Petrobras approves army officer proposed by Bolsonaro as new president

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Board of Directors of Brazil’s Petrobras approved on Friday as the new president of the state-owned oil company retired Army general Joaquim Silva e Luna proposed for the position by President Jair Bolsonaro.

In a statement sent to the financial market, Petrobras informed that its Board of Directors, in a meeting held today, “elected Joaquim Silva e Luna to the position of president of the company”.

The body also gave the green light to renew the company’s executive leadership, which is state-controlled, but with shares traded on the São Paulo, New York, and Madrid stock exchanges.

Silva e Luna’s ratification follows last Monday’s Extraordinary General Shareholders’ Meeting, at which new members of the Board of Directors were elected, including the general manager of the reserve.

Silva e Luna replaces as president of Petrobras, a strategic company for the interests of the Brazilian State, the economist Roberto Castello Branco, whose management at the head of the oil company was widely criticized by Bolsonaro for the continuous increases in fuel prices, which he called “inadmissible”.

Pressured by the truck sector, an important ally within his social support base and threatened a new strike like the one that paralyzed the country in May 2018, Bolsonaro announced by surprise, last February 19, the appointment of Silva e Luna as the new president of the oil company.

His decision caused a sharp fall in Petrobras shares. It aroused fears in the financial market of possible interference of the ultra-right leader in the fuel pricing policy, governed by free-market laws.

Bolsonaro has assured that he will not interfere in the administration of Petrobras, but at the same time has hinted at the possibility of “changing that pricing policy” of the oil company.

Silva e Luna, who before taking over Petrobras was president of the Brazilian part of the Itaipu binational hydroelectric power plant, is the first military president of the oil company since the dictatorship (1964-1985), a period defended by Bolsonaro.

Since taking office in 2019, Bolsonaro, a captain in the Army reserve, has opened the doors of his government to members of the Armed Forces. Almost half of his ministers come, in addition to some 6,000 active and reserve military personnel in other civilian positions.

He has also entrusted military personnel to high positions in the country’s public companies, as has been the case in Petrobras, Brazil’s largest company.