Bolsonaro's Missteps Set Brazil Up for Bleak 2021
More coronavirus, more debt and not enough economic reform spell trouble.
Keep that mask on, you’re going to need it.
Photographer: Luis Alvarenga/Getty Images South AmericaUntil not long ago, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was having a pretty good pandemic. The virus had devastated the country, but not his government. A lavish package of emergency assistance rescued the crashing economy as well as his approval ratings. And when Bolsonaro caught Covid-19 after months of flouting health protocols, he recovered quickly, adding spit polish to the conceit that the scourge which had turned Brazil into the world’s second-worst killing field was beatable.
Not even the sheaf of impeachment petitions lodged against him for his apparently feckless handling of the pandemic, deforestation in the Amazon and crooked cronies proved to be much of a worry, thanks to the ethically challenged lawmakers he’d befriended in congress.