Coronavirus

Has the purge of the Health Ministry begun?

minister health Breaking News bolsonaro stabbed

Wanderson Kleber de Oliveira, Brazil’s Health Surveillance Secretary, has announced his resignation amid growing speculation that his boss, Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta, will get sacked by the end of the week. Regarded as the Health Minister’s right-hand man, Mr. Oliveira announced his exit just hours after a letter he penned was leaked by newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, claiming that President Jair Bolsonaro was set to fire Mr. Mandetta in “the coming days.”

“Only God knows what they are trying to do,” he wrote. “But Mr. Mandetta’s management is coming to an end and I have to be prepared to leave too.”

Tensions between Mr. Mandetta and President Bolsonaro have boiled over in recent weeks but reached a point of no return on Sunday, when the minister gave a politically charged interview to leading TV channel Globo. The Health Minister went against almost every coronavirus-related statement given by President Jair Bolsonaro, which was considered an intolerable act of defiance by military members of the cabinet — who last week stepped in to block Mr. Mandetta’s firing.