Ministers use jets to travel abroad and to electoral strongholds

Following in President Lula’s footsteps, nine of his ministers made 20 trips abroad in Brazilian Air Force (FAB) jets, totaling 127 flight hours. The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, made 30 flights – all to or from São Paulo. But the champion of spending is still the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino, with 46 flights, more than half to spend the weekend in São Luís. And he has more than 35 secret flights of ministers of the Federal Supreme Court (STF). It’s jet spree.

Haddad made 14 flights from Brasília to São Paulo, 11 of them on Friday or Thursday. He made another 16 flights from São Paulo to the federal capital, 14 of them on Mondays and Tuesdays. State ministers cannot travel home on official aircraft, but Haddad had agendas in São Paulo on Fridays or Saturdays. On June 2, Friday, he was part of the presidential entourage at the inauguration of a block at the Federal University of ABC, in São Bernardo do Campo (SP). He spent the weekend in São Paulo. On Monday (5), he took a jet to Brasília at 6:45 am.

On May 26, Friday, Haddad’s last appointment in São Paulo was a live interview for the Globo News Mais program, in the late afternoon. There was no official agenda in the capital of São Paulo on Saturday and Sunday. On Monday, he took a white plane to Brasilia at 7:50 am, where he participated in the reception of the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro.

On Wednesday, May 5, Haddad flew to São Paulo at night. On Thursday, at the Ministry of Finance office on Avenida Paulista, he gave interviews to Band News TV and to the newspaper Folha de São Paulo. It ran out of schedule from Friday to Sunday. On the 10th, Monday, he took the white plate aircraft and left for Brasília, where he participated in the ministerial meeting of the 100 days of Government.

Flights home on weekends

The Minister of Justice toured four cities in two days, delivering equipment for public safety, on April 13th and 14th, Thursday and Friday. He passed through Rio de Janeiro, Florianópolis, Porto Alegre and Curitiba. At 4 pm on Friday, he left Curitiba for São Luís, on a journey of three and a half hours. Dino had no official agenda in the capital of Maranhão over the weekend. He returned to Brasilia on Sunday night, always on his jet. The minister made 12 flights to or from São Luís on weekends without an official schedule.

Another minister who privileges his electoral stronghold is Luiz Marinho, from Labor and Employment. Former federal deputy and former mayor of São Bernardo do Campo, he made 28 flights in FAB jets, 20 of which were to or from São Paulo. On the 13th of January, Friday, he fulfilled his official agenda in Brasília and flew in the official aircraft to São Paulo at night. The weekend went by without an agenda. On Monday, very early, he took the jet and returned to Brasília.

On March 24, Friday, he had audiences in Brasília until 2 pm and flew to São Paulo in the FAB jet in the late afternoon. In the evening, he had a meeting with the president of the Osasco Metallurgist Union, Gilberto Almazan, in the capital of São Paulo. He spent the weekend without an official agenda and returned to Brasilia on Monday, very early, on his jet.

The Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira, former deputy and former senator for Minas Gerais, made 22 flights, nine of them to Minas. On February 14, he was at the delivery of Residential Program Minha Casa Minha Vida, representing President Lula. He was also in a public act with people affected by Brumadinho and Mariana; at the Opening of the Minas Gerais Sugar and Ethanol Harvest, in Uberaba (MG); at the Minas Gerais Congress of Municipalities, in Belo Horizonte; and there was a meeting with the president of the Minas Gerais Legislative Assembly, Tadeu Martins Leite.

Across the Americas on the wings of the FAB

Threatened with losing her position as Minister of Tourism, Daniela Carneiro, licensed deputy (União-RJ), made two trips abroad in May, one to Punta Cana (Dominican Republic) and another to Havana (Cuba), to participate in a meetings with ministers of tourism. She flew 134 hours in FAB jets. At the close of the G77 + China Tourism Ministers’ meeting in Havana. On May 6, she posted a photo with the Cuban president on social media: “I am immensely grateful for the welcome given by the Cuban government, in the person of President Miguel Díaz-Canel”.

The one who traveled the most was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mauro Vieira, which seems logical. He has been to nine cities in eight countries. The longest trip was to Lisbon, where he accompanied President Lula’s visit. Before that, he was in Mindelo (Cape Verde), for the meeting of the South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone. Vieira stated that Lula intends to place Africa once again as a priority in Brazilian foreign policy. “I consider this movement to resume Brazil’s presence in Africa as a natural consequence of our universalist foreign policy. Together, the countries on both sides of the South Atlantic can constitute a real force in favor of building a multipolar international order”.

Vieira spoke of the Brazilian naval power: “It is within this framework that the decades-long efforts of the Brazilian State to develop conventional nuclear-powered submarines are inserted. Such naval means have a strictly defensive and dissuasive nature and are fully compatible with the fundamental objective of maintaining the South Atlantic as a nuclear weapons-free zone”.

The Brazilian Foreign Minister was also in Asuncion, Buenos Aires, Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), Quito, La Paz, Santa Cruz de La Sierra, Paramaribo (Suriname) and Georgetown (Guyana). The Minister of National Development Integration, Waldez Goés, was in Punta del Leste (Uruguay), for the meeting with UN representatives on Risk and Disaster Reduction. Lula’s ministers were also in Montevideo and Panama City.

Secret flights became routine

Initiated in February, the secret flights of ministers of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) in FAB jets already total 35. In 28 of them, the flights had only one passenger – almost an “air Uber”. On seven other flights, there were two passengers. Almost all flights went to or from São Paulo, where the ministers spend the weekend. There was only one flight to Belo Horizonte.

These flights are secret because it is not recorded which minister traveled. But the blog found that among those privileged are ministers Alexandre de Moraes and Luís Roberto Barroso. The ministers alleged that they were being harassed at airports. Therefore, they would be in need of more security and privacy. The request was made to Defense through the Minister of Justice, Flávio Dino. In Air Force records, the flights are camouflaged. They appear as flights “at the disposal of the Ministry of Defense”.

On April 27, there was a flight from Brasília to São Paulo, “at the disposal of the Ministry of Defense”, with 12 passengers. Among them were ministers Alexandre de Moraes and Ricardo Lewandowski.

Decree 10,267 of 2020, issued by then-president Jair Bolsonaro, determines that ministers of state and military commanders are entitled to use official aircraft for reasons of service, illness or safety. But only the presidents of the Senate, Chamber and STF, in addition to the vice president, can travel to their homes in FAB jets. A loophole in the legislation allows the Minister of Defense to authorize flights by other national or foreign authorities.

The blog questioned Lula’s ministers why they concentrated their trips to their electoral strongholds and whether trips home on weekends did not go against Decree 10,267. The advisory of Minister Luiz Marinho stated that he uses FAB planes “for business trips, according to the registration in the official agenda of the activity, according to decree 10.267”. The others did not respond.