Brazil

President Jair Bolsonaro has tried to sabotage public health measures aimed at curbing the spread of Covid-19, while seeking prison sentences against people who criticized his disastrous response to the pandemic. His administration has weakened environmental law enforcement, effectively giving a green light to criminal networks that engage in illegal deforestation in the Amazon and use intimidation and violence against forest defenders. It has also erected new barriers to accessing legal abortion. The chronic problem of police killings continues unabated. Many prisons are severely overcrowded, leaving detainees vulnerable to violence, extortion, and recruitment by gangs.