![Brazil has recorded more than 366,000 coronavirus deaths, the second-highest total in the world after the United States [File: Diego Vara/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/2021-04-02T194256Z_531999631_RC2VNM9X8A8Z_RTRMADP_3_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-BRAZIL.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Coronavirus surge is spurring desperate calls for strict lockdown measures but President Bolsonaro still rejects curbs.
Jair Bolsonaro
![Lula, 75, who led Brazil from 2003 to 2010, had a corruption conviction against him annulled earlier this month [File: Amanda Perobelli/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2021-03-12T161833Z_658822461_RC2S9M9IZKBV_RTRMADP_3_BRAZIL-POLITICS-LULA.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Ex-president hits out at President Bolsonaro, saying the country will not withstand COVID if ‘he continues to govern’.
![Just in the past 75 days, Brazil has registered 100,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths, a spike health experts blame on a lack of political coordination [Amanda Perobelli/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2021-03-24T223925Z_923191550_RC2YHM904S7Q_RTRMADP_3_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-BRAZIL-1.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
Latin American nation becomes the second country to reach the grim milestone after the United States.
![Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been dismissive of the coronavirus pandemic and vaccines but faces growing pressure with numbers of infections and deaths reaching record highs in Brazil [File: Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2021-03-18T135120Z_1475340661_RC2PDM9EUNOE_RTRMADP_3_USA-BRAZIL.jpg?resize=570%2C380)
President Joe Biden said his government is willing to work closely with Brazil on a new chapter in bilateral relations.
![A doctor assists a patient admitted to an Intensive Care Unit in the city of Porto Alegre [Marcelo Oliveira/EPA]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/h_56769696.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Brazilian President Bolsonaro faces mounting pressure as coronavirus infections and deaths continue to mount.
![COVID-19 patients are cared for in an area that was improvised to accommodate more patients at the public HRAN Hospital in Brasilia, Brazil [File: Eraldo Peres/AP Photo]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/AP_21067479823171.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
An attempt by governors to impose nationwide restrictions, opposed by President Jair Bolsonaro, has fallen short.
![Brazil's former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva spent 18 months in jail after a corruption conviction that has been annulled [File: Amanda Perobelli/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2020-11-15T152301Z_1445376498_RC2R3K9R826J_RTRMADP_3_BRAZIL-ELECTIONS.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Supreme Court judge annuls former Brazilian president’s corruption conviction, restoring his political rights.
![Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro replaced the state-controlled Petrobras's market-friendly CEO with a retired army general [File: Sergio Moraes/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/petro.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
The selloff came after Bolsonaro criticised the firm’s fuel policies as being only pleasing to financial markets.
![Argentina's economy shrank 10.4 percent in 2020 and is forecasted to grow by 4.5 percent this year, according to figures from the International Monetary Fund [File: Agustin Marcarian/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/buenos.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
The region’s 4.1% forecasted growth for 2021 is dependent on effective vaccine roll-outs and recovery of the US economy.
![An elderly resident recieves the Sinovac's coronavirus vaccine at a drive-through vaccination station for senior citizens in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil [File: Pilar Olivares/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2021-02-05T193122Z_1599463657_RC2JML90D71P_RTRMADP_3_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-BRAZIL.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of pandemic and slow vaccine distribution has led to protests and investigation.
![The probe into Bolsonaro and his Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello follows requests by eight federal congressmen from the far-left Communist Party of Brazil for an investigation to be started [FileL Adriano Machado/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2021-01-27T131115Z_890991710_RC2DGL9XR1J2_RTRMADP_3_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-BRAZIL-VACCINES.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Prosecutor-general probing government response after COVID-19 outbreak pushes hospitals in the Amazon to breaking point.
!['Prices soared after the Health Ministry expressed an interest in buying syringes," Bolsonaro wrote on social media [File: Eraldo Peres/AP]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/AP_20007638548499.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Brazil’s government failed to buy hundreds of millions of syringes via auctions for its COVID-19 vaccination drive.
![Destruction of the Amazon rainforest rose to 11,088sq km (2.7 million acres) in 2020 [File: Andre Penner/AP Photo]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/AP_20228726943013.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Destruction of the world’s largest rainforest in 2020 rose 9.5 percent from a year earlier according to government data.
![Weeks after Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump in the United States election, Bolsonaro (left) still has not recognised Biden's victory [File: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters]](/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2019-03-19T183908Z_1143068894_RC1D17EE2A00_RTRMADP_3_USA-BRAZIL.jpg?resize=270%2C180)
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has made a show of his admiration for and close ties to US President Donald Trump.