Lula’s minister criticizes Zema during visit to the tragedy in Minas Gerais

The Minister of Cities, Jader Filho (MDB), criticized Governor Romeu Zema (Novo) during a federal government statement in Juiz de Fora, a city in Zona da Mata hit by heavy rains in recent days. He spoke alongside President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Senator Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD), PT’s favorite to run for government of Minas Gerais. This Saturday, the state Fire Department announced that the number of deaths in the region rose to 70.

In his speech, Jader stated that Zema spent only 4% of the funds made available by the federal government for flood prevention. According to him, the Lula government agreed with states and municipalities R$32 billion for works to contain slopes and macro-drainage, which are carried out to prevent flooding.

“For the state of Minas Gerais alone, it was R$3.5 billion. But these projects only exist here (in MG) thanks to the projects presented by the mayors. The projects we have today with the state government were created in 2012, in the order of R$230 million. But they only implemented R$9.1 million. That is, 4.1% of the resources we made available to them”, he stated.

During the visit, President Lula also announced that he could use a mechanism created after the tragedy in Rio Grande do Sul to speed up the purchase of houses for families who lost their homes in the Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais. He stated that, in places where there was no safe land available, people will be able to choose a property in any city in the state for the federal government to purchase.

“If there is no land, we will adopt Assisted Purchase. There will be a price to buy the house. And the person can choose in any city in Minas Gerais where he finds a house that can meet his housing desires. The federal government will give the house for free to those who lost it”, said President Lula, in a speech made in the city of Juiz de Fora.

Fall in prevention

This Wednesday, O GLOBO revealed that the Minas Gerais government’s expenses on infrastructure to combat the impacts of rain fell from around R$135 million to R$6 million between the years 2023 and 2025, according to data from the state’s Transparency Portal.

When contacted, the state administration argued that “the management of public service and spending during the rainy season involves several bodies and not just Civil Defense”. “Adding up all the resources invested”, said the government, since 2022, “over R$ 170 million has been used in preventing and responding to disasters, from the State Treasury, amendments, resources from the Brumadinho agreement, MPMG Funds, among others, committed to strengthening municipal civil defenses”.

In the analysis, GLOBO searched for government programs — including those linked to the Military Cabinet, which manages Civil Defense — and considered all headings that mentioned the word “rains”. On the portal, the investments are described as “support for actions to combat and respond to damage caused by rain” and are divided between disaster management and assistance expenses, mitigation of general and specific damage caused to highways, in addition to the prevention of critical meteorological events.

In 2023, data indicates that the governor allocated around R$134.8 million for this segment. Since then, the amount paid has dropped to R$41.1 million in 2024 and R$5.8 million in 2023. This year, during the last two months, the state administration had allocated R$16,100 for infrastructure to combat storms.

The data under these headings from the first term of the current governor, Romeu Zema (Novo), which ran from 2019 to 2022, are not available on the Transparency Portal. When contacted about the reason for the drop in amounts paid, the state administration did not respond to the questions raised by the report until the closing of this article. The space remains open.

After the storms that hit municipalities in the state over the last few days, the vice-governor, Mateus Simões (PSD), announced on Tuesday, during a press conference, the allocation of R$38 million to Juiz de Fora and R$8 million to Ubá as a way of strengthening the fight against storms in the affected municipalities. On the occasion, Zema also informed that teams from the Regional Engineering and Architecture Council (CREA) will be deployed to the cities to map all risk areas. In addition, technicians from the state’s Basic Sanitation Company (Copasa) and humanitarian trucks were scheduled to arrive in the cities on Tuesday.

“I made a point of traveling to Juiz de Fora. I was in the Northwest of Minas Gerais. As soon as we became aware of the seriousness of the events here, early in the morning, I ordered Colonel Rezende, our head of Civil Defense, to make every possible effort to try to save as many people as possible”, stated Zema.