In Brazil, another minister of Michel Temer's cabinet quits
Tourism Minister Henrique Eduardo Alves resigned from office
After being mentioned in the statements of the plea bargain signed by former Transpetro President Sérgio Machado, Tourism Minister Henrique Eduardo Alves resigned from office today (Jun. 16). The information was confirmed by the presidency.
According to Machado, former lower house speaker Henrique Alves (from 2013 to 2015) would have received $444,000 in political donations with illicit funds.
He is the third minister to leave the government's cabinet after little more than a month of Michel Temer's interim government, amid allegations related to the Operation Car Wash. Romero Jucá, who was Planning Minister, and Fabiano Silveira, who was Transparency Minister, resigned from office after the release of recordings of Machado's plea bargain, in which they criticized the operation.
In the letter of resignation sent to Michel Temer, Alves said he took the decision to resign from the office in order “not to cause embarrassments,” nor create "any difficulty" for the government.
The secrecy of Sérgio Machado's statements to the Operation Car Wash task force was removed by Supreme Court (STF) Justice Teori Zavascki, who is in charge of investigating the case in the court. In his statements, Machado listed more than 20 politicians who received bribery from companies that had contracts with Transpetro, a Petrobras' subsidiary chaired by him.
Translated by Amarílis Anchieta
Fonte: In Brazil, another minister of Michel Temer's cabinet quits
