro repeatedly downplayed coronavirus and urged the relaxation of social distancing measures while Mandetta defended such policies.
But the move to force out Brazil’s most senior health official came just weeks before the virus is expected to reach its peak in the country. Confirmed cases have soared to more than 30,425 and 1,924 Brazilians have died.
When news of the sacking broke, shouts of “Bolsonaro murder!” were heard in central Rio de Janeiro and pan-bashing protests erupted in cities across the country.
“It absurd to change the health minister in the middle of a pandemic,” said one Rio de Janeiro intensive care doctor, speaking anonymously for fear of repercussions.
“It was a terrible decision by the president, a president imprisoned in empirical ideas without any scientific or clinical basis, who is going against everything that is happening in the world.”
Bolsonaro’s public call for Brazil to get back to work and his efforts to undermine regional governments’ shutdowns has appalled critics and sparked a political rebellion by the governors of nearly all of Brazil’s 27 states.
In contrast, during calm daily briefings Mandetta advised Brazilians to follow state governments’ advice on isolation.
“Don’t think that we are going to escape a sharp rise in cases of this illness,” he said in his final briefing on Thursday. “The health system still isn’t read [to deal with] a rapid increase [in cases].”
Writing ahead of Bolsonaro’s decision, the political commentator Leandro Colon said Mandetta’s sacking might be good news “for those rooting for Jair Bolsonaro’s quick downfall”.
Such a move would further isolate the rightwing populist and could provoke “a political reaction of major proportions”, Colon wrote in the Folha de São Paulo newspaper.
But Colon warned that Mandetta’s removal would also be bad news for the health of Brazil’s 209 million citizens.
Recent modelling by researchers from Imperial College London suggested Brazil could have more than 1.1 million Covid-19 deaths if no action were taken to control the pandemic; 529,000 if only elderly people were forced to isolate; and 44,200 if drastic measures were implemented.
Speaking after Mandetta’s firing, Bolsonaro painted himself as a protector of the poor.
“We cannot harm the neediest – they have no way of staying at home for very long without going out to seek their sustenance,” he said.
In his farewell press conference, Mandetta urged his former staff to mount an “unyielding defense of life and science” – a clear swipe at his former boss.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “Science is light … and it is through science that we will find a way out of this.”
His successor, Teich, said Brazil needed a full testing programme to better understand the new coronavirus and promised no “abrupt decision” on social distancing.
But he also made it clear Brazil would slowly start reopening. “What we are really doing here today is working for society to return to normal as quickly as possible,” he said.
____________________________
Jai Sen
Independent researcher, editor; Senior Fellow at the School of International Development and Globalisation Studies at the University of Ottawa
Now based in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325) and in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded and unsurrendered Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282 2900)
CURRENT / RECENT publications :
Jai Sen, ed, 2018a – The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our Dance. Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press
Jai Sen, ed, 2018b – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ? (Indian edition). New Delhi : AuthorsUpfront, in collaboration with OpenWord and PM Press. Hard copy available at MOM1AmazonIN, MOM1Flipkart, and MOM1AUpFront
Jai Sen, ed, 2017 – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?. New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press. Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press
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Jai Sen
Friday, April 17, 2020
Thanks Kevin
This is good to know. If you can, please keep us updated. This is big… at so many levels.
Jai
Here is the ‘most recent’ article mentioned below :
Brazil’s Power Vacuum: “Nobody wants to conduct a Ghost Train”
http://www.brasilwire.com/brazils-power-vacuum-nobody-wants-to-conduct-a-ghost-train/The military won’t officially take over because nobody wants to be publically associated with the worst government in Brazilian history
By Leonardo Attuch
Bolsonaro’s pen has less and less ink in it. Every day that goes by shows that he is losing power. This was shown during his April 9 live address to the Brazilian people. He said, “If you are unhappy with quarantine, you can’t complain about it to me, you have to complain to the governors.”
The Supreme Court ruling is clear – he no longer has the power to revoke any quarantine order. So Bolsonaro is no longer running things. Every day that goes by he is weaker. But he still has some power. He has, for example, the power to do these publicity stunts – to go out to the bakery – he has the power to promote protests, he has the power to hold an official press conference or make an address to the Brazilian people. But he doesn’t have decision making power.
I am sure that he was planning to fire his Health Minister Luiz Mandetta. He had made his mind up. And, evidently, this military managed to prevent it from happening. But nobody is hegemonic in this government. The government is in chaos and nobody is in charge. There is a power vacuum. Bolsonaro has some power. He is threatening to do things. The Military have some power, Congress has some power and society is perplexed just watching this all unfold.
What I really see in Brazil right now is a ship with no captain. The governors are taking things into their own hands. The most appropriate image that comes to mind for Brazil is that of the ghost train – something scary happens every 5 minutes but I don’t think we have a military government installed in Brazil yet. If we were going to have a military government they could simply remove Bolsonaro and put Vice President Mourão in power. They could force Bolsonaro to resign because the second that Bolsonaro loses all support from the military he’ll be out. Therefore, he still has a support base there. When we look at the most recent tweet by General Vilas Boas, he is also saying that, like Bolsonaro, he is against isolation. He says we have to look for balance and that we can’t have total isolation.
I think that the military would like to take charge of government with more economic growth. The Bolsonaro government is going to be a catastrophe. If he manages to stay in power for the full term it will go down in Brazilian history as a 4 year period in which Brazilians became 30, 40 or 50% poorer. A lot of people still don’t have an idea of the scope of this. It will be a government remembered for death and economic destruction. It will go down in the history books as the most tragic period in Brazilian history and the military is associated with this failure. They can’t just say that it was coronavirus – they created this mess. Imagine if Brazil were in the hands of Lula today. If the military had not interfered in politics, if the Military had not given all of its support to the Lava Jato investigation. If it hadn’t pressured the Supreme Court tolegitimize a false election in Brazil, Lula would be President today. Imagine what it would be like if Lula was in charge of the pandemic response. The fact of the matter, though, is that he got lucky to not be tied up in this mess. It’s the Brazilian people who are screwed.
On Apr 17, 2020, at 3:08 PM, Kevin Zeese <kbz...@gmail.com> wrote:Here is the explanation I got regarding the firing of the health minister.
Hi Kevin, all the articles on the subject by a variety of authors are here.The top 8 are relevant to this subject.This is the most recent: http://www.brasilwire.com/brazils-power-vacuum-nobody-wants-to-conduct-a-ghost-train/It was always more a power struggle than a straight takeover. And as Leo Attuch explains above, the Military don’t actually want to be seen as in control at this moment.Regarding Minister Mandetta’s firing, there had been rumours all week that he had lost the Military’s support following a TV interview he gave, so everyone was expecting this to happen at some point.Doesn’t mean Bolsonaro has won, he’s still weakened, but he may have got his way this time.We will have more updates when things become clearer.Thanks for getting in touch.@KBZeeseShift Wealth: Economic DemocracyIts Our Economy