Lula visits the storm zone and seeks a political alliance to face the crisis

First modification: 02/21/2023 – 11:02Last modification: 02/21/2023 – 11:05

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva interrupted his vacation and visited on Monday the coastal region of São Paulo in the southeast of the country, where torrential rains left 40 dead and dozens missing during the carnival weekend.

“What it means is terrifying”

The rescue tasks are concentrated in the large municipality of São Sebastião, a beach destination located about 200 km from São Paulo and which suffered “record” rains, with more than 600 mm in 24 hours, more than double what was expected for the month, according to authorities. The government of São Paulo reported that the rainfall on the São Paulo coast marked the highest accumulated in the history of Brazil and one of the “greatest tragedies in the history” of that state.

“In less than 10 hours they grew 600 millimeters. They woke me up at 04:30 in the morning when they told me that there was a landslide where we were. They are stories, one next to the other, and in a few minutes and in a short distance too. I am very, very impressed by the scenes I saw there,” Sebastián Etchevehere, an Argentine rural leader, told RFI.

There was, he adds, “an entire citizenry that was looking for a resource in some way, because here is the carnival season, so you see all those disoriented people, looking for relatives, some solution, protecting those who are suffering from some ailment… All that situation Obviously, seeing him like this, so skin-deep, is very impressive”.

On Monday evening, the São Paulo government raised the death toll to 40, while dozens of people remained missing. 1,730 people evacuated and 766 homeless were reported, according to the authorities, who deployed more than 600 lifeguards, soldiers and police in the rescue work. The rains affected basic electricity and water services in different municipalities on the São Paulo coast.

“On the one hand, it is the official data that obviously relates the bodies that can be identified, but the stories told by the people that one transits speak of hundreds and hundreds of missing people. So, obviously everyone says that they can’t find a child, can’t find a father… What it really means is terrifying. What you do see is the good will of the people of the state working, accompanying in what is possible”, details Sebastián Etchevehere.

An alliance to “take back the havoc”

The 77-year-old leftist president, who took office for the third time on January 1, later met with regional and local authorities and stressed that cooperation between government authorities, from different parties, was a “good picture” for Brazil, which continues under a tense political climate after polarized presidential elections and the attack on January 8 to the seats of power by followers of the far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro. “I can guarantee that my ministers will be willing to talk so that we can make an alliance to really recover the damage that the rain caused here in São Paulo,” the president said in a statement in São Sebastião.

Governor Tarcisio de Freitas, Bolsonaro’s former minister and considered his successor by many, confirmed the collaboration with the federal government regardless of political signs and declared mourning for three days in São Paulo and a “state of calamity” in six municipalities to facilitate the deployment of resources. He released some 1.5 million dollars for rescue efforts, while the Ministry of Finance announced a shipment for some 2.2 million dollars in clothing, footwear, and personal hygiene and cleaning items.

In Brazil, 9.5 million people live in areas at risk from landslides or flooding, many of them in favelas, according to the state-run National Center for Monitoring and Alerts of Natural Disasters (Cemaden). Brazil suffers from frequent extreme events, and scientists do not rule out a link to the effects of climate change.

And with the AFP