Former Brazilian energy minister Pedro Parente has been named by acting President Michel Temer as the new CEO of state-run oil giant Petrobras. Parente was picked Thursday to replace Aldemir Bendine, an appointee of now suspended President Dilma Rousseff. The new Petrobras CEO was working as chairman of Sao Paulo-based financial bourse BM&FBovespa.
Acting President Michel Temer promised on Thursday that he will at some point have women in his currently all white-male Cabinet. Federal lawmaker Josi Nunes told journalists in Brasilia that Temer pledged at a meeting with congresswomen that he would be bringing females into his government a little further ahead.
Brazils Supreme Tribunal (STF) Justice Rosa Weber has given suspended president Dilma Rousseff ten days to explain her repeated statements that the impeachment process started against her is a “coup”. Rousseff is not obliged to respond. The STF decision follows a request from a group of lawmakers via the House's prosecution office.
Brazil's fiscal deficit prior to debt interest payments could reach 150 billion Reais (US$42.10 billion) this year as revenues collapse amid a crippling recession economy, Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles warned on Wednesday. The deficit includes eventual losses from state electricity holding Eletrobras.
A Brazilian federal judge on Wednesday sentenced Jose Dirceu, a former presidential chief of staff, to 23 years and three months in prison for his role in a massive corruption scheme centered on state-controlled oil company Petrobras. Judge Sergio Moro, who is spearheading the bribes-for-inflated contracts probe, found Dirceu guilty of accepting and paying bribes and money laundering.
Brazils' Worker's Party, PT, to which suspended President Dilma Rousseff belongs, insisted that the country is experiencing a coup and announced a campaign to remove acting President Michel Temer. PT president Rui Falcao said after a meeting of the national party directorate in Brasilia, that party members will continue fighting the coup and will undertake actions to raise society's awareness of the need to get rid of Temer.
Brazil's interim president, Michel Temer said he would continue a tradition of nominating a prosecutor general who comes recommended by peers, allaying concerns about judicial independence. Justice Minister Alexandre de Moraes, sworn in last week as part of Temer's new government, told the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper in an interview that the prosecutor general of Brazil could be selected at will by the president.
Brazil's interim government on Tuesday confirmed the lead economist of the country's largest private bank to head the central bank, in a further shift away from the interventionist policies that many blame for deep recession and near double-digit inflation.
Brazil's economic activity contracted by 1.44% in the first quarter relative to October-December 2015 and 6.27% compared to the same three-month period of 2015, the Central Bank said Friday. The figures come from the Central Bank's Index of Economic Activity, or IBC-Br, an indicator used as a preview of the gross domestic product (GDP) number.
Brazilian interim President Michel Temer agreed with union leaders on Monday to draft a blueprint for overhauling the creaking pension system within a month, as he seeks to restore confidence in Latin America's largest economy. Temer has vowed to plug a fiscal gap equivalent to more than 11% of GDP last year.