SAO PAULO, (Reuters) – Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff has decided to replace her veteran defense minister after he made disparaging comments about fellow officials, a source said yesterday, adding to a sense that her seven-month-old government is in disarray.
Defense Minister Nelson Jobim will resign, or be fired, once he returns from a visit to the Amazon, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Jobim cut short his trip and was due to return to Brasilia late on Thursday, an official in his press office said.
Jobim would be the third minister to lose his job because of clashes with Rousseff or corruption allegations. The turnover has strained relations among members of Rousseff’s 15-party coalition and contributed to the paralysis of economic reforms in Congress.
Jobim had reportedly been unhappy in his job virtually from the moment he agreed to continue as defense minister under Rousseff.
He was one of several top officials who also served under her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
After long keeping the strains behind closed doors, Jobim had become openly insubordinate in recent weeks.
First he raised eyebrows in Brasilia by saying at an opposition party event that he was surrounded by “idiots.” Then he said in a TV interview that he had voted for Rousseff’s opponent, Jose Serra, in last year’s election.
The last straw appears to have been a magazine interview, parts of which were leaked on Thursday, in which Jobim reportedly called one minister a “little weakling.”
He also said that Gleisi Hoffmann, who in June took the critical job of chief of staff, “doesn’t even know Brasilia,” Folha de S.Paulo newspaper reported.
Jobim denied he had criticized Hoffmann and said the report was part of a campaign to undermine him.
Nevertheless, Rousseff grew tired of Jobim’s constant criticism, especially at a moment when she is trying to repair ties with other parties and also deal with possible fallout in Brazil from the global financial crisis, the source said.
Rousseff “has no choice but to remove him,” the source told Reuters. “It’s been a bad couple of weeks.”
ANGRY OVER
JETS DEAL
Officials have told Reuters that Jobim was angry at being overruled on a major defense contract early in Rousseff’s term when she decided to start over the bidding process for a multibillion-dollar tender for Air Force fighter jets.
Jobim had favoured France’s Dassault, while Rousseff has said Boeing’s F-18 is the best choice.
Rousseff has generally won praise from Brazilians and political analysts for her economic management since taking office on Jan. 1.
But her inexperience as a politician — she had never previously held elected office — has alienated even some allies who say that she can be gruff with subordinates and too eager to micromanage policy.
