In recent days, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has shocked Brazilian and world public opinion with countless absurd statements.
Among the many absurdities of recent weeks, the Brazilian president said that Inpe, a world-renowned Brazilian scientific research institute, was at the service of international NGOs and lying about deforestation in the Amazon. Inpe director Ricardo Magnus Osorio Galvao said that the president's statements represented "behavior that does not respect the dignity and liturgy of the presidency". Galvão also said that the president behaved "as if in a pub", making jokes like a "14-year-old boy that is not for a president to make".
Then, at an official meeting, the president was recorded referring biased to the Northeastern people when he called the governors of the region "de Paraíba", a pejorative way to refer to that population.
On the same day, the president said he "loved the Northeast" of Brazil, but what remained was a great unease of the governors of the region with the absurd statement. The population also responded with numerous demonstrations on the internet criticizing the president's speech.
He then threatened journalist Glenn Greenwald by implying that Greenwald had committed a crime for spreading messages captured by a hacker. Bolsonaro said the journalist was a "trickster" for marrying a Brazilian and threatened to arrest him. Bolsonaro's statement has been rebutted by countless organizations and political leaders, including House Speaker Rodrigo Maia, who recorded a video supporting Greenwald.
Following this, President Jair Bolsonaro has inhumanly cast doubt on the torture suffered by journalist Miriam Leitão, who was imprisoned during the military dictatorship in Brazil. Bolsonaro also said that Leitão had been a member of the guerrilla who fought against the dictatorship. Miriam was not a guerrilla member, and her torture occurred when she was only 19 years old. She was arrested pregnant by the military regime, taken to the headquarters of the 38th Army Infantry Battalion in Vitória, Espírito Santo, locked naked in a room, where a live snake was also placed to threaten her.
Then, last Monday, Bolsonaro cruelly made fun of the pain of Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) President Felipe Santa Cruz, whose father, Fernando Santa Cruz, was arrested in 1974 by the military dictatorship. Felipe then was just 2 years old and never saw his father again. The Brazilian president said that if Felipe wanted to know what had really happened to his father, he Bolsonaro would tell.
According to President Bolsonaro, Felipe's father was killed by the guerrillas themselves, a fact that does not correspond with the historical records. There is even a death certificate issued by the Brazilian government, indicating that Felipe's father was killed by the Brazilian state.
This sequence of absurd claims eventually led to the creation of the hashtag #ImpeachmentDeBolsonaro (Bolsonaro impeachment) and has also been the target of much criticism.
For jurist Miguel Reale Jr., one of the authors of the impeachment request of former President Dilma Rousseff (PT), President Jair Bolsonaro lives a "hallucinatory process" that puts Brazilian democracy at risk.
