Brazil’s education minister resigns over ominous recording around evangelicals

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian Education Minister Milton Ribeiro resigned Monday amid severe allegations of corruption by evangelical pastors who are part of President Jair Bolsonaro’s political base.

Ribeiro’s resignation, which he announced in a statement, comes on the eve of a central government reform that Bolsonaro may announce Friday.

The suspicion is based on an audio recording leaked to the Folha de São Paulo newspaper. Ribeiro explains that in the Education Ministry budget, priority is given to projects by Pentecostal pastors sympathetic to the government.

“My priority is to take care, first, of the churches that need it most, and second, of all the friends of Pastor Gilmar,” says the minister, referring to a religious leader very close to Bolsonaro, adding that this is “a special request” from the “president of the republic” himself.

Ribeiro denied that Bolsonaro had made such a request, but the prosecutor’s office and the Supreme Court classified the suspicions as “serious” and launched an investigation.

His situation worsened Monday when influential evangelical church pastors, who wield enormous power in Bolsonaro’s political base, joined the opposition in calling for his resignation.

Ribeiro had taken over the post in July 2020 from economist Carlos Alberto Decotelli. The latter was in office for only five days before resigning amid allegations of false information on his resume.

Decotelli, in turn, had taken over from Abraham Weintraub, who had resigned a month earlier under intense pressure from the government’s parliamentary base.

According to sources close to the government, despite Ribeiro’s defense, Bolsonaro has decided to use this reform to facilitate his departure to minimize the impact of an alleged corruption case at a time when the president is preparing for re-election.

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