EXONERATIONS AND INTERFERENCE IN PUBLIC OFFICE

Between 2019 and 2020, under the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, a series of episodes were registered at the political level: dismissals and transfers of civil servants  that occupied positions under the direction of the Executive Branch. The reasons are generally unclear, but the consequences often range from interference in the performance of agencies and bodies, ideological guidance of their actions, expansion of the militarization or the undermining of public policies that were previously adopted. Some cases even seem to be linked to the monitoring of civil servants’ opinions or retaliation due to critical positions towards the Bolsonaro Administration.

Professionals in the fields of education, culture, health, and the environment are among those affected by the instability in their positions. Here are some of the cases that have already occurred and President Bolsonaro comments on this issue. See more details below. 

• “I am already here with Levy. I’ve told him: fire this guy [Marcos Barbosa Pinto] on Monday or I will fire you without even talking to Paulo Guedes. This is how a government has to be, when there are suspicious people in important positions and this person, Levy, it has been a while since he hasn’t been loyal to what was agreed and to what he knows about me. He has had a price on his head for some time” (Bolsonaro on the President of the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), Joaquim Levy, on 15/06/2019)

• “The reason is that the President has changed, now he is Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing politician. Period. When they’ve had a terrorist there no one said a thing. Now the President has changed and the same has happened to the environmental policy” (Bolsonaro on the Special Commission on Political Deaths and Disappearances (CEMDP) on 01/08/2019)

• “If all this devastation that you accuse us of doing, altogether with the one that was done in the past had really happened, the Amazon rainforest would already be extinct” / “Regarding the issue with the National Institute for Space Research (‘Inpe’), I have the belief that the data are lying” / “I even asked to check who is the guy directing Inpe for him to come to Brasília and explain these data that they’ve provided to the press. In our feelings, this doesn’t match with reality. It even seems that he’s working for an NGO” (Bolsonaro about the director of the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), Ricardo Galvão, on 02/08/2019. Galvão would be subsequently exonerated)

• “I have a heritage because directors, the president, they have terms of office. If they didn’t, I would really cut their heads. Whoever wants to disturb the progress will disturb it at the tip of the beach, not here [‘at the tip of the beach’ was a jargon commonly used during the Brazilian military dictatorship to refer to the place where political prisoners were executed]” (Bolsonaro about civil servants of the Federal government who worked in the environmental sector on 01/11/2019)

• “So what?” Before meeting my sons I met Ramagem. Shouldn’t I appoint him Federal Police Chief because of that? Whose friend should I appoint? {about the exoneration of the Federal Police Chief, Maurício Valeixo, on 27/04/2020)