After giving up his Sente seat and watching his candidate lose in his home state of Maranhão, José Sarney, former President and one of the last political barons from the dictatorship era, needs his man to win to hold on to influence in Brazil’s Guiana. Above, a gallery of photos from around the state.
Gavin Andrews
Macapá
While most of Brazil has its eyes turned to the presidential runoff between Dilma Rousseff e Aécio Neves, the gubernatorial dispute in the far-flung state of Amapá could be host a desperate effort by one of the country’s last semi-feudal coronels to ensure the political survival of his dynasty.
Amapá is one of the youngest states in Brazil, having come into being along with the Constitution of 1988, with a population of 750,000 and 142,000 km2 of mostly untouched forest. Cut off from the rest of the country by the Amazon river at its widest, Amapá is closer to French Guiana than the rest of the country. Most of the population is concentrated in the capital, Macapá, but the rural municipalities are responsible for the largest portion of its GDP, with mining, fisheries and products like Brazil nuts and açaí, the purple berry has caught on so much in health food stores in the US and Europe.
And Amapá is the state that has kept ex-president José Sarney in the spotlight for the last 24 years. The patriarch of the last of Brazil’s great oligarchies has been elected to the senate for three consecutive eight-year mandates by this humble state – where his infrequent whirlwind visits have become the stuff of local lore – and not Maranhão, where he was born and had dominated for over 50 years. A supporter of the military junta who seized power in 1964, he flipped sides when a return to democracy was inevitable, and as luck would have it was elevated to the presidency when his running-mate, Tancredo Neves – grandfather of current candidate Aécio Neves – died of a mysterious illness just before assuming office. Owner of a media empire in Maranhão, one of the legacies of his presidency is the distribution of over a thousand radio and TV concessions throughout Brazil; he continues to reap the political returns even today. As Senator, he has always been close to the center of pforeower, with his party, the PMDB, never disputing a presidential election but always negotiating support in exchange for key ministerial positions.
[Read this excellent insight into what the PMDB and Sarney mean for Brazil here at Foreign Policy. ]
But Sarney’s significant national prestige (he was president of the Senate 4 times) doesn’t seem to count for much at home. Maranhão is the second to worst Brazilian, according to the nation’s human development index. Meanwhile, in Amapá, Sarney has been accused of voting against the state which has given him his mandate in various important matters of legislation.
His preferred candidate, Waldez Góes (PDT), is currently ahead in the polls going into Sunday’s vote. Governor for two terms, from 2003–2010, was a shoe-in for the Senate in the last state elections until arrested in a massive sting operation by the Federal Police along with his wife, his substitute, and various members of his administration, two months before election day. Góes is accused of having diverted funds from health, education and various federal projects. All told, charges involving hundreds of millions of dollars in missing funds, with one conviction to date.
Trailing in second place is Camilo Capiberibe (PSB), near the end of his first term. A political scientist and son of politicians, Brazil’s youngest standing governor has largely succeeded in avoiding the scandals and police investigations so frequent in the past. Having negotiated the rescheduling of debts inherited from the previous administration and after regaining credibility with the central government, Capiberibe has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure over the last three years (including hospitals, 28 new schools and the second largest public housing project currently under construction in Brazil.) But he started out the campaign with one of the lowest approval ratings of all 27 standing governors.
Capiberibe’s supporters attribute his rejection to a campaign of defamation and character assassination carried out over the last four years by local media. The TV and radio stations answer to Gilvam Borges (PMDB), right hand of José Sarney in Amapá, and arch-rival of Capiberibes. Governor Capiberibe insists that a significant portion of the funds allegedly diverted by the previous administration went to financing “harmony”, a so-called web of mutual connivance and silence maintained through payouts to journalists, members of the legislature and other authorities. The attacks, he says, are retribution for him breaking the system.
Senator José Sarney has not been very fortunate in this first round of elections. Having announced his decision not to run for reelection after 60 years in the political arenadue to increasing rejection, both locally and nationally, Sarney had to watch as his candidate was soundly defeated in the gubernatorial race in Maranhão. Meanwhile, in Amapá, Gilvam Borges – Sarney’s obvious successor to the Amapá senate seat – lost by a whisker in a last minute upset to the young Davi Alcolumbre (DEM), once a stalwart ally and pupil of Sarney.
For now, Sarney is quietly dedicated to helping his candidate win Sunday’srunoff. Speculation has arisen about the Sarney family transferring its base of operations to Amapá, with the possibility of his daughter Roseana running as candidate for mayor of the capital in 2016.
For now the local election battlefield has descended into the kind of no-holds-barred “jungle fight” that many Maranhenses would find familiar. It may be Sarney’s one chance in this election cycle of consolidating regional control and guaranteeing himself a platform from which to exercise a few more years of influence on the national stage. While many in Maranhão celebrates the end of the Sarney era, Amapá may be poised to give him one last opportunity to perpetuate his legacy.
