Cesar Maia

Cesar Maia
Cesar Maia
Member of the Municipal Chamber of Rio de Janeiro
Incumbent
Assumed office
January 1, 2013
ConstituencyAt-large
Mayor of Rio de Janeiro
In office
January 1, 2001 – January 1, 2009
Vice Mayor
  • Marco Antônio Valles (2001–2005)
  • Otávio Leite (2005–2009)
Preceded byLuiz Paulo Conde
Succeeded byEduardo Paes
In office
January 1, 1993 – January 1, 1997
Vice MayorGilberto Ramos
Preceded byMarcello Alencar
Succeeded byLuiz Paulo Conde
Member of the Chamber of Deputies
In office
February 1, 1987 – December 31, 1992
ConstituencyRio de Janeiro
Personal details
Born (1945-06-18) June 18, 1945 (age 79)
Rio de Janeiro, Federal District, Brazil
Political partyPSD (since 2024)
Other political
affiliations
  • PCB (1974–1981)
  • PDT (1981–1991)
  • PMDB (1991–1996)
  • PFL (1996–1999)
  • PTB (1999–2004)
  • DEM (2004–2022)
  • PSDB (2022–2024)
Spouse
Mariangeles Ibarra
​
(m. 1969)​
ChildrenDaniela Maia (1970–)
Rodrigo Maia (1970–)
Parents
  • Felinto Epitácio Maia (father)
  • Dalila Ribeiro de Almeida Maia (mother)
RelativesJosé Agripino Maia (cousin)
ProfessionEconomist, politician

Cesar Epitácio Maia (born June 18, 1945) is a Brazilian politician, notable for having been elected three times for mayor of Rio de Janeiro.

A native of Rio, born in 1945, Maia was forced to leave Brazil in exile during the 1960s on account of his affiliation with the Brazilian Communist Party. Exiled in Chile, he obtained a degree in economics, but the 1973 coup in the country saw him return to his native land. After becoming Professor of Macroeconomics at the Fluminense Federal University in the neighbouring city of Niterói, Maia became active in the Democratic Labour Party (PDT), founded by Leonel Brizola. Maia supported Brizola's campaign to become Governor of Rio de Janeiro state in 1983, as Brazil was emerging from the military-led regime towards full democracy, and was subsequently appointed Treasury Secretary for the state.

A trusted personal adviser to Brizola,[1] who was instrumental in uncovering and denouncing the allegedly electoral fraud that threatened Brizola's gubernatorial election in 1982,[2] the so-called Proconsult scheme, Maia was to be elected to the national Chamber of Deputies in 1986, and saw re-election in 1990. Meanwhile, having achieved personal political prominence in the late 1980s, Maia broke with Brizola and the PDT, affiliating with the Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB) in 1991, being elected mayor of the city of Rio de Janeiro for the first time in 1992, defeating the Workers' Party candidate, Afro-Brazilian Benedita da Silva in a run-off election, in a campaign that was regarded by some as being driven by racist ideology.[3][4] Maia subsequently left the PMDB and joined the Liberal Front Party (PFL).

  1. ^ Angela Maria de Castro Gomes, ed.Direitos e cidadania: memória, política e cultura . Rio de Janeiro: FGV, 2007, ISBN 978-85-225-0626-2 , page 185
  2. ^ Flora Neves, TELEJORNALISMO E PODER NAS ELEIÇOES PRESIDENCIAIS . São Paulo: Summus, 2008, ISBN 978-85-323-0513-8, page 51
  3. ^ During his 1992 campaign, Maia declared Rio to have an "image" (i.e., a brand) that could not risk being associated to a black woman openly avowing sympathies with the destitute - cf. Michael Mitchell, "Racial Consciousness, Afro-Brazilian Electoral Strategies, and Regime Change in Brazil", IN Georgia Anne Persons, ed. Race and ethnicity in comparative perspective. The National Political Science Review, Volume 7, 199, ISBN 0-7658-0435-2 , pages 75/76
  4. ^ In early 1993, already as mayor, Maia would complain to the Brazil's Foreign Ministry about issuing tourist - as well as political asylum - visas to people from Angola without requiring them to undergo testing for AIDS, as "this sudden arrival of thousands of foreigners" posed " a serious epidemiological risk". Cf. James Brooke "Haven in Rio Quite Hostile For Angolans", The New York Times, July 11, 1993, available at [1]