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Bolsonaro courts powerful bloc with minister appointment

AFP

Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro, whose popularity has plummeted recently, on Tuesday named a senator from the largest bloc in congress as his new chief of staff.

Ciro Nogueira, 52, who represents the right-wing and center-right “centrao” (large center) bloc, will take on the role of minister of the civil house, a Cabinet-level position that is equivalent to a chief of staff.

“I have just accepted the honorable invitation from President Jair Bolsonaro to take over the Civil House,” said Nogueira on Twitter during a meeting with the president in Brasilia.

Nogueira is president of the Progressistas (Progressives) party that is among those to be courted recently by Bolsonaro, who ran for election in 2018 by opposing the “old politics” of such parties.

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Legislators from the centrao bloc are known to offer votes in exchange for investment in their states, while their support for presidents can be fickle. 

For example, many legislators from the bloc initially supported leftist Dilma Rousseff (2011-16) before subsequently voting for her impeachment.

This “give and take” form of governance has led to numerous scandals and corruption investigations over the years.

Bolsonaro spent almost 30 years of his political career with parties in the centrao, but he affiliated himself with the far right PSL when running for president in 2018 on an anti-establishment ticket.

He broke from the PSL just a few months later.

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Initially he tried to govern without support from the centrao but his chaotic pandemic management and embroilment in a corruption scandal related to the purchase of vaccines saw his popularity plummet to just 24 percent.

Bolsonaro was thus forced to court the centrao, particularly with a general election just over a year away.

This year, he supported the election of two centrao legislators to head the Chamber of Deputies and Senate.

“I’m from the centrao, I was born here,” Bolsonaro said last week in defense of his imminent appointment of Nogueira.

In the latest opinion polls he has trailed well behind leftist former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2010).

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International

Trump urges Putin to reach peace deal

On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his desire for Russian President Vladimir Putin to “reach a deal” to end the war in Ukraine, while also reaffirming his willingness to impose sanctions on Russia.

“I want to see him reach an agreement to prevent Russian, Ukrainian, and other people from dying,” Trump stated during a press conference in the Oval Office at the White House.

“I think he will. I don’t want to have to impose secondary tariffs on Russian oil,” the Republican leader added, recalling that he had already taken similar measures against Venezuela by sanctioning buyers of the South American country’s crude oil.

Trump also reiterated his frustration over Ukraine’s resistance to an agreement that would allow the United States to exploit natural resources in the country—a condition he set in negotiations to end the war.

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International

Deportation flight lands in Venezuela; government denies criminal gang links

A flight carrying 175 Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrived in Caracas on Sunday. This marks the third group to return since repatriation flights resumed a week ago, and among them is an alleged member of a criminal organization, according to Venezuelan authorities.

Unlike previous flights operated by the Venezuelan state airline Conviasa, this time, an aircraft from the U.S. airline Eastern landed at Maiquetía Airport, on the outskirts of Caracas, shortly after 2:00 p.m. with the deportees.

Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, who welcomed the returnees at the airport, stated that the 175 repatriated individuals were coming back “after being subjected, like all Venezuelans, to persecution” and dismissed claims that they belonged to the criminal organization El Tren de Aragua.

However, Cabello confirmed that “for the first time in these flights we have been carrying out, someone of significance wanted by Venezuelan justice has arrived, and he is not from El Tren de Aragua.” Instead, he belongs to a gang operating in the state of Trujillo. The minister did not disclose the individual’s identity or provide details on where he would be taken.

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International

Son of journalist José Rubén Zamora condemns father’s return to prison as “illegal”

Guatemalan court decides Wednesday whether to convict journalist José Rubén Zamora

The son of renowned journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, José Carlos Zamora, has denounced as “illegal” the court order that sent his father back to a Guatemalan prison on March 3, after already spending 819 days behind barsover a highly irregular money laundering case.

“My father’s return to prison was based on an arbitrary and illegal ruling. It is also alarming that the judge who had granted him house arrest received threats,” José Carlos Zamora told EFE in an interview on Saturday.

The 67-year-old journalist was sent back to prison inside the Mariscal Zavala military barracks on March 3, when Judge Erick García upheld a Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the house arrest granted to him in October. Zamora had already spent 819 days in prison over an alleged money laundering case.

His son condemned the situation as “unacceptable”, stating that the judge handling the case “cannot do his job in accordance with the law due to threats against his life.”

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