A Dam Collapse Foretold in Brazil

 



"Now, after the B1 collapse, will Brazil hold miners more accountable for such disasters? Events prior to the catastrophe offer little hope of that. The country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, who was inaugurated on Jan. 1, has pledged to open the Amazon to mining and take aim at regulation; he’s already put environmental regulators under the agriculture ministry, whose new head promotes the interests of commodities exporters. Since the B1 catastrophe, some government officials have talked about firing Vale’s top management. (The government indirectly holds the biggest stake in Vale through public pension funds.) By Jan. 29, however, the administration was backtracking. Bolsonaro’s chief of staff, Onyx Lorenzoni, said the government cannot interfere in Vale’s management. Infrastructure Minister Tarcisio Gomes de Freitas warned of the “demonization” of Vale."

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A Dam Collapse Foretold in Brazil - Bloomberg