Fate of Brazil’s Education Minister To Be Decided Today

By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After weeks of being criticized for his choice of words and actions, Education Minister Ricardo Vélez Rodriguéz is expected to be dismissed from his cabinet position. According to President Bolsonaro, a decision about the Minister’s future will be made today.

“I will take off the wedding ring from my right hand on Monday,” President Bolsonaro told reporters invited to breakfast with him on Friday. “I will then place it either on my left hand (Vélez Rodriguéz stays) or put it in a drawer (Vélez Rodriguéz is fired).”

Prompted to explain if that meant he was firing his education minister, Bolsonaro replied, “It has become clear that it is not working out. He is nice and honest, but lacks management skills, which is an extremely important factor.”

During his almost three months in office, Vélez Rodriguéz has been, from all of Bolsonaro’s cabinet members, the most criticized minister in Brazil.

At the end of January, less than thirty days into the Bolsonaro presidency, Brazil’s top education official said that a university education was “not for everyone.” “Universities should be reserved for an intellectual elite,” the minister said.

In February, the minister sent a letter to hundreds of public school principals asking them to videotape students singing the national anthem and reciting President Bolsonaro’s campaign slogan “Brazil Above Everyone, God Above All.”

After an avalanche of criticism, Vélez Rodriguéz withdrew his request.

Last week, after stating that there was no military dictatorship but rather a “democratic regime of force,” Vélez Rodriguéz announced that the federal government would start to apply gradual changes in history textbooks to change how the 1964 coup d’etat has been portrayed.

Many of the Ministry’s top officials were fired under Velez Rodriguez’s command, which also led to heavy criticism by leading educators.