Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas is currently in sanitary emergency | Photo: @amazonia_real

Brasilia, April 25 (RHC)-- Brazilian demonstrators protested in the Manaus region against the granting of the title of 'Amazonian Citzen' to President Jair Bolsonaro, awarded by 13 of the 24 members of the State Legislature on April 20th.

"In our blood runs the history of Indigenous peoples, riparians, quilombolas.  Out with Bolsonaro!" screamed protesters at a public rally.  For her part, an activist of the Brazilian Women's Articulation (AMB), Francy Júnior, blamed the head of state for the mishandling of the pandemic, saying: "Bolsonaro is responsible for more than 12,000 deaths here in our state."

The mayor of Manaus, Arthur Virgílio Neto, denounced to international media that since April 22, 2020 the complex situation that the Amazon was going through at the beginning of the pandemic, where the city registered an average of 20 to 35 burials per day.  Now, he said, the burials have tripled and there were about a hundred per day. 

On January 15, 2021, Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas, was still in a health emergency after an increase in hospitalizations of patients with coronavirus.  

Protesters said that the award that declared Jair Bolsonaro an illustrious citizen did not make any reference to the president's disasterous governmental management during the pandemic.