Collor de Mello, Fernando Affonso (1949–)

Fernando Affonso Collor de Mello, president of Brazil from 1990 to 1992, was born on 12 August 1949, in Rio de Janeiro. His father, Arnon de Mello, was a journalist, senator, and governor of Alagoas. His mother, Leda Collor de Mello, was the daughter of Lindolfo Collor, who served as minister of labor in the first administration of Getúlio Vargas. After attending the Padre Antônio Vieira, São Vicente de Paulo, and São José schools in Rio de Janeiro, in 1966 he transferred to the Centro Integrado de Ensino Médio (CIEM) in Brasília. He studied economics at the University of Brasília, then attended the Federal University of Alagoas, and returned to Brasília to obtain a degree in social communication. In his youth, Collor was an avid athlete and attained a black belt in karate. In 1975, Collor married Celi Elizabeth Monteiro de Carvalho, with whom he had two sons. They divorced in 1981, and the following year he married Rosane Malta, a member of a prominent family from Alagoas and manager of Rosane Enterprises.

In 1979, the National Renovating Alliance (ARENA), a government party, named Collor mayor of Maceió, where he served until 1982, when he was elected federal deputy by the Social Democratic Party (PDS). After changing his party affiliation to the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), he was elected governor of Alagoas (1987–1989). As governor and an outspoken critic of then president José Sarney, he attracted national attention for his anti-corruption measures aimed at public servants who received exorbitant salaries, often without working full time. Collor fought against powerful sugar-mill owners who refused to pay their debts to the state bank, Produban, which was eventually closed by the federal government.

Rejected by the PMDB, Collor launched his presidential campaign almost single-handedly, preaching the need for a crackdown on political corruption and promising a clean, efficient government. For months he remained third in the national polls, but eventually began to take the lead. In November 1989, among twenty-one candidates, he received the highest number of votes during the first round of elections, and he went on to the second round in a two-way contest against Luís Inácio (Lula) da Silva. On 17 December 1989, Collor was elected president with 43 percent of the vote to Lula's 38 percent. At age forty, he became the youngest president in Brazilian history.

During his inauguration speech, Collor declared that the federal government could no longer continue to subsidize a bloated bureaucracy. Breaking with Sarney's Cruzado Plan II, the newly elected president announced economic policies of austerity and cutbacks. In May 1991 he revamped his economic team and formulated new economic policies signaling a greater flexibility in negotiations with international banks. In the spring of 1992, Collor again made major ministerial changes. During that year, Brazil hosted the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit), which won praise from the international community. By that time, however, the president had become the target of corruption charges. Following Collor's impeachment by the Chamber of Deputies, Vice President Itamar Franco was named acting president on 2 October 1992. Collor was officially removed from office by the Senate on 29 December and was charged with corruption in June 1993.

He was eventually acquitted of any wrongdoing due to lack of evidence. His only punishment was an eight-year ban on holding public office in Brazil. This did not dissuade Collor from maintaining his involvement in Brazilian politics, however, and in 1998 he sought to run in the presidential election. A federal court upheld the ruling suspending his political rights. In 2000 he tried to run for mayor of São Paulo, but the courts again declared his candidacy invalid. That same year his wife Rosane was convicted of corruption and sentenced to eleven years in prison on charges of embezzling money from a charity in her care during her husband's time in office. In 2002 Collor was able to reenter politics and ran unsuccessfully for governor of Alagoas. In 2006 he was elected to the senate, representing Alagoas.

See alsoAlagoas; Brazil, Political Parties: National Renovating Alliance (ARENA); Corruption.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Conti, Mario Sergio. Notícias do Planalto: A imprensa e Fernando Collor. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 1999.

Isto é Senhor, 27 December 1989.

Mendes, Candido. Collor: Anos-luz, ano zero. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Nova Fronteira, 1993.

Rosenn, Keith S., and Richard Downes, eds. Corruption and Political Reform in Brazil: The Impact of Collor's Impeachment. Coral Gables, FL: North-South Center Press, 1999.

Schneider, Ronald M. Order and Progress: A Political History of Brazil (1991).

Zaverucha, Jorge. Frágil democracia: Collor, Itamar, e os militares, 1990–1998. Rio de Janeiro: Civilizaçao Brasileira, 2000.

                                  IÊda Siqueira Wiarda