BERLIN – Brazil’s more than 300,000 deaths from the coronavirus amount to the “biggest genocide” in the Latin American country’s history, said former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva today in a scathing attack on current leader Jair Bolsonaro.
“On Tuesday, 3,158 people died of Covid-19 in Brazil. It’s the biggest genocide in our history,” he told Germany’s Der Spiegel weekly, adding that Bolsonaro lied to the Brazilian people about the pandemic.
“We must save Brazil from Covid-19,” he said, adding that “Brazil will not withstand it if this man continues to govern in this way”.
As the country surpassed 300,000 deaths from the virus on Wednesday, Lula called on Bolsonaro to apologise to victims’ families.
More than 12 million people have been infected in Brazil, including the virus-sceptical, far-right Bolsonaro.
The country has seen record daily infections in the last week and thousands of deaths per day, blamed on a local variant of the disease that is believed to be more contagious.
Lula, 75, led Brazil through an economic boom from 2003 to 2010 as head of the left-wing Workers’ Party before being sentenced to a total 26 years in prison on charges of taking bribes in 2017.
After the corruption conviction against him was annulled earlier this month, recent opinion polls suggested that he is the best-placed politician to challenge Bolsonaro in next year’s election.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the former president had been convicted by a “biased” judge.
In the interview published today, Lula said the conviction was the result of a “pact between the judiciary and some parts of the media” in order to remove his successor and party colleague, Dilma Rousseff, from office and prevent him from running in the 2018 election.
Asked whether he will run against Bolsonaro in 2022, he said now is not the time to talk about candidacies.
“Our attention should be focused not on the election, but on fighting the virus and vaccinating the public.” – AFP, March 26, 2021
