Senate Commission resumes face-to-face voting and approves 32 candidates for representation abroad | Politics

Were the first face-to-face collegiate voting since March, when the meetings were suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 32 nominations approved by the commission are now being analyzed by the Senate. There is no date for your vote.

The temporary return of face-to-face activities is necessary for the analysis of nominees for embassies and international agencies, the Superior Military Court (STM) and the National Council of Justice (CNJ), the latter two, carried out by the Constitution and Justice Commission.

According to the Senate letter, these surveys must be secret – which, for security reasons, is not possible in the remote deliberation system, which has been used since March 20.

The analysis of the nominees on Monday was divided into three CRE meetings. In the first, 11 were approved; in the second, another 11; and in the third, the remaining 10 (see the full list at the end of this article).

Most of the candidates’ Saturdays were made by videoconference. Committee members were able to follow the work in person, from their own homes or offices.

However, to participate in the voting, parliamentarians had to travel to Congress. Voting totems were scattered throughout the building. Some senators voted for the “drive-thru” system, installed in the building’s garage.

To reduce the chances of the spread of the coronavirus in the Senate, other measures were adopted, such as restricting access to the CRE room, physical distance and cleaning of objects.

Among the approved nominees are diplomats who will occupy important positions for Brazilian business abroad. This is the case of Marcel Biato who will be the Brazilian representative in Ireland; Rafael Vidal (Angola); Sérgio Danese (South Africa); Reinaldo Salgado (Argentina); and Paulo Soares Pacheco (Chile).

The name of Army General Gerson Menandro García de Freitas was also approved to be the Brazilian ambassador to Israel, the only one analyzed who is not a career diplomat.

The appointment of diplomat Carlos Sobral Duarte, who will be the permanent representative of Brazil to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), based in Vienna, Austria, was also approved. For the International Civil Aviation Organization, which is based in Canada, the name of Norberto Moretti was approved.

Also this Monday, the CRE approved an invitation to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ernesto Araújo, for the Foreign Minister to explain the visit to Roraima by the Secretary of State of the United States, Mike Pompeo.

The president of the CRE, Senator Nelsinho Trad (PSD-MS), said that Araújo accepted the invitation and that he will appear in the Senate next Thursday (24), at 10 am.

Pompeo’s visit was criticized by the mayor, Rodrigo Maia (DEM-RJ), parliamentarians and former foreign ministers of Brazil. Ernesto Araújo says that the criticisms are “unfounded.”

• ANALYSIS: Strategic visit from Pompeo to Roraima

The approval of the invitation to Ernesto was a departure from the threat of obstruction of the CRE’s work by senators who opposed the US visit.

List of approved nominees

See below for the list of nominees approved by CRE on Monday. The names have yet to be analyzed by the main plenary session of the Senate.