![Brazil’s new president to put privatization advocate in charge of state oil company](https://peoplesworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/rcbranco960.jpg)
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP)—Brazil’s president-elect Jair Bolsonaro is appointing a “pro-market reformer” to lead the state oil company, Petrobras.
The government’s Agencia Brasil on Monday confirmed the appointment of Roberto Castello Branco, a former director of mining company Vale.
Castello Branco has advocated privatizing Petrobras, which would be unpopular in sectors that depend on subsidized pricing.
![](https://www.peoplesworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/brazilpoliceofficers960-519x346.jpg)
Fuel prices set by Petrobras were at the center of a major trucking strike earlier this year that brought Latin America’s largest nation to a halt.
Castello Branco was a board member of Petrobras in 2015 and 2016. He is currently a professor at Fundacao Getulio Vargas, a university and business-focused think tank.
He is a long-time friend of Paulo Guedes, who is expected to oversee widespread privatizations as the next finance minister.
Bolsonaro’s administration takes over Jan. 1.
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