Finance Minister said he said he is open to meetings with American officials, but for now he has nothing scheduled
Finance Minister Dario Durigan said he is open to meetings with American authorities, but for now he has nothing scheduled to address the Donald Trump government’s decision to designate the Brazilian criminal factions Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho (CV) as terrorist groups.
“I am always open and have direct contact with the North American authorities, but for now there is no planned agenda. We are gathering information, seeing what lies ahead, evaluating the next steps, having all the information, having a clear diagnosis and position, I will take it to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent without any doubt“, Durigan told journalists on Monday night (1st).
He said that the Brazilian government’s main concern It’s about the space of discretion that this will open up, making Brazilian companies and banks targets of something that is not concrete. “We are going to continue fighting criminal organizations, we have insisted on this point, and we are going to avoid causing unrealistic, fanciful damage to our economy, we have to avoid this at all costs, it is a great injustice”, he maintained.
Durigan stated that the Brazilian businesspeople have explained to the government what their concerns are that he listens to other authorities and also businesspeople who are not part of the financial sector, to understand what the other risks are. “The main point, President Lula has insisted on this now, is to protect our businesspeople, protect our jobs, our financial institutions against anything that may come from abroad. Anything that comes from abroad to collaborate in the fight against organized crime, great, we always find it welcome, the problem is when you want to get in the way, then you can’t.”
Asked about the appointment of the new US ambassador to Brazil, he replied: “I didn’t see, I was here looking at the president, I need to check with the team nowI must have been in dispatch when this news came, I have no news, I have no knowledge.” The White House announced this Monday, the appointment of Daniel Perez for the position of US ambassador to Brazil. Perez is president of the Florida House of Representatives and will still need to have his name confirmed by the US Senate. The US had been without an ambassador in Brazil since the Joe Biden administration.
Durigan reported that the meeting he had earlier with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, at Palácio da Alvorada, was to discuss issues on the economic agenda, such as the GDP result for the 1st quarter, and also a trip that the minister will take to China at the end of the month. “It was an economic dispatch with the president on the main points of our economy, with no major news for now,” he stated, upon arriving at the ministry’s headquarters.
