This week, a bumper schedule in the Senate’s Covid hearings leaves the Bolsonaro government on the ropes. Major sanitation auction in Rio de Janeiro highlights benefits and challenges of new laws.
Government gearing up for war in Covid hearings
The Senate’s Covid hearings committee spent last week electing its directive board, appointing a rapporteur, and establishing a work schedule. Now, the real action begins. This week, the committee will question each one of Brazil’s Health Ministers since the beginning of the pandemic, as well as the head of health regulator Anvisa. The schedule is as follows:
- Tuesday: Luiz Henrique Mandetta (fired in April 2020) and Nelson Teich (resigned in May 2020);
- Wednesday: Eduardo Pazuello (dismissed in March 2021);
- Thursday: Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga and Antonio Barra Torres, head of Anvisa.
Why it matters. Having fallen out with the government, testimonies of Messrs. Mandetta and Teich have the potential to embarrass the Jair Bolsonaro administration — but none is seen as being more potentially damaging than when Eduardo Pazuello takes the stand.
- The Army general-turned-minister was Brazil’s top health official during some of the most desperate times of the pandemic. Experts lambasted his actions — which included turning down...