Yara Aquino (with Priscilla Mazenotti)           Reporters Agência Brasil

Brasília – With the resignation of Wagner Rossi as minister of Agriculture Wednesday evening, the administration lost a third cabinet member to charges of corruption since the beginning of June. As Rossi was an active member of the biggest party in the government’s congressional base, the PMDB (with five governors, six ministers and the vice president, the party also has 20 senators and 80 deputies), there were concerns regarding the stability of that base with his exit .

However, the PMDB closed ranks and selected congressman Mendes Ribeiro Filho (PMDB-RS) to be the new minister of Agriculture. He is 56, and has been elected to the Chamber of Deputies five times. He is a lawyer who has been in politics since 1974. He was elected to the Rio Grande do Sul state legislature in 1986 and reelected in 1994, before going to the Chamber of Deputies in Brasilia, where he was one of the government leaders. He was also a member of the Constitution and Justice Committee, where he was involved in Social Security and Tax reform.

In his first comments after his appointment was confirmed, Mendes Ribeiro declared that he “would talk a lot and listen a lot.” He added that he was not taking over the Ministry of Agriculture to do “house cleaning,” a reference to what the populace has taken to calling the present tide of “removals” from corrupt ministerial offices: dozens of personnel have been fired at the Ministry of Transportation, more than 30 functionaries from the Ministry of Tourism were actually arrested in a rare Brazilian perp walk and, now, it looks like many will be shuffled out of Agriculture.

Mendes Ribeiro said that house cleaning was not his job. “The watchdog agencies will take care of that. I will deal with Brazil’s agriculture. I will be busy crunching lots of numbers.”

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English – content modified

Link - Governo confirma nome de Mendes Ribeiro Filho para o Ministério da Agricultura