Brazil acting president: minister to keep helping gov't while on leave

Acting President Michel Temer said that former Planning Minister Romero Jucá, who stepped aside this Monday (May 23), will keep helping the government in Congress after leaving the office. Jucá is senator, member of the Brazilian Democratic Movemento Party (PMDB) from Roraima.

In a statement issued early evening, Temer thanked Jucá for the work done heading the ministry since he had been appointed in May 12.

"I point out Minister Jucá's competent work and dedication in making an accurate diagnosis of our financial crisis and in effectively proposing measures to be shortly presented to correct the fiscal deficit and resume the economic growth. During this period, I rely on Jucá to keep helping the federal government in Congress, in a decisive moment, with his exceptional political ability," read the acting president's note.

After 11 days heading the ministry, Jucá announced that he would leave the Planning Ministry after the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo published his conversation with former Transpetro President Sérgio Machado, in which the former minister suggests a "pact" to try to stop the Operation Car Wash.

Jucá denied ever having attempted to obstruct the investigations and said the pact to "stop the bleeding" mentioned in the conversation referred to the country's economic problems and not to probes under Operation Car Wash.

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta