Waiter Working at Planalto Palace Since Lula Administration Is Fired by Temer's Team

05/20/2016 - 10h32

Dilma Rousseff looked sad as she said good-bye to one of her employees on May 12. "Good-bye, Catalão. I cannot take you with me." But the man who was listening to Rousseff's words, waiter José da Silva Catalão, was actually happy as he was going to stay at Planalto Palace, the official workplace of the President of Brazil.

Catalão imagined that he would continue to perform his services waiting on the third consecutive president. However, that was not what happened. Catalão was fired after his shift ended on Tuesday, May 17, by the team of interim President Michel Temer.

Catalão said he needed the job and asked to be transferred to the kitchen of another floor of the Planalto Palace. However, he was told that they were just following orders. The Michel Temer team suspected that Catalão might tell Rousseff's group any information he heard during cabinet meetings while he was working.

Catalão, aged 52, eight of them spent with free access to the president's office, says he has no connection with the PT and was surprised by his dismissal.

Since he was fired, he has been avoiding the press. He is shocked by the wide publicity that has followed his dismissal and does not answer journalists' questions and has only talked to friends.

Catalão was proud of his position and some people have reported that he remembers every occasion in which he served then-vice president Temer: during the Rousseff's reelection campaign in 2014 and while Rousseff was absent and Temer was in charge.

Catalão had not been hired after a public exam. As a waiter to the president, he earned R$ 3,870 a month and is now looking for another job.

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

Read the article in the original language

	Sérgio Lima - 19.dez.2008/Folhapress
	Catalão was fired by the team of interim President Michel Temer