Hours of waiting, anxiety and sometimes frustration: crowds of Brazilians gathered in front of the branches of a public bank on Wednesday, without much social distancing, to receive aid from the government.
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This allocation is intended for the most vulnerable, while the coronavirus crisis has already deprived millions of families of resources and threatens the country of 210 million inhabitants of a deep recession. "I arrived at 2 am to be one of the first in the queue , " says Alexandre Alves, a mason met, in the midst of hundreds of other people, in front of a branch of the Caixa Economica Federal, in Rio Comprido, district of the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro. "But it is almost 10 am and the bank has not yet opened. It's amazing how the government treats us , ” said the 54-year-old man, his face eaten by a surgical mask.
The scene is repeated in many districts of Brazilian cities, like in Rio in those of Copacabana or Ipanema, where the recommended distance of at least one meter between two people is far from being respected, noted an AFP photographer . This aid is 600 reais (103 euros) per month and per person for the unemployed, micro-entrepreneurs and workers in the informal economy. In the case of a head of the family, it can reach 1,200 reais. The Caixa Económica Federal, the public bank that distributes this allowance, ran a campaign to explain to beneficiaries how to register on the internet or via applications on their mobile phones.
But that did not prevent battalions of Brazilians from moving to its branches, even though the population is called to stay at home by the authorities so as not to be contaminated. According to this bank, more than 44 million people have already benefited from this aid and up to 60 million Brazilians could claim it, in a country where the informal economy has a significant weight. But some have waited hours for nothing.
"According to a survey by the bank, only one in five who went to the counter last Monday was entitled to collect their allowance," said Caixa in a statement. Indeed, to avoid large gatherings in a country where coronavirus cases are increasing exponentially, the bank had developed a spread of withdrawals according to the dates of birth of the beneficiaries.