Brazilians dig mock mass graves to protest President Bolsonaro's handling of coronavirus outbreak

Our Foreign Staff The Telegraph 12 June 2020

Protesters on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro dug 100 mock graves to protest bad governance - CARL DE SOUZA/AFP

Brazilians critical of their government's ambiguous response to a surging coronavirus pandemic dug 100 graves and stuck black crosses in the sand of Rio's Copacabana beach on Thursday in a tribute to the nearly 40,000 people who have died so far.

The country has become a major epicentre of the global pandemic, with the world's worst outbreak after the United States.

"The president has not realized that this is one of the most dramatic crises in Brazil's history," said organizer Antonio Carlos Costa, referring to President Jair Bolsonaro. "Families are mourning thousands of dead, and there is unemployment and hunger."


An aerial perspective of the graves dug by the NGO 'Rio De Paz' as part of their protest against President Jair Bolsonaro - Buda Mendes/Getty Images South AmericaMore

"We are here to demand a change of attitude from the president... who must understand that our nation is facing the most difficult moment in its history."

The action comes as a worrying social crisis is brewing in Latin America where the coronavirus pandemic is spiralling, experts are warning.

More than 1.5 million people have been infected in Central and South America - 70,000 of them are already dead - with no signs of the disease slowing, especially in hard-hit Brazil.

The crisis could provoke the region's "worst recession in history", the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) said.