Senators investigating the government’s pandemic response approved a request to summon Ana Cristina Valle, one of President Jair Bolsonaro’s former wives — and mother of Jair Renan Bolsonaro, the president’s youngest son.
The Covid inquiry plans to investigate Ms. Valle’s relationship with lobbyist Marconny Albernaz, who is linked to Precisa Medicamentos — the company at the center of the Covaxin vaccine scandal. Precisa brokered a USD 300 million deal for 20 million doses of the Indian-made vaccine, with a contract laden with irregularities. Mr. Albernaz is allegedly close to Jair Renan, whom he helped open an event company.
As we explained in today’s issue of the Brazil Daily newsletter, opposition senators hope to use Mr. Albernaz’s deposition to target the Bolsonaro family.
In 2018, newspaper Folha de S.Paulo published a 2011 document in which the president’s ex-wife tells Brazilian diplomatic services she left Brazil after receiving death threats from Mr. Bolsonaro during a legal dispute over the custody of Jair Renan, then aged 12.
Ms. Valle told the newspaper she had “overcome” the episode, and even ran a failed campaign for a House seat representing Rio de Janeiro, under the nom de guerre “Cristina Bolsonaro.” She obtained just 4,555 votes.
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