“My reputation was put in check,” Silva e Luna tells CNN

The president of Petrobras, General Joaquim Silva and Lunareported, in an interview with CNN, the exhausting process he was subjected to until he was fired from his position.

He leaves the state company after the shareholders’ meeting on April 13, when the name of economist Adriano Pires will be endorsed.

“Our reputation is in jeopardy. I spent more than 50 years in the Army, from cadet to general, I had come from a two-year mission at Itaipu. Suddenly, they put you as if you had come here for a reason other than serving Brazil,” said the general in a conversation at Petrobras’ headquarters in Rio de Janeiro.

Silva e Luna was dismissed from office by the Minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Albuquerque. According to him, the conversation “did not last more than 20 minutes”.

The dismissal took place through a maneuver, despite the general still having one more year in office.

He was informed that he would not be reappointed to the board of directors, which would automatically remove him from the presidency of the company.

The decision was made by President Jair Bolsonaro, who was dissatisfied with the mega readjustment of fuel prices promoted by Petrobras to compensate for the rise in oil caused by the war in Ukraine. Silva e Luna says he remains “faithful” to Bolsonaro, but criticizes politicians who seek a “culprit” for the increase in prices and pretend not to understand the logic of supply and demand in the oil market.

“I doubt whether (politicians) have difficulty understanding or are interested in not understanding. Honestly, I have doubts because these are people with high capacity. There are people who say that within a problem we can choose to find a culprit or find a solution. When they address a culprit, it gets easier.”

Watch the full interview above.