MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil: Lula releases final list of future ministers

Lula also said Thursday that he would appoint indigenous people to head the National Indian Foundation (Funai) and the Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health (Sesai)

Brazil's President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva Thursday announced the last 16 names of the people who will join his cabinet after his Jan. 1 inauguration. Lula's third term in office will include a total of 37 ministries.

The future ministers stem from various parties, in a move to co-rule with the other political movements that joined Lula in his bid to topple rightwing President Jair Bolsonaro at the elections.

General Marcos Edson Gonçalves Dias has been confirmed as the future head of the Cabinet of Institutional Security. He was Lula's personal security chief for eight years.

Two former presidential candidates who actively participated in Lula's campaign were also confirmed: Marina Silva, who will again be in charge of the Environment, and Simone Tebet, who will be in charge of Planning.

“I think we will start the government working, we will not start the government seeing how it is,” Lula said during the announcement,

The names announced on Thursday (29) were Gonçalves Dias (GSI); Paulo Pimenta (Communications Secretariat, reporting directly to the President); Carlos Lupi (Social Security); Jader Filho (Cities); Alexandre Silveira (Mines and Energy); Paulo Teixeira (Agrarian Development); Juscelino Filho (Communications); Ana Moser (Sports); Marina Silva (Environment); Simone Tebet (Planning); Daniela Souza Carneiro (Tourism); Sônia Guajajara (Indigenous Peoples); Renan Filho (Transportation); André de Paula (Fishing); Waldez Góes (Integration and Regional Development); and Carlos Fávaro (Agriculture and Livestock).

“I want you to be part of the political history of this country, of a moment in which we had the courage to take over Brazil in an extremely delicate situation,” Lula told his new ministers, who were present during Thursday's ceremony.

Lula added that still in the first week he must hold a first cabinet meeting. He asked the new ministers to be “democratic” in assembling their teams, to guarantee diversity in the ministries, and also to favor names with technical qualifications.

A first list with five names was released by Lula on Dec. 9 -Finance (Fernando Haddad), Defense (José Múcio Monteiro), Foreign Relations (Mauro Vieira), Justice and Public Safety (Flávio Dino) and the Civil House (Rui Costa)-, even before his certification as president-elect.

On December 22, the heads of 16 ministries were announced, including Margareth Menezes (Culture), Silvio Almeida (Human Rights), Luciana Santos (Science and Technology), and Marcio França (Ports and Airports).

Lula also said Thursday that he would appoint indigenous people to head the National Indian Foundation (Funai) and the Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health (Sesai), after nominating the indigenous Congresswoman-elect Sônia Guajajara (PSol-SP) as future Minister of Indigenous Peoples.

“They [indigenous people] are more than prepared to work on their problems and solve their problems,” Lula said during Thursday's ceremony. “I spoke with Sônia Guajajara that it is a new experience, that we all have to work to help,” the president-elect added.

He also said he will appoint women to chair the country's two main public banks - Caixa Econômica Federal and Banco do Brasil. “The Bank of Brazil is 200 years old and it was never even considered having a woman as president, and we will prove that a woman can be much better than many male presidents,” Lula insisted while promising to end the disparity in salaries between men and women holding the same positions in companies.

(Source: Agencia Brasil)