President Jair Bolsonaro said today (25) that the federal government has acted to guarantee the supply of fertilizers in Brazil. In a speech at the opening of the 27th International Agricultural Technology in Action Fair (Agrishow), in Ribeirão Preto, in the interior of São Paulo, the president said that the country has obtained results, despite the economic embargoes suffered by Russia, one of the main suppliers of inputs, due to the war with Ukraine.
According to Bolsonaro, the visit made to Russian President Vladimir Putin in February helped to maintain fertilizer shipments to Brazil. “I was telling you, before the war broke out, 10,000 kilometers away, I was talking to President Putin. I was criticized a lot for going there. We were treated very well. I talked for almost four hours with the President of Russia. Obviously, the subject of ‘fertilizers’ was part of our agenda,” he said of the meeting.
According to the president, this conversation has recently brought practical results. “A few days ago, after statements by people [de] that my departure had been at an inopportune moment, we had the information [de] that almost 30 ships with fertilizers were coming from Russia to Brazil. In other words, our foreign policy, which is headed by the minister [das Relações Exteriores] Carlos França, is recognized by all of us and around the world”, he added.
Bolsonaro also recalled that he also addressed the matter during the visit to Brazil of the director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Nigerian Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, last week. “I made a request to her, to help us so that the flows of fertilizers are not interrupted for Brazil and for the world. Just as prices don’t keep going up like that.”
Brazil consumes 8% of all world fertilizer production, estimated at 55 million tons, but imports 85% of the input used by agribusiness, mainly from Russia, which is currently suffering a strong economic embargo promoted by the United States, Western European countries and Japan, because of the military invasion of Ukraine.
Pardon
The president also defended the pardon granted to federal deputy Daniel Silveira (PTB-RJ). The parliamentarian was sentenced by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) to eight years and nine months in prison for the crimes of attempting to prevent the free exercise of powers and coercion in the course of the process.
The decree with the pardon was published in an extra edition of the Official Diary of the Union last Thursday (21), the day after Silveira’s conviction by the Supreme Court.
Bolsonaro claimed to have freed the parliamentarian from an unjust conviction. “The decree of grace and pardon is constitutional and will be fulfilled. In the past, bandits were released, and no one spoke of her. Now, I release innocent people”, said the president on Agrishow.
In another reference to the pardon, the president stressed that Article 53 of the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression for parliamentarians. “Deputies can say whatever they want, they are inviolable, they cannot be punished civilly and criminally,” he said.
The STF judged a criminal action opened in April last year against Daniel Silveira, who became a defendant and began to respond to criminal proceedings for the accusation of inciting the STF invasion and suggesting physical aggression to the ministers of the Court. The facts took place in 2020 and 2021, through social media. The deputy was arrested, but was later released.
With the decision on the 20th, Silveira was also penalized with the loss of his mandate and the suspension of political rights after the end of appeals, which could make the parliamentarian temporarily ineligible. The Court also stipulated a fine of around R$200,000 as part of the conviction.
