Renan advocates removing the entire Vale board of directors.
"We cannot prejudge. But it is urgent, out of respect for the victims of Brumadinho, to remove the Vale board of directors as a precautionary measure, as well as to appoint an interim board, to prevent the destruction of evidence and to investigate the facts impartially," says Senator Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), one of the most influential politicians in Congress, who also accused the MDB in the Chamber of Deputies of loosening the rules for monitoring mining companies.
247 - "We cannot prejudge. But it is urgent, out of respect for the victims of Brumadinho, to remove the Vale board of directors as a precautionary measure, as well as to appoint an interim board, to prevent the destruction of evidence and to investigate the facts impartially," says Senator Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL), one of the most influential politicians in Congress, who also accused the MDB in the Chamber of Deputies of loosening the rules for monitoring mining companies. "The mistake was not privatization. It was reprivatization. What is that? It's handing over mining to Eduardo Cunha and Leonardo Quintão. The rest is the usual greed for Brazilian commodities and lack of effectiveness in defending the environment," he pointed out.
Check out their tweets and the Reuters report:
We cannot prejudge. But it is urgent, out of respect for the victims of Brumadinho, to provisionally remove the Vale board of directors, as well as appoint an interim board, to prevent the destruction of evidence and to impartially investigate the facts. #WeAreAllBrumadinho #SOSBrumadinho
— Renan Calheiros (@renancalheiros) 27 January 2019
The mistake wasn't privatization. It was reprivatization. What does that mean? It means handing over mining to Eduardo Cunha and Leonardo Quintão.
The rest is the usual greed for Brazilian commodities, and a lack of effectiveness in protecting the environment. #brumadinhoneedshelp#WeAreAllBrumadinho— Renan Calheiros (@renancalheiros) 27 January 2019
BRUMADINHO, Minas Gerais (Reuters) - Rescue teams resumed their search on Sunday afternoon for hundreds of people missing in a sea of mud caused by the collapse of a Vale mining dam in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, on Friday, after a water dam that posed a risk of collapse was deemed safe by authorities.
According to Lieutenant Colonel Flávio Godinho, spokesperson for Civil Defense, monitoring equipment indicated that dam 6, also owned by Vale, has returned to alert level 1, which no longer poses a risk to residents and firefighters working in the region.
An alert about a possible dam breach sounded at 5:30 am in Brumadinho, leading to an operation to evacuate thousands of people from their homes in the same region affected by the collapse of a tailings dam that left at least 37 dead and 287 missing.
Due to the alert, the search for missing persons was suspended, both because of the risks to the teams and to focus efforts on evacuating residents from at-risk areas.
“We have returned to risk level 1, meaning that at this exact moment the dam does not pose a risk to the people who live there, nor to the firefighters, who have returned to rescue work,” Godinho told reporters in Brumadinho.
"Measurements are taken constantly, there has been water drainage, and the dam's measurement showed that at this moment it does not pose a risk," he added.
Initially, the Minas Gerais Fire Department estimated that 24 people would have to leave their homes due to the alert about the water barrier, but the number was later revised to 3 people before the alert was lifted by the authorities.
Civil Defense advised people who left their homes due to the alert to return. "People should return to their residences; access routes are open for this to happen," said the spokesperson.
According to Civil Defense, 192 people were rescued alive after the tragedy.
R$11 billion blocked
The Public Prosecutor's Office of Minas Gerais reported this Sunday that the Minas Gerais courts have frozen another 5 billion reais from Vale to guarantee compensation for damages caused to the victims of the dam collapse, bringing the total amount of the mining company's assets frozen by the courts due to the incident to 11 billion reais.
According to the Minas Gerais Public Prosecutor's Office (MPMG), which requested the new asset freeze from the courts, the money frozen in this action adds to another 5 billion reais already frozen for the reparation of environmental damages caused by the dam collapse. Furthermore, the Minas Gerais state court also granted a request from the state government to freeze another 1 billion reais from the mining company.
When contacted, Vale did not immediately comment on the new blockade.
Earlier, the company had reported that as soon as it was notified of the decision to freeze 1 billion reais, it filed a petition stating that it would deposit the amount without the need for a court order, and that it was "evaluating the appropriate measures" regarding the first freeze of 5 billion reais.
INDIGNATION
The work of evacuating residents diverted attention from the search for hundreds of people missing due to the avalanche of tailings mud that hit communities and the company's own administrative area after the dam rupture.
TV images showed barriers being erected in the city, diverting people from certain areas and preventing passage to certain regions.
Families and friends mourning the victims of the tragedy were forced to leave the city.
Renato Maia, a 44-year-old salesman whose best friend's daughter remains missing, fled his home in a panic on Sunday morning. Around noon, he and his wife waited on the outskirts of the city for the police to lift a roadblock, outraged by the situation.
“We are tired of Vale... and this is really making the situation worse,” he said. “It was a great tragedy and now we don’t know what might happen.”
The Brumadinho dam collapse is the second disaster of its kind involving Vale in just over three years. The death toll has already surpassed the 19 fatalities from the 2015 collapse of a dam in Mariana, also in Minas Gerais, belonging to Samarco, a joint venture between Vale and BHP.
The Samarco dam collapse released five times more mining waste, but in a more remote region. The Mariana tragedy, however, affected the Doce River, making it the biggest environmental disaster in the country's history.
The government has ordered Vale to suspend operations at the Córrego do Feijão mining complex, the site of the dam collapse on Friday.
Vale's CEO, Fabio Schvartsman, apologized without taking responsibility in a television interview on Saturday, and promised that the company would do its part.
The cause of the collapse remained uncertain. Recent inspections by a German auditing firm, TUV SUD, and by Vale itself indicated no problems with the dam, according to the companies.
Schvartsman said that all of Vale's tailings dams were inspected after the 2015 Mariana disaster, and that periodic reviews are carried out.
Federal prosecutor José Adércio Sampaio told Reuters on Saturday that the new collapse of a mining tailings dam could completely change the course of negotiations regarding a 155 billion reais lawsuit filed against Samarco and its owners (Vale and BHP) in connection with the tragedy that occurred three years ago.