New Secretary of Culture is Economist with No Experience in Cultural Sector

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The new Special Secretary of Culture of the Ministry of Citizenship, Ricardo Braga, 50, is a São Paulo economist who has never worked in the cultural sector. He was appointed by President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday, September 4th.

With a bachelor’s degree in economics and an MBA in Corporate Finance, Braga has built a career in the financial market, in banks and brokerage houses. He was superintendent of operations of Banco Votorantim and left the post of investment director of Andbank Brasil, a European investment bank operating in the country since 2011, to take up the post in the secretariat.

According to sources who follow the case, Braga was appointed directly by Bolsonaro, without consultating the ministry commanded by Osmar Terra. His appointment was published in a special edition of the Federal Gazette.

On Thursday evening, September 5th, Terra stated that Braga’s appointment “meets the portfolio’s needs to improve dynamics and efficiency” in the Secretariat’s projects, “as also desired by the President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro”.

Braga is expected to have his first meeting with the minister on Monday, September 9th. He will replace Henrique Pires, who stepped down at the end of August for not accepting that the government imposes “filters” on cultur; since then, José Paulo Soares Martins has been interim secretary.

Pires’ decision to quit the secretariat came shortly after the suspension of a bid notice with LGBT projects for public TV, when he told the press that this was only “a drop in the bucket” of a string of government attempts to censor cultural activities and that for eight months he had been trying to bypass several attempts to restrict freedom of expression.

According to the now-former secretary, these filters are spreading through the government and people are calling censorship “by another name”. “It was very clear that I am out of tune with him [Terra] and with the president about freedom of expression,” said the then secretary. “I don’t accept that culture can have filters, so since I’m out of tune, I quit,” Pires said at the time.