Brazil's Bolsonaro Names Energy Minister

Brazil’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro has appointed Bento Costa Lima Leite de Albuquerque Junior as the country’s new mines and energy minister.

Costa Lima is general director of nuclear technology for the Brazilian navy, Bolsonaro wrote in a Twitter post November 30.

The new minister began his naval career in 1973 and has commanded Brazil’s naval and submarine forces. He was also a military observer with UN peacekeepers in Sarajevo, according to online media RT.com. He joins six other military officials already appointed by Bolsonaro.

Populist right-winger Bolsonaro won the recent presidential election due to voter dissatisfaction with conventional politicians as Latin America’s largest economy emerges from the ‘car-wash’ corruption scandal that enveloped Petrobras under former Workers’ Party presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff.

On November 19, economist Roberto Castello Branco was named as the new CEO of Petrobras by Bolsonaro's appointee as economy ministry Paulo Guedes. Castello Branco will succeed Ivan Monteiro who became CEO only in June after three years as its finance and investor relations chief.

Brazil's president-elect Jair Bolsonaro (left) with his chosen energy minister Bento Costa Lima (Photo credit: Twitter / Jair Bolsonaro)