Thousands rally for Bolsonaro despite Brazil’s COVID crisis

Show of support for far-right Brazilian president comes as Jair Bolsonaro faces Senate probe into handling of pandemic.

Thousands of people have rallied across Brazil in support of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, whose handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has been widely decried amid a continuing surge in deaths and infections. Protesters gathered in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and the capital, Brasilia, where thousands assembled on the Esplanade of Ministries as Bolsonaro briefly passed overhead in a helicopter. “It’s a critical moment and Bolsonaro needs the people’s support,” Edvaldo de Paulo, a demonstrator who looked to be in his 60s, told the AFP news agency in Brasilia.