General Eduardo Pazuello, responsible for the health ministry in Brazil during most of the Covid-19 pandemic, leaves his post while he is under investigation by the Federal Police and while the country breaks records of deaths from the disease.
Acting general of the Army, Pazuello arrived at the Ministry of Health in April 2020, when Luiz Henrique Mandetta (DEM) resigned. Mandetta publicly disagreed with President Jair Bolsonaro (no party) on the need for social distance measures to contain the advance of the pandemic.
In choosing the doctor Nelson Teich to take the place of the Democrat, Bolsonaro placed Pazuello, who had no experience in health management, as executive secretary of the ministry, under the justification of "coordinating the transition" between the two ministers.
Less than a month later, when Teich resigned on May 15, the general took up the post - at first provisionally, and in September, he was appointed.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon