São PauloA defendant in a timber-smuggling case becomes the state’s justice secretary.

Ricardo Salles cut federal environmental enforcement as Brazil’s environment minister from 2019 to 2021.

Salles has been a defendant since 2023, accused of ties to an organisation that smuggled Amazon timber to the US and EU.

He takes office in January 2027, with the Supreme Court case against him still open.

How each outlet framed it
Agência Pública leans critical
sets Salles's appointment against his 2020 'boiada' deregulation remark and Ibama enforcement cuts, days after Lula's COP speech on climate

Sources: Agência Pública