Lula’s trip to China and the Middle East cost R$ 1.8 million

President Lula’s trip to China and the Middle East cost R$ 1.83 million just with per diems and plane tickets for security guards and advisors. Most of it was spent on tickets – BRL 980,000 – although the presidential entourage used two large planes to accommodate the support team and allied politicians, totaling around 75 people.

The second highest expense was with per diems, totaling R$816,000. Travel insurance alone cost R$ 102,000. Report by Guilherme Grandi, published this Tuesday (5), revealed the list of passengers, including 9 deputies, 4 senators and five ministers, in addition to the presidents of Embratur, Marcelo Freixo, and the president of the Export Promotion Agency, Jorge viana.

Data on daily rates and tickets are published in the Transparency Door of the Presidency of the Republic. But they are not all in the same place. The individual values ​​of daily rates paid abroad need to be searched individually on other pages of the portal.

eternal secrecy

Expenses with accommodation are under secrecy, in luxurious and expensive hotels in the case of the President of the Republic, with food for the official delegation and displacements of the president, guests and security guards in land trains. Services abroad are paid by the Brazilian Embassy in each country visited. Expenses paid with corporate cards during the trip, such as services at airports, food on board and telephony, are not revealed either.

These data are kept confidential until the end of the term of the President of the Republic, as provided for in the Law on Access to Information (LAI). Secrecy is imposed by law and adopted to ensure the safety of the president and his family. The disclosure of places of accommodation and restaurants could reveal details that would facilitate the action of possible terrorists.

In the case of accommodation and restaurants, in practice the “declassification” of information does not occur, that is, there is no breach of secrecy after the end of the president’s term. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected all requests for information made by the blog about the places to stay and the restaurants frequented by former presidents. It always claims that the search for this data would take a long time, with the occupation of a large number of servers. Itamaraty also does not allow personal visits to its archives.