A Brazilian congressional panel is recommending that President Jair Bolsonaro, accused frequently of making comments disparaging Black and Indigenous people, be charged with crimes against humanity for his handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Under Bolsonaro’s administration, some 600,000 Brazilians have died of COVID-19 and a 1.200-page congressional report blames the president for the high number. Bolsonaro denies that he did anything wrong.
An earlier draft of the report called for Bolsonaro to be indicted for genocide and homicide against Indigenous groups in his pandemic response, but those charges were later dropped, The Conversation reports.
Though the coronavirus outbreak initiated in wealthy areas, Black Brazilians in densely populated, impoverished neighborhoods with little access to good health care have been among the hardest hit, according to The Conversation.