By far essentially the most bold mission on the federal government’s agenda, the 933-kilometer (578-mile) Ferrograo, which might hyperlink the highest grains state Mato Grosso with the northern state of Para, is going through severe headwinds, Freitas stated.
Activists inside and out of doors Brazil have criticized the impression it could have on the setting and indigenous teams. At present, the mission is being held up by Brazil’s Supreme Court docket and the federal audit court docket, often called the TCU.
Bolsonaro has clashed with some members of the Supreme Court docket over a spread of points, together with his authorities’s dealing with of the pandemic.
“The setting (for the Ferrograo) is not among the many finest. In regular circumstances, it already would not be a good situation,” Freitas stated. “The Ferrograo will occur, however we’re dropping time with the ideological, industrial and political elements.”
TRUCKER THREATS
Together with overseeing Brazil’s infrastructure plans, Freitas has been the purpose man in Bolsonaro’s cupboard for relations with the nation’s fractious truckers.
A strike by truckers in 2018 introduced the financial system to a standstill for weeks and undercut then-President Michel Temer’s political help.
Diesel costs have already risen some 40% in 2021, elevating fears of a repeat of the disaster three years in the past, however Freitas stated that, for a number of causes, one other crippling strike is unlikely.
“Lately, part of the market was taken over by huge logistics firms and, if they do not help (a strike), it isn’t going to occur,” he stated.
He was emphatic that the federal government won’t intervene to set freight costs, as had occurred underneath earlier governments.
“They’re used to being patronized by the state,” he stated of Brazil’s truckers. “The federal government will not be going to get into freight costs. The state has nothing to do with that.”
(Reporting by Aluísio Alves; Writing by Gram Slattery; Enhancing by Brad Haynes and Paul Simao)
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