Last November, Pretoria confirmed that the Brazilian government had withdrawn the nomination of Marcelo Crivella as ambassador to South Africa1 . Jair Bolsonaro wanted to appoint this evangelical pastor and former mayor of Rio de Janeiro to this post to please the IURD church. The IURD is an evangelical church with a strong presence in Brazil where it owns a large media conglomerate.
Marcelo Crivella has no particular diplomatic qualifications, but he did preached in South Africa in the 1990s. He described this experience in a book that is criticised for its racist views2 . But Crivella's proposed appointment in Pretoria led to diplomatic tensions between Brazil and South Africa, which did not respond to the Brazilian proposal.
The decision to appoint Marcelo Crivella was prompted by a conflict that broke out in 2019 at the IURD in Angola, where Brazilian executives were expelled and replaced by Angolan executives. The IURD church was looking for support from the Brazilian government, as its presence in Africa is threatened, despite its media strategy: loss of influence in Angola and Mozambique, expulsion from Zambia, and legal proceedings in South Africa, notably for forced sterilisation.
But beyond these issues, Crivella is best known for his actions against press freedom when he was mayor of Rio de Janeiro. If Brazil is known to have had the worst management of the Covid pandemic, with a President denying the seriousness of the situation, Marcelo Crivella participated in disinforming the public by preventing Brazilian reporters from investigating the reality of the situation in Rio's hospitals.
At the end of August 2020, a report by TV Globo3 revealed that officials from the Rio City Council were being paid to disrupt reports on the pandemic, intimidate journalists and prevent interviewees from testifying. These teams were coordinating on WhatsApp groups, and keeping a regular watch outside health centers. Staff members were threatened with dismissal if they were absent. These behaviours were denounced by the Brazilian association of broadcasters, RSF and by CPJ. A phone number belonging to Marcelo Crivella was identified on one of the whatsapp groups dedicated to the organisation of this anti-reporter militia. The Rio police investigation revealed that nearly 200 people participated in the militia. The mayor's office justified its actions by explaining that it was a way to combat false information and to prevent TV Globo from manipulating information at the doors of hospitals.