BRASILIA (Reuters) – At a tense cabinet meeting on Saturday in the Brazilian president’s main residence, Jair Bolsonaro discovered himself isolated.
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro reacts while meets advocates as he leaves Alvorada Palace, as the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Brasilia, Brazil March 30,2020 REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino
The far-right leader convened the emergency conference in Brasilia’s modernist Alvorada Palace to solve a disagreement with Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta, who openly opposed the president’s calls to loosen quarantine restrictions for Brazil’s 210 million people.
However, with Mandetta reluctant to pull back, Bolsonaro’s closest aides declined to support his strategy to relax coronavirus guidelines to keep the economy going, according to 2 sources with knowledge of the meeting.
Elected 2 years ago on a pledge to revive growth, Bolsonaro has actually stunned health professionals around the globe by persistently playing down the gravity of the epidemic, calling COVID-19 “a little cold” exaggerated by the media and his opponents – even after his political idol U.S. President Donald Trump walked back his own apprehension about the break out.
The sources stated senior ministers, including high-profile Justice Minister Sergio Moro, sided with Mandetta on the necessary to reinforce social distancing and put the general public health crisis before concerns over paralyzing the economy.
Even top military officers in the federal government – who until now have actually neither openly slammed nor protected Bolsonaro – sprang to Mandetta’s defense.
In a very finely veiled rebuke to Bolsonaro, Presidential Chief of Personnel Walter Braga, an active service Army general, stated Mandetta’s departure from the cabinet was out of the concern.
” It was a really harsh meeting,” one federal government official informed on the talks told Reuters. “Mandetta is skating on thin ice, however there are some things he is closed to changing.”
The stress illustrate the extent to which Bolsonaro’s efforts to keep Latin America’s largest economy running as normal have spl