Impoverishment, hunger, and pandemic: Emergency Aid, the end of the Bolsa Família Benefit, and its replacement, Auxílio Brasil, 2019-2022

Abstract

This article addresses the political choices made by the Brazilian government concerning conditional cash transfer programs during the covid-19 pandemic. The aim is to analyze how the covid-related Emergency Aid (Auxílio Emergencial), the extinction of the Bolsa Família Program, and the implementation of its replacement, Auxílio Brasil, interacted in the rearrangement and dismantling of Brazil’s social protection network in a broader context of a generalized impoverishment of Brazilian workers. The article not only presents a record of these actions, but also offers an interpretative approach that, historically contextualized, can shed light on these actions, which ran parallel to the deepening entrenchment of neoliberal policies in the country.