Boulos mocks Onyx: environmental crime will be tolerated in the name of shareholder profits.

247 - The national coordinator of the Homeless Workers Movement (MTST), Guilherme Boulos, mocked the Chief of Staff, Onyx Lorenzoni, who ruled out the possibility of federal government intervention in the privatized mining company Vale, after the collapse of a dam on Friday (25) in Brumadinho, Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte. So far 65 deaths have been confirmed, making it the biggest environmental tragedy in the country's history.

"The government will not intervene in Vale's management. 'It wouldn't send a good signal to the market,' said Onyx Lorenzoni. The message is: in the name of shareholder profits, crimes against life and the environment will be tolerated," Boulos wrote on Twitter.

In addition to the statement cited by the activist, the minister said that the government has a 'golden share' in Vale. "This position allows the government, for example, to maintain the company's headquarters in Brazil, but does not allow any interference in its management," the minister stated during a press conference at the Planalto Palace.

Very popular in the 1980s, when governments wanted to somehow maintain control over companies that had been privatized, the golden share is a special type of share that grants the same rights as holders of common shares and also gives veto power over some important decisions. In other words, regardless of the shareholding, the state will have veto power in various situations.

However, this "special power" does not necessarily mean that the government can do whatever it wants in companies where it holds such shares, like Vale and Embraer. The government has a different level of influence in each company, and although it could even change the rights conferred by the golden share itself in the case of Vale, that would be an extreme decision and out of the question at the moment. 

*With information from InfoMoney