Former “Leftists” Hold Almost Forty Percent of Current Administration’s Key Positions

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Not all highly-placed men and women from former Worker’s Party (PT) governments seem to bother president Jair Bolsonaro.

Many public officials who were in Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff’s circle of power are still in favor with Bolsonaro too. At least 71 of the 180 members (39 percent) in the first and second tiers, the top admnistrative positions in the federal government, were in key posts in leftist administrations.

Among those who survived the discourse of ridding Brazil of leftists are some officials very close to Bolsonaro, such as ministers Tarcísio de Freitas (Infrastructure), Gustavo Canuto (Regional Development) and Wagner Rosário (Comptroller General of the Union).

Bolsonaro’s resistance to the leftists was evidenced last month, when he alerted the then president of the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), Joaquim Levy, that the subordinate had his head on the line if he did not dismiss Marcos Barbosa Pinto, then director of the bank’s capital markets division.

Both Levy and Pinto had held influential positions in the leftists’ mandates. “Levy hasn’t been loyal to what he’s agreed to for some time, he’s been on the receiving end of the prize for some time,” said Bolsonaro. The next day, Dilma’s former finance minister announced his resignation.

A former leftist is one of Bolsonaro’s most prestigious ministers. Tarcísio de Freitas, who heads the infrastructure portfolio, was executive director and director-general of the National Department of Transportation Infrastructure (Dnit) during Dilma’s first term.

Freitas has gained prominence for the progress with concessions and has been praised even by leaders of Congress. Alongside him, Natália Marcassa, secretary of Development, Planning, and Partnerships, is another survivor of previous administrations.

One of the leading figures in infrastructure concession plans, Natália Marcassa was the executive secretary at the Ministry of Transport under Dilma’s administration.

“That is absolutely normal and desirable. The line of government changes, so do the guidelines, but some people know how to deal with the machine, they know the history of the power. People are in a position to handle this and promote change,” said Minister Freitas.

He said that his ministry, which has four secretaries who have served in positions of trust in leftist management, is made up of technical professionals who are playing “an excellent role” and who are aligned with the government’s agenda. “There’s no ‘this guy worked in another government, and he’s contaminating this one.’ I spent four years at Dnit in the Dilma government and then two more years in the Investment Partnership Program (PPI) in the Temer government structuring projects that I’m currently working on. I know the whole PPI program because I was there. This continuity is good, healthy and important,” he said.

According to Freitas, Bolsonaro did not question his passage through Dilma’s government when he invited him: “He (Bolsonaro) perceived the country’s infrastructure issues. I complemented it with my vision. We debated it, and I put an action plan on the table. The president did not ask any questions about my work in the PT government.”

Itamaraty

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by Ernesto Araújo, considered to be part of the ideological wing of the government, contains six names, who were in influential positions in the PT governments.

The same is true of the Federal Office of the Comptroller General and the Ministry of Regional Development. In the latter, the minister himself, Gustavo Canuto, has a long track record of serving leftist governments.

He was chief of staff of the Civil Aviation Secretariat of the Presidency in the second half of Dilma’s administration and, before that, he was an advisor in the Office of the Civil Aviation Secretariat of the Presidency.

Antonio Carlos Paiva Futuro, Canuto’s number two executive secretary, also has a background in leftist management. Rosário, Minister of the Federal Office of the Comptroller General, was the executive secretary of the portfolio in Dilma’s government.

The list also includes a group of executive secretaries, the second most significant position in the organizational chart of ministries. This is the case with the Ministry of Economy, with Marcelo Guaranys, Paulo Guedes’ number two, and the Ministry of Education, with Antonio Paulo Vogel de Medeiros.

Guaranys was the general coordinator of Public Services and Infrastructure of the Secretariat for Economic Monitoring of the Ministry of Finance during Lula’s first term in office.