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BRASILIA – In a convulsive session of the Senate Plenary, most of the senators present called for the removal of Chancellor, Ernesto Araújo, from his post after harsh criticism of his performance in the strategy of obtaining vaccines from other countries. The chancellor said he had no intention of leaving office.
In the middle of the session, the international advisor to the Presidency of the Republic, Filipe Martins, who was sitting behind the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (DEM-RO), made a gesture interpreted as obscene and generated a revolt on the part of the parliamentarians .
– Instead [Araújo], I would resign today. When it comes to human life, I would like to know how this year was, ignoring the pandemic. Don’t you feel like you put the fingerprint on it? Did you see 300,000 deaths and 12 million infected people? He heard the president say he had a cold. Do good to the country and leave the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – said Senator Jorge Cajuru (Citizenship-GO) in the session in the Chamber, this Wednesday afternoon.
Congresswoman Mara Gabrilli (PSDB-SP) said that Araújo’s continuity at the forefront of Brazilian diplomacy is bad for Brazil’s image:
– You acted without humanity. Do you really feel capable of continuing in that position? Our face now is that of a country that is putting the planet at risk. Please, Chancellor, lay your head on the pillow and think. You were not good for Brazil – said Mara Gabrilli (PSDB-SP).
Parliamentarians from the most diverse parties asked for the head of chancellor and accused the government of cruelty to the population.
The minister was accused of having traveled to Israel in search of a remedy whose effectiveness has not been proven, because of the problems he had with the Chinese ambassador to Brazil, Yang Wanming, and because of Bolsonaro’s delay in recognizing Joe Biden as president. from the United States.
– Every day I go to bed, close my eyes and sleep with a clear conscience, both on the subject of Covid and others. Every day I worked for Brazil. We could have had more beds if there had been no corruption in health, we could be at the forefront of technology, we could stand alongside India. I sleep with a clear conscience. I feel euphoric when they criticize me for things I believe in – replied Araújo.
Know more: For more vaccines, mayors and senators want Ernesto Araújo to leave
In a muffled voice, the foreign minister said that “he did everything possible to help the country in the pandemic, as did President Bolsonaro.”
– I’m giving my whole life for it, because that’s what I believe. I will tell my grandchildren that I participated in a successful project, which freed Brazil from corruption, backwardness and lack of conditions. I have a deep love for the Brazilian people.
Araújo had already stated in the morning, in a public hearing at the Chamber’s Foreign Relations Committee, that he would not leave the Foreign Ministry, and he took the opportunity to criticize the press.
– As for statements by former ministers and comments from journalists, I just wanted to quote, I think I read somewhere, that “the reproach of the wicked praises man as much as the praise of the righteous.” When I want to be well informed, I do not read what the press says – he said, referring to the news that the pressure is growing for President Jair Bolsonaro to change the command of the Foreign Ministry.
Obscene Gestures
The Senate session, however, was more tumultuous. In addition to Araújo’s requests for resignation, Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede-AP) requested the expulsion of Filipe Martins from the floor after the international adviser to the Presidency made a gesture with his hand, joining the thumb and index finger in a circle and the other three fingers extended, which is considered obscene, at the time when the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (Democrats-MG) was speaking.
– I do not know what was the meaning of Mr. Filipe’s gesture, it was good that he explained it, but this is unacceptable, in a session of the Federal Senate, during the speech of the President of the Senate, a man is based on obscene gestures, he mocks of the declaration of the president of our Chamber. No, that is unacceptable and intolerable, ”Randolfe said. – We do not accept that a doormat of the President of the Republic comes to the Senate, during the speech of the President of the Senate, to disrespect us.
For GLOBO, Martins denied having made obscene gestures to anyone, even because, according to him, he would not gain anything from it. Then he posted on a social network that he was just fixing the lapel of his suit. “A warning to clowns who want to support the thesis that I, a Jew, sympathize with ‘white supremacism’ because in their sick minds they saw an authoritarian gesture in an image that shows me adjusting the lapel of my suit: they will be prosecuted and held accountable, one by one, “he wrote.
In many countries, the gesture that Martins made is also interpreted as the symbol of “White Power”: the circle would be a P and the three fingers extended a W.
Araújo said that Brazil’s relations with China were never affected by the friction he had with the Chinese ambassador in Brasilia, Yang Wanming. For the minister, the Asian diplomat had a disproportionate reaction, refuting statements by deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro (PSL-SP) in relation to Beijing.
The behind-the-scenes atmosphere, however, isn’t exactly that. Ernesto Araújo is the target of the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, and the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira, who held meetings with the Chinese ambassador and other representatives of the Chinese government, trying to find ways to buy more doses and speed up the delivery of supplies. to the production of the Fiocruz vaccine, which also came from China, according to GLOBO columnist Malu Gaspar. Pacheco and Lira heard from the Chinese that, with Araújo in Itamaraty, they have no conversation.
The minister said that Brazil maintains good relations with the United States, India, China and other countries. Commissioned by the opposition deputies who participated in the public hearing, due to the problems between the Foreign Ministry and Yang Wanming, the minister said that, today, the Chinese ambassador has been “quite cooperative”.
On two occasions, in March and November of last year, the Chinese ambassador demanded the retraction of the Brazilian government, due to statements by the president’s son. For the first time, Eduardo Bolsonaro brought Beijing’s transparency under control by revealing data on Covid-19. In November, the president’s son hinted that there would be espionage in Brazil by the Communist Party of China if the Brazilian government allowed the participation of the Chinese company Huawei in 5G mobile services. Ernesto Araújo reacted harshly to the ambassador’s responses.
– The Chinese ambassador reacted disproportionately. Retweeted [compartilhou no Twitter] a report that offends the President of the Republic and his family in March of last year. In November, the ambassador spoke in a threatening tone. Today, we have a better relationship with China than any other country in the world – he said, adding that the ambassador felt he had the right to question the freedom of expression of Brazilian personalities.
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The foreign minister read an excerpt from a letter sent to him by the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, in response to a request from the Brazilian government for help so that exports of supplies for the manufacture of vaccines to Brazil could be freed more quickly. In the document, Wang Yi said that his country’s authorities would do everything possible to help the country.
For months in 2020, Bolsonaro criticized China and the vaccine from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, which has been produced by the Butantan Institute and today represents the vast majority of doses applied in the country. In October, for example, he said he would not buy CoronaVac because China “has a huge discredit.”
– The one from China we will not buy, it is my decision. I don’t think it provides enough security to the population – he said. – China, unfortunately, there is already a lot of discredit on the part of the population, especially because, as many say, this virus would have been born there.
