SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Police in riot gear stormed a rally on Saturday, removing hundreds of protesters by truck, and removing hundreds of protesters by truck. made the most deadly.
COVID-19 killed 12,000 Brazilians last week, more than any other country. With 275,000 lives in total, Brazil’s death toll is the United States alone, where the epidemic is declining dramatically.
Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria is one of the state and municipal authorities that is increasing restrictions as Brazil’s outbreak rises to record levels, fueled by more contagious local variants. However, many Brazilians still defy the measures, encouraged by President Jair Bolsonaro, which track down locks as murderous and unnecessary.
Sao Paulo officials have taken increasingly dramatic steps to show that they mean business, including intensified ‘lightning strikes’ to suppress the city’s famous nightlife.
With axes and assault rifles, police officers broke down the door of the nightclub in the Capao Redondo district in the city and pierced the darkness with lights on their rifles. Hundreds of young parties, few of whom were disguised, crouched on the dance floor as police silenced the music and arrested organizers.
“I could never imagine hundreds and hundreds of people in a place without a single window, with all the doors closed,” said Eduardo Brotero, the police officer in charge of the operation.
Jefferson dos Santos, one of the revealers who was forced to leave the party, expressed his disagreement with the operation: ‘We pay taxes and we know what the risks are, we can get sick or our family infected. But we need to do something in life. ”
The consumer defense agency Procon-SP said it had fined about 100 businesses for violating the latest restrictions. Carlos Cesar Marera, executive director of Procon-SP, said the city’s secret parties are being arranged over the internet.
“These young people, usually 18 to 23 years old, gather at these parties without social distance at a time when thousands of people are dying.”
Reporting by Leonardo Benassato in Sao Paulo; Writing by Tatiana Bautzer; Edited by Brad Haynes and Alistair Bell