Denise Pires replaces Bustamante as president of Capes – 02/02/2024 – Science

Capes (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel), part of the MEC (Ministry of Education), announced, last Wednesday (31), the change in the presidency of the entity. Mercedes Bustamante leaves and Denise Pires de Carvalho enters, who until then held the post of Secretary of Higher Education at the MEC.

Bustamante was at the head of Capes since the beginning of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government.

The MEC did not point out reasons for the replacement. Questioned by Sheet regarding the motivation for the change, the ministry forwarded the note published on its website about the replacement. The text, however, does not say why the change occurred.

The reporter contacted Capes this Thursday (1st), by email, and has not received a response so far.

Through the WhatsApp application, Bustamante did not comment on the reason for his departure and sent to reporters notes of thanks he received for the time he presided over the coordination.

On the same day as the exchange announcement, Bustamante appears in a photo at a meeting, held by Capes, with the Education Research Association, published by Capes itself. Days before, Bustamante received, on behalf of Capes, at the ceremony celebrating the 90th anniversary of USP (University of São Paulo), the Armando de Salles Oliveira medal.

In December, the Sheet showed a complaint of moral harassment against women within Capes. A letter on the subject was sent to Bustamante, the Minister of Education, Camilo Santana, and the Minister of the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU), Vinícius Carvalho.

The complaint was made by the Liga das Amigas da Capes, which criticized the performance of the director of the Evaluation Director, Paulo Parreira dos Santos, who is a friend of Bustamante. The League accuses Parreira dos Santos of interrupting women in meetings, publicly intimidating them as if they were stupid and coercing them into voting in his interests.

There are other accusations involving Parreira dos Santos, such as pressure to recreate an advisory committee and conflicts of interest in choosing the members of an Advisory Committee.

At the time of the revelation of the SheetCapes stated that it received the complaint and forwarded it to its Ombudsman and Internal Affairs Office.

“According to the Internal Affairs department’s assessment, the assumptions set out in the message, as they are generic and do not point out specific victims and facts regarding the alleged practice of harassment reported, do not present minimal evidence for the materiality and authorship of an illicit attitude by the administration so that it was, at that time , any investigative procedure initiated against public agents”, Capes told Sheet in December, also stating the possibility of a new analysis, if new information or evidence emerged.

Denise Pires de Carvalho was the first dean of UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), a position she held from 2019 to 2023. She was also a full professor at the Carlos Chagas Filho Institute of Biophysics, at UFRJ.

Graduated in medicine from UFRJ itself, she is also a full member of ABC (Brazilian Academy of Sciences).