Brazil leader's coronavirus response looks like a caricature of Trump's
President Donald Trump with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on March 7 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. Credit: AP / Alex Brandon
The fond personal alliance between President Donald Trump and the leader of Latin America's largest nation is widely known. In some ways, Trump's simpatico bond with Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro is stronger than those he has with other right-wing heads of state such as Hungary's Viktor Orbán, India's Narendra Modi or the Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte.
Some of the parallels suggest Trump and Bolsonaro follow the same populist playbook. Through the second week of April, Bolsonaro was practically hawking chloroquine as a potential cure for COVID-19 though it's still being tested for that use. In a national address, he hailed a cardiologist who prescribed the drug. "This decision may go down in history for saving thousands of lives in Brazil," Bolsonaro said.
Sounding way more strident than Trump, Bolsonaro has slammed the lockdowns imposed by regional governors in his country. He has described the coronavirus outbreak as "a fantasy" and "a little flu." On social media, he said in a since-deleted video: “What I have been hearing from people is that they want to work. Brazil cannot stop or we’ll turn into Venezuela."
Reporters asked him last week about the country’s confirmed COVID-19 deaths, totaling more than 6,000 and spiking. “So what?” Bolsonaro said. “I’m sorry. What do you want me to do?” As in the U.S., official infection and death numbers are expected to prove low until more data comes in. Brazil reports about 80,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, but experts say the real number is much higher, potentially above 1 million, The Washington Post reports. The country's testing operation also is insufficient.
Other Latin American countries such as Paraguay and Argentina are taking their own steps to restrict arrivals from Brazil, just as parts of Europe are closed to U.S. travelers. Brazil's economy is collapsing despite anti-social distancing pronouncements from the top.
As in the U.S., matters of science, public health and policy have put the leader in open conflict with professionals and experts in his own government. Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta suggested that Bolsonaro’s snubbing of his social distancing recommendations drives confusion among the nation's 211 million people.
“They don’t know whether to listen to the health minister or to the president,” Mandetta was quoted as saying, and he called for “a single, united line” on dealing with the pandemic. As a result, Bolsonaro dismissed him. “I don’t think he fired me,” Mandetta said later. “He fired science.”
Aside from the pandemic, Bolsonaro has a nepotism issue. Last summer, prosecutors moved to block his son Eduardo Bolsonaro from being nominated as ambassador to the United States. The president defended the nomination, later withdrawn by his son, in part by saying Eduardo is a friend of the Trump family, which could help strengthen U.S. ties.
Contact between the families has indeed been personal, to the point of physical concern. In early March, Trump hosted a dinner with Bolsonaro at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. They shared a table with Bolsonaro's press secretary, Fabio Wajngarten, who later tested positive for COVID-19. But Trump's physician said it wasn't necessary for the president to be quarantined.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
