Brazil: President overhauls cabinet amid Covid surge

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro overhauled his government Monday, changing six cabinet members including the foreign, defense and justice ministers, as the far-right leader faced mounting pressure over a deadly surge of Covid-19. The shake-up comes the week after Bolsonaro replaced former health minister Eduardo Pazuello, an army general with no medical experience, with cardiologist Marcelo Queiroga, his fourth health minister of the pandemic.The president named army General Luiz Eduardo Ramos as his new chief of staff, career diplomat Carlos Franca as his new foreign minister, General Walter Souza Braga Netto -- the outgoing chief of staff -- as defense minister, and police commander Anderson Torres as justice minister.

He also appointed a new attorney general, outgoing justice minister Andre Mendonca, and government secretary, Congresswoman Flavia Arruda -- the third woman in his 22-member cabinet. Bolsonaro has been on a purge, amid growing dissatisfaction -- including from allies in the business sector -- over his handling of a pandemic that has now claimed more than 312,000 lives in Brazil, the second-highest death toll worldwide, after the United States. Brazil is struggling to deal with an explosion of infections, blamed partly on a local variant that is believed to be more contagious, at a time when vaccines are finally helping some other countries bring the pandemic under control.