30% of Brazil’s top state jobs to go to people of colour

AT least 30% of appointed positions in Brazil’s federal government must be occupied by black and mixed-race people, a decree signed yesterday by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva showed.

The leftist leader, who returned for his third presidential term in January, has vowed to make Brazil’s government reflect “the face of Brazilian society,” where more than half of the population is black or mixed race.