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LatinNews Daily Report - 02 May 2012
In Brief - Brazil
Brazil | New labour minister faces immediate challenges. Carlos Brizola Neto of the Partido Democrático Trabalhista (PDT) took office as the new labour minister on 1 May with the full support of President Dilma Rousseff. The 33-year old grandson of the former Rio de Janeiro governor Leonel Brizola (who died in 2004) becomes the youngest cabinet member. His predecessor at the ministry, Carlos Lupi, who had been in the post for four years, resigned in early December last amidst a corruption scandal. However, in early 2012 Lupi became the party’s president and tried to block Brizola Neto’s appointment. President Rousseff, herself a former member of the PDT, got her way in the end however. Rousseff was keen on Brizola Neto because he is close to the powerful PDT federal deputy and union leader Paulo Pereira (‘Paulinho’), who heads up Força Sindical. Rousseff was also close to the elder Leonel Brizola. Waiting in the new minister’s in-tray is a big labour dispute in the Amazon, where workers from several dam projects, including Belo Monte, Jirau and Santo Antônio have been out on strike over pay and working conditions.
