Businessman Mário Bernardo Garnero, owner of the Brasilinvest International Business Group, wants to gather President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) and US President Donald Trump at a dinner at the American resort in Mar-Lago, in Florida. Influential in US politics, Garnero has already measured, on other occasions, meetings between heads from both countries.
The entrepreneur works for the meeting between the presidents to take place on February 17. If it happens, the meeting will be at the time Lula and Trump exchange threats on a possible taxation of imported products and in the face of disagreements among presidents on the repatriation of Brazilians deported by the US government.
Read more:
Garnero was responsible for the approach of Lula with former US President George W. Bush, on trips that had the participation of former Civil House Minister José Dirceu. The meetings occurred after Lula was first elected in 2002, when the businessman had the mission of helping to appease Americans about the PT’s economic policy.
The businessman also promoted a meeting of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) with Trump in 2020 in Mar-a-Lago. The two were close, but the meeting took place to discuss Brazilian steel tariffs imported to the US and adopt strategies to press Venezuela dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Born in Campinas, in 1937, Garnero is 87 years old, graduated in law from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP) and was a legal director of Volkswagen of Brazil. In the 1970s, he became director of industrial relations of the German automaker and one of those responsible for introducing the car moved to the country.
Continues after advertising
In 1974, he chaired the National Association of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers (Anfavea) and the following year founded the Americas Forum, which conducts workshops and conferences on continental topics and international cooperation agreements.
Also in 1975, he founded Brasilinvest, a business bank that acts as a private initiative interlocutor with Brazilian and foreign investors. Garnero was the promoter of the first International Investment Seminar in Brazil, which took place in Austria in 1976.
Known for the relations signed with US heads -whether Democrats or Republican -the entrepreneur was able to establish agreements that culminated in the growth of Brasilinvest.
Continues after advertising
In addition to Trump and George W. Bush, he also kept in touch with other US presidents Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush, better known as “Bush Pai”.
Garnero’s career is also marked by proximity to multibillionaires, such as Englishman Nathaniel Rothschild, Colombian Julio Mario Santo Domingo, American Jack Welsh and Italians Leonardo Ferragamo and Carlo de Benedetti. The last two are part of the Brasilinvest Council.
Garnero also has national political influence. In 1961, he was the coordinator of the campaign of former President Juscelino Kubitschek, who intended to return to the Planalto in the 1965 election. JK was the favorite to win the dispute, but the claim was canceled with the beginning of the military dictatorship (1964-1985) .
Continues after advertising
Millionaire
At the São Paulo Court of Justice (TJ-SP), there are 12 court charges against Garnero, for debts related to bank loans, which total R $ 236 million in unregistered amounts. One of the actions consists of the attachment of his farm in Campinas.
Another process is filed by Banco BTG Pactual, which requires the payment of R $ 27 million due by Garnero. According to the magazine report Piauíreleased in December 2023, the businessman’s income tax for the year 2021 presented that he had R $ 137 million in “paintings, jewels, cars and other goods.”
The magazine said BTG then asked São Paulo to attach the assets, and the bank chose to bring seven works by the painters Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Amadeo Modigliani who could theoretically pay off the debt. However, after an expertise, it was found that the goods were counterfeits that, added, would be worth R $ 1,200.
Continues after advertising
O Estadão He sought BTG Pactual and Nelson Fatte Real Amadeo, Garnero’s lawyer, but had not obtained a return until the publication of this text.
