With his city experiencing a major hit from the coronavirus pandemic, the mayor of Manaus City in Brazil called out the country's president and accused him of being partly responsible for the increasing COVID-19 death toll in the country.
Leading a city of more than 2 million, Mayor Arthur Virgilio Neto called for the resignation of Balsonaro. He also said that the president should keep his mouth shut and just stay home instead of continuously joining anti-stay-at-home rallies, Republic World reported.
Moreover, Neto also told CNN that while Balsonaro's dream is to become a strongman, his wits is not up to the task.
Neto's calls to the president follow the growing outrage in Brazil as the country's COVID-19 infections continue to rise and as they rank second, after the United States, as the country with most coronavirus infections.
A Retaliation
However, it is clear that Neto's attack on the president did not come unprovoked. In a footage of a cabinet meeting that happened back in April but was only released last week, Bolsonaro also cursed Neto due to the mass graves that the mayor dug up in order to cope up with the increasing death toll in the city lying in the heart of the Amazon.
Based on the latest data Neto's city, Manaus has already reported at least 1,182 deaths out of 39,155 cases. Only on Saturday, there were 51 burials that were held for COVID-19 casualties in the city.
Since the outbreak started Balsonaro has continuously tried to brush off the lethality of the killer virus, however, many have speculated that Bolsonaro's actions were more about protecting the economy rather than protect the lives of the people.
According to CTV News, Neto expressed his frustrations during an interview outside a newly erected hospital in Manaus, which aimed to help in the sudden surge of COVID-19 cases.Neto said that the president's rhetoric on protecting the economy has affected his calls to isolate their city, thus causing the high number of cases. Neto also said that many people tend to listen to Balsonaro, thus, this makes him partially responsible for the coronavirus deaths in the country.
Neto also questioned Bolsonaro's qualifications as the country's president and his capabilities to lead the 210 million residents of the Latin American Country.
Bolsonaro in Rallies
During the same afternoon of Neto's interview, Bolsonaro graced his supporters in another rally held in Brasilia, the capital of the Brazilian government. Bolsonaro was also seen not wearing a face mask amid the crowds.
This also added to the piling grievances of Neto who said that the president soes not even know how to correctly use a facemask and increases spread of the virus by talking to people without a facial covering.
The presidents's has been in constant appearances during anti-lockdown rallies almost on a weekly basis which has also earned the ire of other people who are worried amid the cases of COVID-19 in the country.
