Rousseff nominates 13 new ministers
Re-elected President Dilma Rousseff holding the diploma given by the Supreme Electoral Court
As part of her cabinet reshuffle, President Dilma Rousseff announced on Tuesday (Dec 23) the names of 13 new ministers. Their inauguration ceremony is scheduled to take place alongside that of the re-elected president, on January 1, at 3 p.m.
Aldo Rebelo leaves the Ministry of Sports—of which he was in charge during the World Cup—and heads for the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation. Since Lula's administration, Rebelo was president of the Chamber of Deputies, where he worked as the leading representative of the government and of the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB). He was also minister of Political Coordination.
Jaques Wagner, now governor of Bahia, is to take the reins of the Ministry of Defence in Celso Amorim's place. Wagner was elected federal deputy three times and occupied several cabinet positions under Lula.
Eliseu Padilha
For Education, Cid Gomes, governor of the state of Ceará, has been confirmed as the new minister. Gomes was first elected in 1990, as a state deputy. He is the brother of Ciro Gomes, who was a minister once, and ran for presidency in 2002. In 2006, he won Ceará's gubernatorial election in the first round, and was also in charge of Lula's second electoral campaign for the presidency.
At least six members of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) were confirmed as future members of Rousseff's second-term cabinet. Senator Eduardo Braga will become head of the Ministry of Mines and Energy.
Eliseu Padilha, who was transport minister under Fernando Henrique Cardoso (FHC), was nominated minister of the Secretariat of Civil Aviation. A law graduate and a businessman, Padilha was mayor of Tramandaí, in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. Additionally, he was a federal deputy and the coordinator of FHC's presidential campaign.
At the National Secretariat of Ports, São Paulo Deputy Edinho Araújo is to replace César Borges, who has occupied its highest position since June this year.
New Agriculture Minister Kátia Abreu, a PMDB senator from the northern state of Tocantins, joined the agribusiness field after her husband died in a plane accident in 1987. With a psychology degree from the Catholic University of Goiás, Abreu is currently head of the Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock in Brazil (CNA), an association of agribusiness companies.
Nilma LIno
Helder Barbalho, the new minister of fishing, is the son of Senator Jader Barbalho and Deputy Elcione, both PMDB members. Barbalho's political career started 15 years ago. At the age of 25, he became the youngest mayor ever elected in Pará state.
Tourism minister Vinícius Lages is to be kept in his current position. He is also affiliated with PMDB and has been the head of tourism since March.
For the Ministry of Cities, the president appointed former São Paulo Mayor Gilberto Kassab, of the Social Democratic Party (PSD).
Also among the new nominations is Valdir Simão, currently the executive secretary of the Office of the Chief of Staff, appointed as Inspector General. The Ministry of Sports is to be led by George Hilton, an evangelical pastor and federal deputy from the Party of the Republic (PR) in Minas Gerais. The Secretariat of Policies for the Promotion of Racial Equality, in turn, is to be coordinated by professor Nilma Lino Gomes, a member of the National Education Council, and the first black woman who became the president of a Brazilian university.
Translated by Fabrício Ferreira
Fonte: Rousseff nominates 13 new ministers
