Bolsonaro Dismisses President of INMETRO, Appoints Military Officer Replacement

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Bolsonaro government has just appointed another military officer to an executive post. The president of INMETRO (National Institute of Metrology Standardization and Industrial Quality) Angela Flores Furtado has been dismissed and will be replaced by Colonel Marcos Heleno Guerson de Oliveira Júnior, who has worked on several engineering projects related to the Armed Forces, including works in Haiti, when Brazil was part of the UN peacekeeping forces in the country.

The change of command at INMETRO, according to the institute’s officials, was unexpected. Angela had been appointed by the Secretary of Productivity, Carlos da Costa, under the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes.

The appointment of Oliveira Júnior was published in the Federal Gazette on Monday.

The number of military officers in command posts in the government is growing. Last week, General Walter Souza Braga Netto was invited to take over the portfolio of the Domestic Chief of Staff. He took office on Tuesday.

With the change, all Ministers having offices in the Planalto Palace, where the President works, will be of military rank.

In addition to holding top-level government positions, members of the Armed Forces also play a prominent role in other bodies. They hold the presidency of the Correios (Postal Service) and are on the board of the National Transportation Infrastructure Department, for instance.

According to information on the INMETRO Employees Union website, Oliveira Júnior holds a degree in military science from the Agulhas Negras Military Academy and in fortification and construction engineering from the Military Engineering Institute (IME).

He also holds a master’s degree in transportation engineering and a post-graduate degree in corporate governance from the FGV.

He was an engineer for the Peace Force Engineering Company in Haiti, involved in drainage and paving works in the country. He served on the board of Regulatory Policy at the Ministry of Education’s Secretariat of Regulation and Supervision of Higher Education last year.

More recently, he was on the board of the Department of Environmental Determinants at the Special Secretariat of Indigenous Health, in charge of sanitation works.

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