The Americas | Bello

Jair Bolsonaro isolates himself, in the wrong way

The Brazilian president’s reckless handling of covid-19 will come back to haunt him

Editor’s note: The Economist is making some of its most important coverage of the covid-19 pandemic freely available to readers of The Economist Today, our daily newsletter. To receive it, register here. For our coronavirus tracker and more coverage, see our hub

ONE BY ONE the doubters have made their peace with medical science. Only four rulers in the world continue to deny the threat to public health posed by covid-19. Two are flotsam from the former Soviet Union, the despots of Belarus and Turkmenistan. A third is Daniel Ortega, the tropical dictator of Nicaragua. The other is the elected president of a great, if battered, democracy. Jair Bolsonaro’s undermining of his own government’s efforts to contain the virus may mark the beginning of the end of his presidency.

This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline "A president who is isolating himself"

The business of survival: How covid-19 will reshape global commerce

From the April 11th 2020 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from The Americas

Why Ecuador risked global condemnation to storm Mexico’s embassy

Jorge Glas, who had claimed asylum from Mexico, is accused of abetting drug networks

The world’s insatiable appetite for Canada’s maple syrup

Production is booming, but climate change is making output more erratic


Elon Musk is feuding with Brazil’s powerful Supreme Court

The court has become the de facto regulator of social media in the country