link to article: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-bolsonaro-removes-albuquerque-mines-energy-minister-2022-05-11/
Summary: On May 11 Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro replaced his energy minister with a high-ranking Economy Ministry official on Wednesday. This is the latest political turmoil over fuel-price hikes by state-run oil company Petrobras. Adolfo Sachsida will become the new energy minister replacing the old energy minister, Bento Albuquerque, who was once an admiral in the Brazilian Navy and has served as Energy Minister since Bolsonaro took office. Albuquerque was released from his position because of his resistance to change the pricing policy at Petrobras. Bolsonaro urged Petrobras not to raise fuel prices however soon after this Petrobras posted a quarterly profit of roughly 9 billion dollars which is almost 40 times higher than the same quarter a year earlier. Then soon after that Petrobras increased diesel prices by 9% saying that this increase was inline with their policy of tracking global rates. It is unclear how the change of the energy minister will affect Petrobras in the future at this time.
Analysis: Bolsonaro got rid of his energy minister who has been with him since he took office because of his refusal to change the pricing policy. Actions such as these along with corruption allegations against Bolsonaro make you wonder if these allegations are true. He seems to get rid of people who disagree with him and don’t listen to his orders which doesn’t work in a democracy. How Bolsonaro is treating his presidency can be seen as more of a dictatorship than a democracy. There is also the issue of rising oil prices in Brazil, an oil rich country. Petrobras, a large oil company in Brazil, says that it is raising it’s prices because of the rising prices in the global market. Which are increasing because of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. This shows how things across the world can still affect a country that isn’t actually in the conflict.
How this relates to class: It shows us how big corporations and governments act with each other. As we can see from this article the state-owned oil company Petrobras is under lots of political pressure to do or not do things and whichever choice Petrobras makes will affect the other smaller oil companies and companies that use oil such as transportation companies greatly. This article also shows the affect a large conflict like the Ukraine and Russia conflict can have on companies across the world and how it’s ripple effect can affect the everyday lives of citizens who are not in anyway involved in the conflict.