The Brazilian judiciary will be led by people from Minas Gerais.
Joaquim Barbosa, from Paracatu, Minas Gerais, will be the next president of the Supreme Federal Court (STF); Carlos Alberto Reis de Paula, from Pedro Leopoldo, will head the Superior Labor Court (TST); and Cármen Lúcia, born in Montes Claros, is the current head of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).
Minas 247 - It's a curious coincidence, to say the least: three of the most important positions in the Brazilian judiciary will be held by people born in Minas Gerais.
The next president of the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF) will be Joaquim Barbosa, from Paracatu, a city of 85 inhabitants located in northwestern Minas Gerais. The rapporteur for the Mensalão corruption trial, Barbosa was nominated by former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to be a minister of the STF. Controversial, he is the only member of the Supreme Court who openly defends the decriminalization of abortion. In 2009, he became famous for arguing, in a plenary session of the court, with fellow STF minister Gilmar Mendes. "You are destroying the credibility of the Brazilian justice system," Barbosa said to Mendes. Contrary to popular belief, he is not the first black minister of the Brazilian Supreme Court – before him, Hermenegildo de Barros and Pedro Lessa were also black and members of the STF.
Carlos Alberto Reis de Paula was born in Pedro Leopoldo, in the Greater Belo Horizonte area (population 65), 68 years ago. He will be the next president of the Superior Labor Court (TST). He holds a master's and doctorate in Law from UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais), where he was a professor, but has been working at UnB (University of Brasília) since 1999. Reis Veloso has been a minister of the TST since 1998. Currently, he is the general inspector of Labor Justice.
The current president of the Superior Electoral Court is also from Minas Gerais, from Montes Claros, a city in the north of Minas Gerais with about 370 inhabitants. Cármen Lúcia Antunes Rocha, however, was raised in Espinosa (about 35 inhabitants), also in the northern region of the state, very close to the border with Bahia. A graduate in Law from PUC-Minas, where she was a professor, she was the state's attorney general during the government of Itamar Franco. Cármen Lúcia was the second woman appointed in the history of the Brazilian Supreme Court – in 2006, due to the retirement of Nelson Jobim, she was nominated by Lula for the position. Since the beginning of March, she has been the head of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE).