Convergencia Research, Consultoría especializada en Latinoamérica y Caribe
Thursday, June 25, 2020

5G Brazil - Politics fully enters into the discussion

The regeneration of the Ministry of Communications serves President Jair Bolsonaro to seek internal solutions to the possibility of impeachment and settle the situation of Huawei with 5G, externally.

The surprising recreation of the Ministry of Communications in Brazil was not to fulfill some old yearning of the telecommunications sector, but the product of the plain and simple entry of politics into an area in which it had been absent since 2010 (when the then Minister Helio Costa, included the ISDB digital TV system in the Brazilian government's foreign policy program, led by Lula da Silva).

Now the circumstances are different and there are other problems that President Jair Bolsonaro must face. Domestically, there are already more than 30 impeachment petitions filed against him in the Chamber of Deputies and surely some of them will have the green light once the critical phase of the coronavirus pandemic, which is planned in that country, has passed in the next few weeks. Precisely, his reckless actions and foolhardy pronouncements to the effort of the Ministry of Health and the Unified Health System in the midst of the pandemic, is one of the main reasons given in the requests for “impeachment”.

Abroad, his faithful alignment with the policy of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, has led him to make decisions with unforeseeable consequences in the domestic markets, in this case in the telecommunications market, and in particular in relation to the 5G spectrum tender, which increasingly moves away from the horizon.

It must be remembered that Bolsonaro was elected president by the PSL (Social Liberal Party), which led a coalition of several minor parties, including the Brazilian Labor Renewal Party, whose representative, General Hamilton Mourao, integrated the presidential formula as vice president. Over time, Bolsonaro and some of his followers resigned from the PSL and are currently dedicated to creating a new party, while many of his former allies occupy key positions, such as the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Maia, who is the authority to give the go ahead or not to the impeachment.

The concrete possibility of the “impeachment” was strongly positioned after the decision of the STF (Federal Supreme Court) that ordered to investigate the accusations of the former Minister of Justice, Sérgio Moro, about Bolsonaro's intention to interfere with the judicial investigations of his children and allies.

Against this background, Bolsonaro began a silent search for support among the numerous parties of the center and right wing in Brazil, and there emerged the figure of Deputy Fábio Faria to head the new Ministry of Communications, within the framework of an agreement with the PSD (Social Democratic Party), created by the former mayor of San Pablo, Gilberto Kassab, who, curiously, was the MCTIC (Minister of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications) before the assumption of the current Marcos Pontes. In addition, Faria is the son-in-law of businessman Silvio Santos (artistic name of Senor Abravanel), owner of the SBT (Brazilian Television System) chain, who also acted in politics and was a presidential candidate in 1989, where he came second behind Fernando Collor de Melo.

Faria's appointment as head of the Ministry of Communications allows Bolsonaro to count on the 36 deputies and 9 senators of the PSD and continue with his policy of alliances to remove the shadows of the impeachment. But in addition, he annexed the Secretariat of Social Communication (which previously depended on the Presidency), with which Faria will also be responsible for all official communication from the Brazilian government.

The other big issue that Faria will have to face is related to the spectrum tender for the deployment of 5G technology in the country, which although organically depends on the Anatel (National Telecommunications Agency), in fact the political decisions, especially those from abroad, will have the final word on that contest.

In March 2019, on his visit to the United States and his meeting with Donald Trump, Bolsonaro discussed the issue of the 5G tender and on that occasion the US president expressed his rejection of any Chinese company, especially Huawei, participating in the deployment of these networks in Brazil.

In mid-November of last year, Bolsonaro met Xi Jinping in Brasilia, and days later he received at the Planalto Palace at that time the head of Huawei in Brazil, Wei Yao, who officially expressed his interest in participating in the tender. It should not be forgotten that China is the main buyer of Brazilian products, especially agricultural and mining products, and that Xi Jinping promised investments of US$ 100 billion in Brazil, several in the energy sector.

Despite this, the group of lobbyists for the exclusion of Huawei, led by the deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of the president, continued with his statements contrary to any cooperation with the Asian country, with the usual complaints from the Chinese embassy in Brazil.

President Bolsonaro's last move with the new ministry implicitly leads to once again postponing the 5G spectrum contest towards mid-2021, at best, when it was originally scheduled for March this year. In between is an important detail: Presidential elections will be held in the United States on November 3, 2020.

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