A series of photo-shocks of starving Brazilians rummaging among piled up carcasses and butchery scraps, looking for something to eat, is becoming a symbol of the extreme social conditions in which populous Brazil, overwhelmed by the Covid-19 pandemic, finds itself. The images, which show a man squatting in a truck container on a mountain of animal remains – bones, scraps and entrails, collected in supermarkets and destined for pet food and soap factories – were taken in Rio de Janeiro from photojournalist Domingos Peixoto, already winner of several awards.
“There are days I would like to cry,” José Divino Santos, the driver of the truck, confided to Peixoto and the reporter Rafael Nascimento de Souza of the Extra newspaper. The latter launched the photo shoot with a headline in block letters: “Brazil 2021: the pain of hunger”, which created shock throughout the country. “In the past people came to me to ask if I could give a bone for the dog. Today people are begging me to get something to eat, ”says Santos, quoted by the Guardian.
A rummager, 51-year-old Denise, confessed that she needed something to feed her five children after losing her partner. «You don’t know how long it has been since I saw a piece of meat. It’s from before the pandemic. I am truly grateful for this », adds the woman with some offal in her hand.
In Brazil, where Covid-19, long underestimated by President Jair Bolsonaro, has killed more than 600,000 people, it is estimated that at least 19,000 people are or nearly starved. Yesterday in Rio once again thousands of people marched to protest against the government, which is blamed for the disastrous situation in which Brazil finds itself.