Brazil: Government acts to keep fertilizer supply, says president

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said on April 25 that the federal government has acted to ensure the fertilizer supply in Brazil. Speaking at the opening of the 27th International Fair of Agricultural Technology in Action (Agrishow), in Ribeirão Preto, in the countryside of São Paulo state, the president said that Brazil had achieved results, despite the economic embargoes suffered by Russia, one of the main suppliers of inputs, due to the war with Ukraine.

According to Bolsonaro, the visit made to Russian President Vladimir Putin in February helped maintain fertilizer shipments to Brazil. “I would tell you, before the war broke out, 10,000 kilometers away, I was talking to President Putin. I was very criticized for going there. We were treated very well. I talked for almost four hours with the president of Russia. Obviously, the subject ‘fertilizers’ was part of our agenda,” he said about the meeting.

According to the president, this conversation brought practical results recently. “A few days ago, after people said [that] I had come at an inopportune moment, we had the information [that] almost 30 ships with fertilizers were coming from Russia to Brazil. Our foreign policy, headed by [Foreign Affairs] Minister Carlos França, is recognized by all of us and by the world,” he added.

Bolsonaro also recalled that he also addressed the issue during the visit to Brazil of the director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Nigerian Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, last week. “I requested her to help us so that fertilizer flows are not interrupted to Brazil and the world. And that prices don’t keep going up like this.”

Brazil consumes 8% of the entire world fertilizer production, estimated at 55 million tons, but imports 85% of the input used by agribusiness, mainly from Russia, which currently suffers a strong economic embargo promoted by the United States, Western European countries, and Japan, because of the military invasion in Ukraine.

PARDON

The president also defended the pardon granted to federal deputy Daniel Silveira (PTB-RJ). The congressman was sentenced by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to eight years and nine months in prison for attempting to prevent the free exercise of power and coercion in the course of proceedings.

The decree with the pardon was published in an extra edition of the Official Federal Gazette (DOU) on April 21, one day after the Supreme Court convicted Silveira.

Bolsonaro claimed to have freed the congressman from an unfair conviction. “The decree of grace and pardon is constitutional and will be fulfilled. In the past, they released bandits, and nobody talked about it. Now, I release innocent people,” said the president at the Agrishow.

In another reference to the pardon, the president pointed out that Article 53 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech to congress members. “The deputies can speak whatever they want; they are inviolable; they cannot be punished civilly or criminally,” he said.

The STF judged the criminal action filed in April of last year against Daniel Silveira. He became a defendant and is now facing criminal charges for inciting the invasion of the STF and suggesting physical aggression to the ministers of the Court. The facts occurred in 2020 and 2021 through social networks. The deputy was arrested but was later released.

With the decision of April 20, Silveira was also penalized with the loss of his mandate and the suspension of his political rights after the end of the appeals, which could make him temporarily ineligible. The Court also stipulated a fine of about R$200,000 (US$41,000) as part of the conviction.

With information from Agência Brasil

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