A $ 45 million bill for three million doses of Covaxin vaccine from India’s Bharat Biotech lab arrived March 18 at the desk of Luis Ricardo Miranda, who is responsible for importing drugs at the Ministry of Health.
The vaccine has not yet been delivered. But what intrigued Miranda, who refused to authorize the payment, was that the contract (totaling $ 300 million) that matched that bill did not mention Madison Biotech, the Singaporean company that sent it and which will be a front. …
There were several warning signs, according to Miranda, who testified Friday before the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) set up two months ago by the Senate to determine the government’s responsibility to tackle the pandemic that has already killed more than 500,000 people in Brazil. …
The operation is even stranger because Bolsonaro, who regularly discounts expert advice on the pandemic, has previously rejected offers for cheaper and more effective vaccines.
Miranda then said she received calls from her bosses, putting what she called “unusual and excessive” pressure to approve the deal. Shortly thereafter, other violations of the agreement arose and the government canceled the operation.
According to the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, Bharat Biotech originally listed the immunizing agent dose at $ 1.34, but Brazil agreed to pay $ 15 for the product, more than any other vaccine it has purchased.
Miranda expressed concern to her brother, MP Luis Miranda (DEM-DF), a supporter of Bolsonar, who reportedly received both of them on March 20 at his residence in Brasilia.
According to what the Miranda brothers told CPI, Bolsonaro guaranteed that he would refer the case to the Federal Police. What he apparently never did, which could have led the CPI this week to convict the president in front of the Home Office for “tricks.”
The opposition called for protests on Wednesday and Saturday, demanding the “impeachment” of the head of state.
The plot is complex
According to MP Miranda, at a meeting on March 20, Bolsonaro expressed concern about the political impact of the case and his suspicions about the author of the scheme. “If I screw it up, you know what the hell is going to happen. It must be something for “so and so,” the deputy said.
Under pressure from senators to name “so and so,” the MP insisted that he did not remember anything until, barely holding back tears, he finally revealed his name: Ricardo Barros (PP-PR), an influential MP who heads the government bench.
“I will be persecuted, I have lost all space, I have lost everything that I have. I know what will happen to me, ”said Miranda, who arrived for the session in a bulletproof vest.
Barros, the former health minister, denied any wrongdoing, as did Bolsonaro, who claims the contract was terminated and accuses the Miranda brothers of a smear campaign against him.
“It was the first big bomb” to surface in two months of CPI’s operation, Geraldo Monteiro, a political scientist at the State University of Rio de Janeiro, told AFP.
“We have several pieces of evidence that clearly demonstrate the federal government’s negligence and denial of all the mistakes made in the fight against the pandemic, but without any very serious facts that could be a sign of the CPI and contribute to a possible impeachment of the president.”
Thus, the investigation appears to be shifting into the criminal realm, although observers find it unlikely that federal prosecutor Augusto Aras, an ally of Bolsonaro, will demand the opening of an investigation in the Supreme Court.
Barros is the most pressing problem for the president in the wake of his sharp decline in popularity.
If he protects him, Bolsonaro will destroy the anti-corruption platform that helped him become president in 2018. If he leaves him, he risks severing his alliance with Centrão, a motley group of conservative parties specializing in negotiating budget advantages.
This alliance has protected the president from disclosing any of the more than a hundred impeachment orders that are piling up against him in the Chamber of Deputies.
“Barros can start putting pressure on his party to break with Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro is losing popularity, impeachment is gaining momentum, ”said Michael Mohallem, professor of law at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.
In anticipation of the plot’s denouement, the #CovaxinGate hashtag went viral on social media. And the message went viral: “The Covaxin vaccine is so powerful that it will destroy Bolsonara.”
