Ex-guerrilla is Brazil foreign minister

Brasilia, March 3: Brazil’s President has named Aloysio Nunes Ferreira, a onetime leftist guerrilla who took part in a train robbery and was exiled to France, as foreign minister. Mr Nunes, 71, replaces Jose Serra who stepped down in February, citing health concerns.

Despite being Latin America’s biggest country and economy, Brazil has a relatively lowkey foreign policy, with few international disputes and no involvement in armed conflicts.

However, the position is important at a time when Brazil is trying to lure back foreign investors in the wake of a huge corruption scandal and the downgrading of its credit rating to junk.

Relations with the US are a priority and Brazil’s G1 news site was quick to pull up a tweet from Mr Nunes the day after the US vote in which he characterised newly elected President Donald Trump as “the worst, the most uncontrolled” face of the Republican party.

President Michel Temer’s spokesman called Mr Nunes “a public figure with broad political experience... With a long history of engagement in the causes of Brazilian diplomacy and Brazil’s international agenda.” The presidency highlighted Mr Nunes’ chairmanship of the Senate foreign relations committee. He was also justice minister in 2001-2002.

Mr Nunes has the more unusual item on his CV of having participated in a guerrilla movement against Brazil’s 1964-85 military dictatorship, before abandoning his radical roots.

In a 2014 interview with Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper, he said during his time in the far left Acao Libertadora Nacional group he drove the stolen getaway car for a 1968 armed attack on a money train. He recalled “being very afraid” before the assault, wondering if he would be captured and tortured.