Brazil Senate elects Bolsonaro ally to head the upper chamber

Brazil's Senate voted 57-21 on Monday to elect Rodrigo Pacheco, the candidate endorsed by right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, to head the upper chamber for a two-year term.

Though he is a Bolsonaro ally, Pacheco of the center-right Democrats party has said he would not make a priority of privatizing Eletrobras, Latin America's largest utility and one of the government's biggest potential asset sales as it works to cut the fiscal deficit.

Before the vote, Pacheco vowed to seek a compromise between fiscal restraints and assistance to socially vulnerable Brazilians hurt by the coronavirus pandemic.