The still president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, has appointed on Wednesday as new Secretary of Culture André Porciuncula, a former captain of the Military Police, who already last month defended diverting funds for audiovisual productions to spaces where the use of firearms was encouraged.
Bolsonaro’s decision to change the head of Culture, which in his cabinet has the status of a Special Secretariat, not a ministry, 25 days before the end of his term, is motivated by the departure of the previous head, Hélio Ferraz, to the government of Tarcísio de Freitas in the state of Sao Paulo.
Porciuncula, who is considered in Brazil a far-right provocateur, is the seventh Secretary of Culture since Bolsonaro has been president and has returned to the government after unsuccessfully trying to win a seat as a deputy.
Within Culture he had been deputy secretary under the leadership of Mário Frias, taking advantage of the position to support the arms projects of a Bolsonaro who made this one of his main campaign promises, as well as to dismantle some of the main public policies supporting the sector.
It is common to see the new, albeit short-lived, Secretary of Culture on social networks posing with large-caliber firearms alongside other Bolsonaro associates, and even with some of Bolsonaro’s children.
