‘Painful to watch’: Bolsonaro cuts isolated figure in pictures and videos from G20 summit

Visuals from G20 events over the weekend did not include Bolsonaro

File: Visuals from the G20 summit showed an isolated Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (AP)

Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro was bumped out of the farewell photo of world leaders attending the G20 summit last week after his security detail allegedly turned violent against Brazilian reporters covering his diplomatic trip to Rome.

The visuals from G20 events over the weekend did not include Mr Bolsonaro, while most of the world leaders from 20 nations were seen in the photo.

More visuals from the G20 summit showed an isolated Brazilian president amid the crowd, eating by himself while the rest of the leaders were seen addressing meetings.

“Bolsonaro goes unnoticed, it really is a disaster,” a Twitter user wrote in Portuguese.

Experts have said that the photos excluding Brazil’s top leader from the rank of world leaders shows the nation’s position.

Oliver Stuenkel, an international relations professor at the Getulio Vargas, said in a tweet: “This video of Bolsonaro walking around alone in the G20 conference hall, while other world leaders are chatting, is painful to watch, but it adequately reflects the collapse of Brazil’s standing in the world.”

When Mr Bolsonaro stepped out on the streets of Rome, several people in the crowd chanted “genocidal,” in a reference to his administration’s shoddy handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has left Brazil battered.

Local media reports said Mr Bolsonaro’s security personnel punched TV Globo broadcast journalist Leonardo Monteiro in the stomach and pushed him after he asked why the Brazilian president did not attend any of the G20 summit events.

In a video shot by journalist Jamil Chade, the crowd around Mr Bolsonaro was seen getting into an altercation as the security staff jostled the press and abused the reporters.

The violent handling by Mr Bolsonaro’s security personnel was rebuked by TV Globo which issued a statement and said that it “condemns the aggression against its correspondent Leonardo Monteiro and other colleagues in Rome.”

The broadcast company has also sought a complete assessment of responsibilities.

No statement has been issued by Mr Bolsonaro’s office over the president’s exclusion from the world leaders’ photo.

Mr Bolsonaro’s rift with the local press has widened amid criticism over administrative failures following the Covid-19 pandemic.

The president should be indicted for nine crimes due to his questionable handling of the contagion outbreak, a Brazilian senate panel recommended last week.

Brazil has seen more than 600,000 Covid-19 deaths, only second to the US.

In return, the president accused the media of treating him unfairly by publishing “fake news.”