RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) \u2014 Anti-government protesters took to the streets in more than a score of cities across Brazil on Saturday as the nation’<\/b>
\nRIO DE JANEIRO (AP) \u2014 Anti-government protesters took to the streets in more than a score of cities across Brazil on Saturday as the nation\u2019s confirmed death toll from COVID-19 soared past half a million \u2014 a tragedy many critics blame on President Jair Bolsonaro\u2019s attempt to minimize the disease. Thousands gathered in downtown Rio de Janeiro waving flags with slogans such as \u201cGet out Bolsonaro. Government of hunger and unemployment.\u201d \u201cBrazil is experiencing a great setback. The country was an exemplary country for vaccination in the world. We have widely recognized institutions, but today we are in a sad situation \u201d, said Isabela Gouljor, a 20-year-old student who joined the protest in Rio. Other marchers hoisted posters reading: \u201c500 thousand deaths. It\u2019s his fault,\u201d alluding to Bolsonaro. Similar marches took place in at least 22 or Brazil\u2019s 26 states, as well as in the Federal District, Brasilia. They were promoted by left-wing opposition parties who have been heartened by Bolsonaro\u2019s declining poll ratings with next year\u2019s presidential race looming. \u201cGet out Bolsonaro, genocidal,\u201d yelled Rio demonstrators, some of them wearing t-shirts or masks with the image of former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva \u2014 who leads Bolsonaro in some polls. In S\u00e3o Paulo, protesters dropped red balloons as a tribute to the victims of the virus Bolsonaro\u2019s supporters have taken more often to the streets over the past month, in large part because many agree with his dismissal of restrictions meant to stifle the coronavirus and anger that lockdown measures have hurt businesses. Critics say such messages, as well as Bolsonaro\u2019s promotion of disproven treatments such as hydroxychloroquine, have contributed to the soaring death toll and a sluggish vaccine campaign that has fully inoculated less than 12% of the population. The country of some 213 million people is registering nearly 100,000 new infections and 2,000 deaths a day. \u201cFor the leftists, putting their followers in the streets is a way of wearing Bolsonaro down for the election,\u201d said Leandro Consentino, a political science professor at Insper, a university in Sao Paulo. \u201cBut at the same, time they are contradicting themselves and losing the discourse of maintaining health care, because they are causing the same agglomerations as Bolsonaro.\u201d Saturday\u2019s marches came a week after Bolsonaro led backers in a massive motorcycle parade in Sao Paulo, though his supporters and critics differ dramatically on the size of that event. \u201cBolsonaro needs to show that he maintains significant support to give a message of strength to those who are investigating the actions of his government in Congress\u201d, Consentino said. Copyright \u00a9 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.<\/p>\n