Minas Gerais defends Cemig and remembers JK.

With the auction of the Jaguara, São Simão, Miranda, and Volta Grande power plants scheduled for this September, Minas Gerais is maintaining the mobilization of its political forces to prevent the federal government from carrying out its threat to privatize half of Cemig's energy potential – the crown jewel of the Minas Gerais government, founded by then-governor Juscelino Kubitschek, and now the target of the Temer government's fervent negotiations. On Friday, deputies from the Mines and Energy Commission of the State Legislative Assembly went to the Triângulo Mineiro region, where the plants are located, and participated in a public protest in the city of Sacramento against the Temer government's decision to turn its back on the people of Minas Gerais and prevent Cemig from renewing its concession contract, as planned.

The initial effort of the Minas Gerais state government is to secure R$1,9 billion to guarantee full control of Jaguara, one of the four plants threatened with privatization by Temer, in addition to fighting in court to maintain control, even if partial, of the other three plants – Miranda, São Simão, and Volta Grande. In this regard, on Wednesday the 20th, the Minas Gerais Front in Defense of Cemig will go to Brasília for a demonstration at the National Congress, along with deputies from the Minas Gerais federal caucus, to pressure the federal government to at least allow Cemig to maintain control of the plants, that is, even if it holds the auction that authorizes financing from BNDES of approximately R$11 billion. Before that, however, the government will resort to the Judiciary, with lawsuits in several states, to prevent the auction from taking place on the 27th of this month.

By resisting the Temer government's offensive, Minas Gerais seems to be reliving a not-so-distant past in which the state had to confront the federal government more than once. During the Collor administration, for example, Governor Newton Cardoso threatened to occupy all federal government buildings in Minas Gerais with the Military Police to prevent an intervention in the state's Caixa Econômica Federal (a state savings bank) – which ultimately occurred on the day Newton handed over the governorship to his successor, Hélio Garcia, who couldn't resist Minister Zélia Cardoso de Melo or the president of the Central Bank, Ibrahim Eris. Later, it was Governor Itamar Franco's turn to clash with his then-presidential candidate, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who intended to privatize Furnas Centrais Elétricas, whose power plant is located in Minas Gerais but headquartered in Rio de Janeiro. Itamar even went so far as to deploy troops from the Minas Gerais Military Police (PMMG) to the Furnas region, but not before preparing a document to demonstrate why power plants should remain under state control, as in the United States, where they are controlled by the Army and not just by a state-owned company. At the time, Itamar also threatened to divert the water that supplies Lake Furnas to reduce the plant's generating capacity by at least 30 percent. None of that was necessary, but Itamar won the battle. Now, the same PSDB party of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, in power through the PMDB-disguised Michel Temer, wants to privatize the entire Brazilian electrical system, starting with the Cemig power plants and Eletrobrás, which has already been put up for sale. Before Itamar, Governor Hélio Garcia also confronted the Sarney government by appointing engineer David Elkind as director of the Banco de Crédito Real, a position vetoed by the Central Bank. In the same edition of the Jornal Nacional newspaper that announced the veto, Governor Hélio Garcia kept him in his position at the bank, saying that "a friend of the governor of Minas Gerais doesn't suffer vetoes."

This enduring willingness of Minas Gerais not to submit to the Union, regardless of who governs it, is historical. As early as 1788, the Portuguese minister Martinho de Melo e Castro sent the following observation to the Viscount of Barbacena in Rio de Janeiro: - Among all the peoples that make up the different captaincies of Brazil, perhaps none were more difficult to subject and reduce to the due obedience and submission of vassals to their Sovereign, as were those of Minas Gerais.

And that's how it's always been for the people of Minas Gerais. Just now, on September 12th, when the 115th anniversary of Juscelino Kubitscheck de Oliveira was celebrated, Governor Fernando Pimentel met in Diamantina, JK's birthplace, with the governors of Acre, Mato Grosso, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, Sergipe, and Rondônia to demand that the federal government reconcile the accounts of the Union with these states, thus seeking to recover the losses incurred due to federal law 87/1996, known as the Kandir Law. The governors, whose states are owed money by the federal government but also have debts to the Union, want Temer – the stubborn one – to reconcile the accounts, that is, for each state to present its debt and settle it with what it is owed by the federal government, instead of having to submit to the proposed debt renegotiation plan that imposes various problems on the states, from the privatization of companies – look at the case of Cemig's power plants – to wage freezes and layoffs. The "Diamantina Letter" was signed by governors Tião Viana (Acre), Pedro Taques (Mato Grosso), Wellington Dias (Piauí), Robinson Faria (Rio Grande do Norte), Confúcio Moura (Rondônia), and Jackson Lima (Sergipe). In this regard, there is already a favorable decision from the Supreme Federal Court recognizing the states' credit with the Union, whose deadline for settling the debt expires in November, but so far there has been no objective move by Temer to settle what the government owes to the states, with Minas Gerais alone, in the case of a settlement of accounts, having to receive R$135 billion from the Union, while it owes R$88 billion.

On that same September 12th, when Minas Gerais annually honors with the JK Medal those who have contributed in some way to the economic, political, social, and cultural development of the state, Governor Fernando Pimentel made one of the most forceful pronouncements of this political phase the country has been experiencing since the 2015 coup that ousted President Dilma Rousseff and plunged the country into the deepest and most serious crisis in recent years. As the speaker at the ceremony, Pimentel recalled JK's policies, highlighting his entrepreneurship and courage in promoting the country's development. "Today it is more than opportune to remember his memory and revere the trajectory of this visionary from Minas Gerais who, inspired by Celso Furtado, created SUDENE, who knew how to stimulate national industry with his goals program, who expanded the country's energy capacity, who increased the mobility of our road network, and, of course, built the new capital of the country, Brasília, definitively shifting our economic expansion frontier to the West and opening space for the growth of agribusiness," the governor emphasized.

According to Pimentel, the memory of Juscelino inspires all Brazilians amidst the storm the country is going through. "Juscelino's behavior was also fearless when, after leaving the presidency, he faced multiple inquiries and lawsuits, brought by the usual tormentors who accuse him, believe it or not, of being 'the most corrupt president this country has ever known.' Newspapers and radio and television stations, the same ones that faithfully and subserviently served the dictatorship that had been established in 1964 and that, even today, lend themselves to the role of defaming public figures of democratic and popular political orientation, accused JK of all sorts of illicit acts and irregularities. Much time would pass – Juscelino spent three years in exile alone – before everything was proven false and unjust," stated Pimentel.

For the governor of Minas Gerais, himself the victim of three accusations in the Superior Court of Justice, the last one presented on Friday the 15th, despite the current scenario, just like Juscelino Kubitschek, it is necessary to maintain serenity, not giving in to injustices. "For a long time in Brazilian history, there have been negative and insidious campaigns similar to those suffered by Vargas, then JK, then Goulart, and then... Well, we are all watching, we are all witnesses and characters in the current moment. But history is not written by hatred and intolerance, nor by the pens of intrigue and irresponsible news," emphasized the governor of Minas Gerais, for whom the moment calls for serenity. "Serenity to move forward with reforms, but without rushing, without exaltation, in a discussion process where persuasion comes through rationality and not through threats or coercion. Serenity to build a new political model to replace the current one, corroded by the vices we all know. But not in a climate of hatred, intolerance, prejudice, and the abolition of the most basic guarantees of democratic regimes. We need to overcome differences and rebuild national consensus around the two driving ideas that have made the country advance throughout the last century, since the 30s and even in the first decade of this century, namely: growth and income distribution," said Pimentel. This appeal for serenity and balance has been a constant in the pronouncements of the governor of Minas Gerais, thus remaining faithful to the traditions of the state that does not submit, as Minister Martinho de Melo e Castro warned, nor does it falter in times of difficulty. Even now, the Minas Gerais state government has launched a tax amnesty program (Refis) that aims to raise R$ 8 billion by the end of the year, which the Finance Department hopes will eliminate the budget deficit it inherited from the previous administration.