Brazil's Bolsonaro announces plan to end Labor Ministry

RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday announced his plan to remove the Labor Ministry and turn it into a secretariat subordinated to another office.

"The Labor Ministry will be incorporated into another ministry," the newly-elected president said, without providing more details.

This is the latest among the long list of mergers and eliminations of ministries. So far, Bolsonaro has expressed the desire to remove the current ministries of culture, sports, and labor.

He also announced the merger of the ministries of justice and public security, while the combination of the agriculture and the environment ministries was mentioned but later denied.

The most radical change, though, was the announcement of the merger of three ministries, finance, planning and budget, as well as industry and foreign trade into the Ministry of Economy.

The removal of the Labor Ministry has been rumored since Tuesday. As a response, the Labor Ministry released a statement defending itself.

"The Labor Ministry, which has been deeply improved over the past months, is certainly capable of coordinating the productive forces in the best path to be walked by Brazil," said the statement.