International

Board of Brazil’s Petrobras elects Lula ally as new president

Photo: AFP

January 26 | By AFP |

The board of directors of Petrobras on Thursday appointed Jean Paul Prates, an ally of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, as head of the state oil company.

Prates, a 54-year-old lawyer and economist, was previously a senator in northeastern Rio Grande do Norte state and a member of Lula’s Workers’ Party.

Lula described Prates as a specialist in the energy sector when nominating him for the job on Twitter last month.

In a statement confirming the appointment, the Petrobras board said Prates had been chosen unanimously.

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Prates has 30 years experience in the oil, natural gas, biofuels and renewable energy sectors.

“I have been given the mission of managing Petrobras in the coming years,” Prates said.

He added that he was “honored to lead a company that is the heritage of all Brazilians.”

Petrobras is the flagship of Brazilian industry. It is the largest company in the South American country but was at the center of the wide-ranging “Operation Car Wash” corruption scandal.

As part of the graft investigation, Lula was himself convicted of accepting a bribe and spent 18 months in jail before a judge annulled his conviction.

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Petrobras went through some turbulent years during the presidency of Lula’s predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.

The company went through four different CEOs during that period due major disagreements over Petrobras’s oil pricing policies.

Bolsonaro even went so far as to accuse Petrobras of theft over its price hikes.

The company sets prices based on the standard international rate for a barrel of oil.

The position of Petrobras chief executive is one that comes with great exposure to political pressure.

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In its 68 years of existence, the company has had 39 CEOs, meaning they have lasted on average less than two years.

The markets have expressed fears that Prates could change the company’s pricing policies and that under Lula’s socialist government there will be greater interference in the running of state companies.

The Brazilian state owns 50.26 percent of Petrobras’s capital and Lula has ruled out privatizing the company.

International

One Dead, Three Injured in Shooting at Cree Nation in Saskatchewan

One person was killed and three others were injured in a shooting reported early Tuesday in the Big Island Lake Cree Nation, in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, according to local media.

Police said they were alerted to the incident in a remote area located approximately 392 kilometers northwest of the city of Saskatoon. Authorities issued a dangerous persons alert for two suspects, who were described as armed.

Saskatchewan police urged residents to seek shelter immediately, lock their doors, and avoid the area while the situation remains under investigation. Officers are working to determine whether the shooting was a targeted attack or a random act of violence.

As a precautionary measure, seven health-care facilities in the surrounding area were placed under lockdown, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said in a post on X.

International

Mexico’s President Visits Victims After Train Derailment Kills 13 in Oaxaca

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum visited on Monday the victims injured in a train accident that left 13 people dead in the southern state of Oaxaca and announced financial assistance for those affected by the derailment of the Interoceanic Train, which was inaugurated in 2023.

The train, carrying 241 passengers and nine crew members, derailed on Sunday while traveling along the Interoceanic Corridor, a major infrastructure project that connects the Pacific coast with the Gulf of Mexico across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The corridor was one of the flagship initiatives of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration (2018–2024).

Sheinbaum visited three hospitals in the neighboring towns of Tehuantepec and Salina Cruz, where around 20 injured passengers remain hospitalized. She also went to a funeral home to accompany the families of those who lost their lives in the accident.

According to Mexico’s Navy Secretary, Raymundo Morales, the accident occurred when one of the locomotives derailed, causing all four railcars to leave the tracks.

International

Six killed, including baby, in armed attack near tourist beach in Ecuador

Six people, including a baby girl about two years old, were killed on Sunday in an armed attack near a tourist beach in southwestern Ecuador, police said. The shooting, carried out with rifles, also left three people wounded.

The incident took place in the coastal town of Puerto López, in the province of Manabí, a popular tourist destination known for whale watching. The attack occurred amid a surge of violence over the weekend that left at least nine people dead nationwide, according to local media reports.

“There are six fatalities and three injured,” Colonel William Acurio, the local police commander, told reporters on Sunday. He confirmed that one of the victims was a baby “approximately two years old.”

Authorities have not released further details about the motive behind the attack or whether arrests have been made.