\n<\/p>\n
S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s teetotal governor, Tarc\u00edsio de Freitas, has been forced to apologise after responding to a deadly methanol poisoning crisis by joking that he would only start worrying when bootleggers began making fake Coca-Cola.<\/p>\n
Freitas, a close ally of the former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, made the comment during a press conference about his response to an alcohol contamination scandal focused on his state that has killed at least three people. The victims include a 30-year-old mother who died after drinking a vodka and fruit juice cocktail at a party.<\/p>\n
Brazil\u2019s health minister, Alexandre Padilha, a doctor, has urged citizens to avoid white spirits such as vodka and gin until authorities discover the source of the tainted drinks. \u201cWe\u2019re not talking about an essential product in people\u2019s lives,\u201d Padilha said last week.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Freitas appeared to make light of the situation as he described the concerns of manufacturers of spirits such as Jack Daniel\u2019s and Johnnie Walker had over the illegal counterfeiting <\/em>of their products. \u201c[Alcohol] isn\u2019t my cup of tea,\u201d said the presidential hopeful.<\/p>\n \u201cThe day they start faking Coca-Cola is the day I\u2019ll worry. It\u2019s just as well they haven\u2019t reached this point yet,\u201d Freitas added with an awkward smile.<\/p>\n The remark went viral and unleashed a torrent of criticism, with many comparing it to Bolsonaro\u2019s callous and incompetent response to Covid, which killed more than 700,000 Brazilians.<\/p>\n \u201cSo what? I\u2019m sorry. What do you want me to do?\u201d Bolsonaro asked a reporter in April 2020 when asked about the fast-rising death toll. A year later, with more than 260,000 dead, Bolsonaro told citizens to stop \u201cwhining\u201d.<\/p>\n Freitas \u2013 who hopes to inherit Bolsonaro\u2019s political movement after his mentor\u2019s recent sentencing to 27 years in prison for plotting a military coup \u2013 voiced regret for his comments on Tuesday.<\/p>\n He admitted \u201ccracking a joke\u201d to lighten the mood but claimed his words had been \u201creally misinterpreted\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI ask for forgiveness, from the families who are suffering after losing loved-ones [and] from business owners whose businesses are suffering,\u201d said Freitas, who many expect to challenge the leftwing incumbent, Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, for the presidency in next year\u2019s election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s teetotal governor, Tarc\u00edsio de Freitas, has been forced to apologise after responding to a deadly methanol poisoning crisis by joking that he would only start worrying when bootleggers began making fake Coca-Cola. Freitas, a close ally of the former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, made the comment during a press conference about his response<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[16069,3160,8086,187,151,7055,16070,16071,12650],"class_list":{"0":"post-26826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-apologies","9":"tag-brazil","10":"tag-brazilian","11":"tag-crisis","12":"tag-deadly","13":"tag-governor","14":"tag-joking","15":"tag-methanol","16":"tag-poisoning"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}