Simone Guimarães, a retired 52-year-old teacher in Rio de Janeiro, lost at least five relatives to COVID-19: her husband, sister, two brothers-in-law and the godfather of her grandchild. She also lost friends and neighbors.
She woke to the news on Saturday that Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered the preemptive arrest of former President Jair Bolsonaro, whom she blames for her losses. A judge claimed Bolsonaro was intent on escaping days before he was set to begin a 27-year prison sentence for attempting a coup after losing the 2022 presidential election to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
“It’s a small beginning of justice starting to be served,” she said. “Impunity has to end at some point. And in his case, we endured a lot.”
Social media filled with posts Saturday remembering people lost to COVID-19, which also happened in September when the Supreme Court convicted Bolsonaro, even though the legal case had nothing to do with the former president’s pandemic response.
Guimarães followed every vote in Bolsonaro’s trial. She was at a hospital with her sister in 2021 when Bolsonaro, who was president at the time, mimicked patients gasping for air.
“I had my forehead against my sister’s. She said, ‘I can’t breathe,’” Guimarães recalled. Her sister later died. “I can’t even bring myself to say his name.”
She now feels indirectly vindicated, like many other Brazilians who lost relatives to the disease. They say Bolsonaro’s conviction and imprisonment cleansed their souls without delivering justice for their grief.
“I’m very afraid that this conviction for crimes related to the coup will lessen the convictions for other crimes committed during the pandemic,” said Diego Orsi, a 41-year-old translator in Sao Paulo, the nation’s largest city. “I feel a bit like the Nuremberg trials had convicted the Nazis for invading Poland, and not for genocide.”
Growing up and then apart
Orsi grew up alongside his cousin, Henrique Cavalari. They were like brothers. In old family photos, the two appear together blowing out birthday candles.
As teenagers, Cavalari introduced Orsi to rock bands. Politically, however, they drifted apart. Orsi considers himself progressive while Cavalari backed Bolsonaro.
“My uncle always leaned right, and my cousin grew up with that mindset,” Orsi said. “During the pandemic, he became convinced there was nothing to worry about, that social distancing restricted freedom and the priority should be protecting the economy.”
Cavalari ran a motorcycle repair shop and was a staunch Bolsonaro supporter. He couldn’t afford to close his shop and the far-right leader’s rhetoric resonated with the mechanics, who attended his rallies even during the deadliest months of the pandemic.
In June 2021, thousands of the president’s supporters rode motorcycles through Sao Paulo with Bolsonaro. That same month, Cavalari died from COVID-19 complications. He was 41.
