Marcelo Álvaro Antônio

Marcelo Henrique Teixeira Dias, popularly known as Marcelo Álvaro Antônio (born 16 February 1974), is a Brazilian entrepreneur and politician, and current Minister of Tourism of Brazil.[1]

Marcelo Álvaro Antônio
Minister of Tourism
In office 1 January 2019 – 9 December 2020
President	Jair Bolsonaro
Preceded by	Vinicius Lummertz
Succeeded by	Gilson Machado
Federal Deputy from Minas Gerais
In office 1 February 2015 – 1 January 2019
City Councillor of Belo Horizonte
In office 1 January 2013 – 1 February 2015
Personal details
Born	Marcelo Henrique Teixeira Dias 16 February 1974 Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Political party	PSL (2018–present)
Other political affiliations	PRP (2012–2016) PR (2016–2018)
Spouse(s)	Janaína Cardoso ​ (m. 1995)​
Children	Amanda (b. 1996) Ana Clara (b. 2002) Paulo Henrique (b. 2005)
Mother	Vilma Penido
Father	Álvaro Antônio Teixeira Dias

He was the most voted Federal Deputy in Minas Gerais in the 2018 elections, when he was re-elect with 230,008 votes. Joined the politics in 2012, as City Councillor of Belo Horizonte and member of the Progressive Republican Party (PRP). He is son of former Deputy Álvaro Antônio Teixeira Dias and Vilma Penido Dias. Married with Janaína Cardoso, they had three children: Amanda, Ana Clara and Paulo Henrique. He has Barreiro as main electoral region, where his father had much support during his political career.

Marcelo is currently member of the Social Liberal Party (PSL), being the Chairman of the party in Minas Gerais.

Parliamentary career

Elect with 8,846 votes[2] for City Councillor of Belo Horizonte in 2012, he was the 9th candidate most voted in the city. Presented bills to enlarge the popular participation in the decisions of the Municipal Chamber of Belo Horizonte. Created the bill Councillor of the Neighbourhood, to attend locally the citizens and promote the participation of the citizen in the municipal politics. He was candidate for Federal Deputy in 2014 and was elect with 60,384 votes,[3] the 3rd most voted in Belo Horizonte. In 2016, he was candidate for Mayor of Belo Horizonte, representing the Party of the Republic (PR). In 2018, he was re-elect for the Chamber of Deputies, as member of the Social Liberal Party (PSL), with 230,008 votes, the most voted of Minas Gerais.

Positioning in votings

Subject	Date	Vote[4]
Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff	17 April 2016
Removal of Eduardo Cunha	12 September 2016
Outsourcing Regulation	22 March 2017
Labor Reform	26 April 2017
Investigation against Michel Temer	2 August 2017 26 October 2017
Approval of SNTV	20 September 2017
Creation of Electoral Fund of R$ 1.7 bi	5 October 2017

Controversies

Accusation of embezzlement

On 4 February 2019, Folha de S. Paulo reported the suspect of a scheme of fake candidacies, directing the money from public funds to companies linked to his Chamber cabinet. As Chairman of the party in Minas Gerais, he was responsible to direct R$279,000 (US$ 71,883.13) to the candidates, which was the minimum value imposed by the Electoral Justice destinated to women candidate to political offices. From the R$279,000 sent to the candidates, at least R$85,000 (US$ 21,899.88) were sent to bank accounts of four companies belonging to assistants, family members or associates of assistant of Marcelo Álvaro.[5][6]

Layman candidacies

The Electoral Public Prosecutor's Office of Minas Gerais denounced, on 4 October 2019, the Minister of Tourism Marcelo Álvaro Antônio for three crimes involving lawman candidacies of the party in 2018. Ten other people were denounced. The crimes are: ideological falsehoold, electoral misappropriation and criminal association.[7]

The Minister's indictment made by the Federal Police occurred on 3 October 2019 for the electoral crime of omission in accountability and criminal association. The investigations were made as a joint force between the Police and the Public Prosecutor's Office.

Attempt of censorship

In February 2019, judge Grace Correa Pereira Maia, of the 9th Civil Circuit of Brasília, rejected a request made by Marcelo Álvaro to convict the notices of Folha de S. Paulo which linked him to the strawperson scheme. According to the judge, there were no evidences that the reports contained fake informations.[8]

[The] removal of the reportage from circulation configures censorship in any hypothesis, what can only be admitted in extreme situations, what is not the case.

— Grace Correa Pereira Maia

The Brazilian Association of Investigative Journalism (Abraji) published a note:

Abraji considers unacceptable that a public authority tries to promote the censorship to a media. Looking to stop the publishing of informations of public interest under the argument of offense to honor is a disservice to democracy.

References

1. Amaral, Luciana (28 November 2018). "Bolsonaro anuncia deputado Marcelo Álvaro para Ministério do Turismo" (in Portuguese). Uol. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
2. "Resultados das Eleições" (in Portuguese). Tribunal Regional Eleitoral de Minas Gerais. 7 October 2012. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
3. "Marcelo Alvaro Antonio 4433" (in Portuguese). Eleições 2014. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
4. "Relatório de Votação em Plenário" (in Portuguese). Câmara dos Deputados. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
5. Bragon, Ranier; Mattoso, Camila (4 February 2019). "Ministro de Bolsonaro criou candidatos laranjas para desviar recursos na eleição" (in Portuguese). Folha de S. Paulo. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
6. "Ministro do Turismo desviou verbas com candidaturas 'laranjas', diz jornal" (in Portuguese). Veja. 4 February 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
7. Lages, Flávia; Paes, Cintia (4 October 2019). "Ministro do Turismo é denunciado pelo Ministério Público de MG por candidaturas-laranja do PSL" (in Portuguese). G1. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
8. "Ministro do Turismo tenta aplicar censura à Folha de S.Paulo" (in Portuguese). ABRAJI. 26 February 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2020.

External links

• Official website