Sérgio Cabral Filho

Sérgio Cabral Filho
61st Governor of Rio de Janeiro
In office
1 January 2007 – 3 April 2014
Vice Governor Luiz Fernando Pezão
Preceded by Rosinha Garotinho
Succeeded by Luiz Fernando Pezão
Member of the Federal Senate
from Rio de Janeiro
In office
1 February 2003 – 31 December 2006
Preceded by Geraldo Cândido
Succeeded by Régis Fichtner
President of the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro
In office
1 January 1995 – 1 January 2003
Preceded by José Nader
Succeeded by Jorge Picciani
Member of a State Assembly
In office
1 January 1991 – 1 January 2003
Constituency Rio de Janeiro
Personal details
Born (1963-01-27) 27 January 1963
Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Nationality Brazilian
Political party PMDB
Spouse(s) Adriana de Lourdes Ancelmo (2004–2011; separated)
Religion Roman Catholicism

Sérgio de Oliveira Cabral Santos Filho (born January 27, 1963), is a Brazilian politician and journalist.[1]

In the 2006 Brazilian general elections, he was elected governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro; he was sworn into office on January 1, 2007.

His father is journalist Sérgio Cabral.

Cabral Filho was a state representative for the state of Rio de Janeiro between 1991 and 2002, having presided the State Assembly from 1995 to 2002. In the 2002 general elections, he was elected senator for the state of Rio de Janeiro, a position he occupied from January 2003 until December 2006, when he resigned in order to run in the Rio de Janeiro Gubernatorial elections, having been replaced in Senate by Regis Fitchner.

He had also run for Mayor of the city of Rio de Janeiro in 1996 with a PSDB ticket, but his election as governor happened after he had transferred to PMDB, in which occasion he and his running mate, Luiz Fernando de Sousa, had 5,129,064 votes in the run-off (68% of the total valid votes statewide) with PPS's Denise Frossard (who had 32% of the valid votes).

Cabral was chosen to give apologies to 120 people, including Dilma Rousseff the 36th President of Brazil, regarding human rights abuses suffered during the dictatorship that ruled Brazil from 1961 to 1985.[2]

Tenure as Governor

Cabral entered the Governor's office at a time of uncertain economic prospects and serious security challenges within Rio de Janeiro. During Cabral's campaign in 2006, he had praised "zero tolerance" security policies advocated by New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and had pledged to root out police corruption and improve services in Rio's favelas.[3] After visiting Colombia in 2007 to observe their successes in public safety, Cabral secured additional police funding and tasked his Public Security Secretary, José Mariano Beltrame, with spearheading a plan to improve security.[4] In 2008, the state and city governments launched the community policing program of Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) in Rio. In contrast to previous police practices, UPPs created a sustained and long-term police presence in favelas, among those being Cidade de Deus, Complexo do Alemão and Dona Marta. The operations utilize Rio Military Police's BOPE units for initial urban combat and give way to Pacification Police Units for extended policing.[5] This policy led to decreased homicide rates in the favelas that received UPPs and international attention for Governor Cabral.

In the health area, Cabral launched the Ressonância Magnética Móvel service, which travels across the State, offering health tests to the public, free of charge and without having to leave their region.

Cabral also managed to solve the finances, through tax adjustments and strict adoption of modern management techniques, such as electronic bidding. These measures lead Rio de Janeiro to be the first Brazilian State to receive the "investment grade", granted by the most important risk in the world agency, Standard & Poor's. At the time, the Agency announced in a statement that "the strong management that prevails in the State over the past three years" and the fact that the State keep "backed by a strong and diverse economy, with a GDP per capita estimated at around 25% above the average of Brazil" made the State of Rio de Janeiro achieve the global rating "BBB-" and the credit rating on national scale "brAAA".

His first campaign as Governor was also marked by achievements of the LGBT community, especially with the creation of Rio Sem Homofobia, a program that works on the inclusion of combating homophobia in public policies of the State. Cabral was also the first Governor of Rio de Janeiro to participate in a LGBT Parade.

In the transports area, Cabral has renewed the fleet of Supervia, which in 2007 had only 10 trains with air conditioning. Today, 100 trains are all with air conditioning. He was also the Governor who built more kilometers of underground lines since the beginning of the Subway in the 70s.

Security improvements, economic growth and Rio winning the bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics helped to increase Cabral's popularity and led him to an easy re-election campaign in 2010, winning more than 66% of the vote. He was seen as a key ally to Presidents Lula and Dilma and was regarded as potential vice presidential candidate.

Awards

On 14 September 2009, Sérgio Cabral received the Légion d'honneur Medal (National Order of the Legion of Honor), the maximum award from the French Government. The delivery ceremony took place in Paris at the French Senate.

On May 8, 2008, Cabral received the title Personalidade Cidadania 2008 for its history of political and social achievements throughout his mandates in the legislative and executive powers. He was chosen by 4,327 representatives of various segments of civil society, in direct and spontaneous vote. The prize is an initiative of Unesco, Folha Dirigida and Associação Brasileira de Imprensa (ABI). The Governor received the plaque from the hands of his mother, the museologist Magaly Cabral.

In 2013, Cabral received the award Personalidade Brasileira given by the Cámara Oficial de Comercio Española for his contribution to the development of the State of Rio, prioritizing the health and Public Security, on account of the projects of the Er units (UPAs) and Pacifying Police Units (Upp).

Corruption - The 5%

Recently he was accused of charging 5% of every contract won by Odebrecht, including Maracanã restoration and Coperj railroad. According to Folha de São Paulo the denunciation was made to Lava Jato Operation by Benedicto Barbosa da Silva Júnior, the companies` director. [6][7]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sérgio Cabral Filho.
Preceded by
Rosinha Garotinho		 Governor of Rio de Janeiro
2007–2014 		Succeeded by
Luiz Fernando Pezão
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/24/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.