Brazil’s newly elected president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has moved to sweep away the legacy of his predecessor Jair Bolsonaro by tightening gun controls and curbing gold mining in the Amazon rainforest.
In the wake of his inauguration on Sunday, the leftwing president revoked a decree that made it easier to buy guns and a decree that allowed for “artisanal” gold mining on indigenous land.
He also ordered his ministers to end studies on the viability of privatising energy group Petrobras and the national post service Correios, and revoked an eleventh-hour decree from the Bolsonaro administration that gave a tax break to large companies. He reiterated promises to abandon the country’s constitutionally mandated cap on public spending, which he called a “stupidity”.