Temer Picks Pro-US, Pro-Privatization Lawmaker to Lead Senate

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After Impeachment Vote, Right-Wing Figure Heads to Washington

Aloysio Nunes, a key opposition figure involved in former President Dilma Rousseff’s impeachment who has ties to Washington, has been appointed the new government leader in Brazil’s Senate, Reporter Diario reported Tuesday.

Nunes, of the center-right party PSDB, will be meeting at the presidential palace for the invitation to be formalized. President Michel Temer called the president of the PSDB Tuesday morning to communicate his choice.

The day Brazil’s lower house of Congress voted to impeach the country’s president Dilma Rousseff, Nunes was sent to Washington by Temer.

He met with various U.S. officials and lobbyists, including the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Washington lobbying firm Albright Stonebridge Group that was formerly headed by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

The choice to send Nunes to Washington was likely a strategic one. He lost his bid for the vice presidency with PSDB in 2014, the year Rousseff was reelected, and he has repeatedly called for closer ties with the U.S. Like other members of the House who pushed for impeachment, Nunes has many corruption allegations against him.

Isabel Monteiro, an artist and activist based in Sao Paulo, criticized Nunes’ new role on Twitter, stating: “What's really behind the appointment of Aloysio Nunes as new Gov leader at the Senate? Oil. É o Petróleo, stupid!”

Nunes has been one of the key figures behind a proposal to open up the country’s pre-salt oil reserves to foreign investors, wresting control away from the state oil company, Petrobras. These reserves are estimated to be worth around US$10-20 trillion.