October 13, 2022

10:10

Bruno Pacheco – from AMAZON AGENCY

MANAUS – The former minister of the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, Damares Alves, lies, once again, to declare that it was the president who “took water” to the Brazilian Northeast, during a meeting held in the Amazon capital on Tuesday, 11. Damares tries to refer to the project of transposition of the São Francisco River (Minas Gerais-Bahia), started in 2007 under the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

On June 26, 2020, the senator-elect retweeted a post by Jair Bolsonaro in which he claimed that the Northeast was receiving water as of that moment. “My beloved Northeast finally receives water, a fundamental human right.” Damares’ information was denied in the media outlets.

Today, the former Bolsonaro government official insists on the same controversial speech when engaging the topic of “water in the Northeast” in her speech about the president’s “support” for women from traditional peoples of the Amazon and indigenous women”.

“Bolsonaro brought water to the Northeast. This is the president who thinks about women. We know what Bolsonaro is doing for riverine women, for indigenous women, and for women in the urban area”, she said.

Bolsonarist’s fake news

The transposition of the São Francisco River is one of the most used topics for fake news in the Bolsonarist circles. According to official data from the Ministry of Infrastructure, former president Lula and his successor, Dilma Rousseff (PT), executed 88% of the works. Michel Temer (MDB) carried out 5% and Bolsonaro 7%.

According to Estadão, the São Francisco River transposition is a project from 2006, formulated during Lula’s government and budgeted at R$4.5 billion. The works began in 2007 and the first stretch was expected to be delivered in 2010, which did not happen. At the end of 2010, then-President Lula said that the work would be delivered in 2012, but new additions were made and the deadlines were extended.

In 2012, the deadline was extended to 2015 and, in that year, the first pumping station of the work, which is divided into two axes – North and East – was delivered by then-President Dilma Rousseff, in the North Axis. In 2017, President Michel Temer inaugurated the East Axis, as this check by Projeto Comprova has already shown.

In November 2016, three months after Dilma left power, the North Axis had 87.7% of the physical works executed and the East Axis had 84.4%. In 2018, before the beginning of Bolsonaro’s mandate, the works were already 96.40% completed.

Even though Bolsonaro’s supporters promote the president’s image as the “father of the transposition” and the “man who brought water to the Northeast,” the waters of the São Francisco River transposition reached the “Rio do Feijão” for the first time in March 2018, that is, nine months before the politician took office as president of the Republic.

‘Women for Brazil’

Damares’ visit in Manaus occurred in a motorcade with the first lady, Michelle Bolsonaro, and is part of an extensive campaign through the North of Brazil to seek the female electorate and the support of the evangelical wing of the country. Michelle Bolsonaro met with party leaders and Bolsonaro supporters.

Besides launching the National Campaign to Combat Sexual Violence Against Children and Youth on the Internet, Michelle Bolsonaro will meet the first lady of the state, Taiana Lima, and participate in a political act in support of the reelection of governor Wilson Lima (União). The meeting with Taiana Lima took place at Dulcila Festas e Convenções, in the Ponta Negra neighborhood, West Zone of Manaus, and is called “Women for Brazil”.