International
Lula puts diverse new face on Brazil government
January 6th | By AFP |
Brazil’s new President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva held his first cabinet meeting Friday, getting down to the business of “rebuilding” and “reunifying” the country after his divisive election battle with far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.
The veteran leftist’s new government looks radically different from Bolsonaro’s, with 11 women, five blacks and two Indigenous ministers — a break with the previous administration, which was dominated by white men and military generals.
Here is a look at five key figures in the new government.
Finance novice
Lula, 77, ignored market pressure and named a political pick for finance minister: Fernando Haddad, a longtime ally who ran for president for his Workers’ Party (PT) in 2018.
The choice has not exactly thrilled the business world: stocks in Latin America’s biggest economy fell more than three percent Monday on the first business day of Lula’s term, with investors nervous over how he will fund his promised social spending, given Brazil’s already overstretched government finances.
Haddad, 59, a lawyer who previously served as education minister and Sao Paulo mayor, has sought to send a message of fiscal discipline.
“We’re not here to go on big-spending adventures,” he said Monday at his swearing-in. “We’re here to ensure the economy resumes growing to meet the population’s needs in health, education and social programs, while guaranteeing fiscal balance and sustainability.”
Environmental crusader
Marina Silva, a veteran environmentalist, faces the huge job of rebuilding Brazil’s environmental protection agencies and stanching the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, which surged under Bolsonaro.
The diminutive but fiery 64-year-old environment minister, who rose from a childhood of poverty in the Amazon to become a respected activist and politician, vowed Wednesday as she took office to ensure Brazil “stops being an international pariah” on climate issues.
Environmental groups are calling for her to take urgent, decisive action — and for Lula to give her the power to do so.
The two had a falling-out when she previously served as environment minister during his first presidency. She quit in 2008 after disagreements with his pro-development policies in the Amazon.
‘Rebuilding bridges’
Career diplomat Mauro Vieira, 71, says his task as Brazil’s new foreign minister is to “rebuild the country’s bridges with the world.”
Brazil is coming off four years of mounting isolation under Bolsonaro, who cultivated close ties with former US president Donald Trump but alienated many of Brazil’s traditional partners, especially Europe and China.
Lula has vowed to renew Brazil’s traditional multilateralism, especially on climate issues — though he has also raised eyebrows in the West with some comments, such as saying Ukraine bears equal blame for its war with Russia.
Vieira, a respected foreign service veteran, previously served as foreign minister under ex-president Dilma Rousseff from 2015 to 2016.
He took office Monday vowing: “Brazil is back.”
Northeastern connection
Lula, who won the October election thanks to overwhelming support in Brazil’s impoverished northeast, has named four former governors from the region to his cabinet.
One of the most powerful figures in his administration will be Justice Minister Flavio Dino, 54, former governor of the northeastern state of Maranhao, who ran in 2015-2022.
A former judge, Dino was a vocal Lula spokesman during the transition period, condemning “unacceptable terrorism” by far-right hardliners refusing to accept the election result, after a Bolsonaro supporter was arrested for planting a tanker truck rigged with explosives near the Brasilia airport.
Minorities, ‘you exist’
New Human Rights Minister Silvio Almeida, a 46-year-old black lawyer and public intellectual, turned heads on his first day in office with an impassioned speech that underlined the new administration’s break with the Bolsonaro years.
Speaking to groups that complained of being marginalized, discriminated against or ignored under Bolsonaro — including blacks, women, the disabled and the LGBT community — he repeated over and over: “You exist, and you are valuable to us.”
The speech drew loud cheers and went viral online, cementing Almeida’s status as a rising star in Brazilian politics.
International
Austrian man arrested in Croatia with deceased woman as passenger in his car
A 65-year-old Austrian citizen was arrested at a border checkpoint in Croatia after attempting to enter the country in his car with a deceased woman sitting as a passenger, police announced on Tuesday.
The man was detained in a routine check in late November in Gunja, a border area separating Bosnia from Croatia, the police told AFP. Suspicious because they saw “no consciousness or movement” from the passenger, Croatian officers called a doctor, who confirmed the death of the 83-year-old woman, also Austrian, according to her identification.
The woman’s relationship to the suspect is unknown. She had died in Bosnia, and the man intended to repatriate her body to Austria to “avoid the formalities related to transporting a corpse,” according to the police. Croatian media reported that the man was her legal guardian.
Once her death was confirmed, a funeral service took charge of the body.
International
Colombian nationals arrested for human trafficking and disappearance of migrant boat
Colombian authorities arrested two nationals accused of the illegal trafficking of migrants to the United States and of endangering lives due to the disappearance of a boat with 40 people aboard, U.S. Department of Justice officials reported on Tuesday.
Hernando Manuel de la Cruz Rivera Orjuela, 52, and Luis Enrique Linero Pinto, 40, both Colombian citizens, were arrested on December 13 in Colombia at the request of the United States for their alleged involvement in a “transnational human trafficking operation,” the department said in a statement.
According to the charges, the detainees were transporting migrants to San Andrés Island in the Caribbean, where they would then be taken by boat to Nicaragua. The goal was to reach the United States through Central America and Mexico.
The accused are said to have advised the migrants on how to reach San Andrés Island, where they personally received them, arranged accommodations, and “took them to the boats that transported them to Nicaragua so they could enter the United States illegally,” the statement reads.
“These defendants put several migrants on the boat that disappeared off the coast of Nicaragua in 2023,” said Deputy Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, as cited in the statement.
Both men are “directly and personally responsible for the illicit trafficking of migrants on that vessel,” according to the indictment dated October 23.
International
Homemade landmine explosion in Michoacán kills two soldiers, injures five
Two soldiers were killed and five others were injured by the explosion of homemade landmines planted by a criminal group in a mountainous area of the Mexican state of Michoacán (west), the Secretary of Defense reported on Tuesday.
The attack occurred on Monday morning in the municipality of Cotija, a border area between Michoacán and the state of Jalisco, when the military was conducting a reconnaissance mission after receiving information about an armed camp in the area, explained Secretary General Ricardo Trevilla.
“At that moment, an improvised explosive device detonated. Unfortunately, two soldiers lost their lives, and five others were injured,” the military leader detailed. The affected soldiers were airlifted to hospitals in the region by a military helicopter, while the rest of the team continued with the reconnaissance of the area.
Trevilla stated that before the explosion, the military unit had located the dismembered bodies of three people, and upon continuing the mission, they confirmed the camp was abandoned.
Asked about the individuals responsible for placing the explosives, the general suggested they could be criminals linked to the local group Cárteles Unidos, which operates in Michoacán and uses these tactics in their territorial dispute with the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the country.
Austrian man arrested in Croatia with deceased woman as passenger in his car
Colombian nationals arrested for human trafficking and disappearance of migrant boat
Homemade landmine explosion in Michoacán kills two soldiers, injures five
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