1. Career
     Early life    State politics    Governor of Ceará    National politics    2018 presidential election  

2. Personal life

3. Awards

4. Published works

5. See also

6. References

7. External links

}}{{Expand Portuguese|date=January 2018}}

Ciro Ferreira Gomes (born 6 November 1957), often known monomyously as Ciro, is a Brazilian politician, lawyer, and academic, affiliated with the Democratic Labor Party (PDT).^[1] He was the PDT's presidential candidate in the 2018 Brazilian election.

Gomes has occupied a number of prominent political offices. He served two terms as a State Deputy in Ceará, was the Mayor of Fortaleza, and then Governor of Ceará (a highly populated state in the Northeast of Brazil). He was Minister of Finance in the Itamar Franco administration during the implementation of the "Plano Real," which successfully stabilized the economy and ended hyperinflation. He served as Minister of National Integration during the Lula administration. His most recent political office was as a Federal Deputy for Ceará, from 2007 to 2011. He is generally described as a center-left politician.^[2]

Gomes has lived in Ceará for most of his life, graduating with a degree in law from the Federal University of Ceará.^[3] He was a professor of tax law and constitutional law, and wrote three books on political economy: "No País dos Conflitos" ("In the Country of Conflicts",1994); "O Próximo Passo – Uma Alternativa Prática ao Neoliberalismo" ("The Next Step - A Practical Alternative to Neoliberalism", 1995), co-authored with Harvard professor Roberto Mangabeira Unger; and "Um Desafio Chamado Brasil" ("A Challenge Called Brazil," 2002). He was also a visiting researcher at Harvard Law School.^[4] He served in the private sector as the President of Transnordestina S/A (a commodities transportation company in Northeastern Brazil), and on the Board of Directors of Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional.^[5] Two of his four siblings (Cid Gomes and Ivo Gomes), his father, and his uncle, have all been involved in Brazilian politics.

Career

Early life

Gomes was born in Pindamonhangaba, São Paulo, the son of José Euclides Ferreira Gomes Filho and Maria José Ferreira Gomes in 1957. His family moved to Sobral, Ceará in 1962. His father's family, the Ferreira Gomes family, has been active in Ceará politics for several generations.

Gomes enrolled in the Law School of the Federal University of Ceará in 1976.^[6] Gomes later recalled that within the student movements of the time, he was most closely affiliated with the Catholic Left.^[7] Upon graduation, Gomes returned to the city of Sobral, to work for the local government as a municipal prosecutor.^[8]

State politics

Gomes ran for office for the first time in 1982, as a State Deputy representing Sobral, and won; he began his first term in February 1983.^[9] Gomes attracted substantial media attention early on for his willingness to debate national political questions - including democracy, social reforms, and international relations - which he said other Ceará politicians ignored.^[10] In 1985, Gomes also started teaching tax law as a professor at the University of Fortaleza.^[11]

In January 1989, Gomes started his term as the elected Mayor of Fortaleza, the capital of Ceará.

Governor of Ceará

Gomes was elected the Governor of Ceará in 1990, at the age of 32, becoming the second youngest governor in the country at the time.^[12] His efforts included policies to support small businesses and reduce bureaucracy.^[13] He also cracked down on tax evasion, increasing state revenue. Gomes also ordered increased investments in education and in public health; by July 1992, a Datafolha poll found he was the most popular governor in Brazil, with a 74% approval rate,^[14] and Time magazine listed him as one of the 100 most important emerging leaders on the world stage.^[15]

One of his most high-profile achievements as governor was the construction of a 71-mile long water canal, the "Canal do Trabalhador." Northeastern Brazil suffered a series of droughts in 1991, 1992, and 1993; in 1993, Gomes managed to organize and complete the construction of the canal in only 3 months, successfully bringing water to the capital city of Fortaleza and thus preventing a water supply crisis.^[16]

Gomes' "Programa Viva Criança" public health program was attributed with a 32% decrease in infant mortality in the state, and was awarded the Maurice Paté prize by UNICEF.^[17]

National politics

In 1994 he served as Minister of Finance in the administration of Itamar Franco. This appointment came at a crucial time in Brazil's modern economic development, when the Real Plan was underway as an economic stabilization program to fight hyperinflation. His successful performance overseeing the Real Plan was credited by some with helping Fernando Henrique Cardoso win the subsequent Presidential election in the fall of 1994, after Cardoso campaigned on continuing the plan's implementation, but Gomes broke with the Cardoso government in 1997.^[18]

He was a founding member of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), but left the party in 1996. He later moved to the Socialist People's Party (PPS) and ran as the Presidential candidate for the PPS in 1998 and 2002. In 1998, Gomes came in third place in the first round, and won 11% of the vote (only the top two candidates advance to the second round). In 2002, he came in fourth place in the first round, with 12% of the vote.^[19]

He supported Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the second round of the 2002 election, and was ultimately chosen to be the Minister for National Integration in Lula's new government.^[20] When the PPS' leadership voted to leave the governing coalition in December 2004, Gomes chose to remain in his post. As a result, the PPS removed him from the party leadership, and he decided to join the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB). In 2006 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies with 16.19% of the vote, the highest percentage ever achieved by a single candidate in a proportional election.^[21]

He has been publicly critical of the efforts to impeach Dilma Rousseff and prosecute Lula.^[22]

2018 presidential election

Gomes is the candidate of the PDT in the 2018 presidential election, which will take place in up to two rounds in October 2018. Political analysts have widely speculated that, since Lula is now legally barred from running for president (after his conviction for corruption, under Brazil's "Ficha Limpa" law), Gomes will attract many of Lula's supporters in the 2018 presidential election, and potentially unite a number of left and center-left political parties.^[23] Gomes has sharply criticized far-right rival candidate Jair Bolsonaro as a "fascist" for his pro-military rule statements.^[24]

Personal life

He was married to his first wife, politician Patrícia Saboya Gomes, from 1983 to 1999, with whom he has three children: Lívia, Ciro and Yuri.^[25] Like her husband, Patricia Saboya Gomes was also politically active in the Northeastern state of Ceara, including serving as a Federal Deputy and a Senator for the state; the two were seen as political allies.

He was married to his second wife, Brazilian actress Patrícia Pillar, from 1999 to 2011.^[26] In 2013, he began a relationship with Zara Castro, whith whom he had his fourth child, Gael, in 2015.^[27] Gomes is the godfather of his advisor Roberto Mangabeira Unger's eldest child, Gabriel.^[28]

Since 2017, his girlfriend has been TV producer Giselle Bezerra; she was previously a dancer on the popular Brazilian TV show Xuxa.^[29]

He has four siblings, two of whom are also politicians: Ivo Gomes and Cid Gomes.

Awards

• Medal of Merit for Defense (Order of Great Cross), awarded by the President, on November 21, 2003.^[30]
• Juscelino Kubitscheck Medal (Highest Order), awarded by the Governor of Minas Gerais, 1997.^[30]

Published works

He has written three books:

• No País dos Conflitos (1994) - co-authored with Miriam Leitão.
• O Próximo Passo – Uma Alternativa Prática ao Neoliberalismo (1996) - co-authored with Roberto Mangabeira Unger.
• Um Desafio Chamado Brasil (2002) - a collection of op-eds written for the newspapers O Estado de S. Paulo and Jornal da Tarde between 1995 and 1999.

See also

• List of mayors of Fortaleza

References

External links

• {{Twitter|cirogomes}}
• [https://www.portalcirogomes.com.br/ Official website]
• Portuguese Wikipedia entry on Ciro Gomes

• CSIR-Structural Engineering Research Centre
• CSISO10SWEDISH
• CSISO11SWEDISHFORNAMES
• CSISO121CANADIAN1
• CSISO122CANADIAN2
• CSISO141JUSIB1002
• CSISO14JISC6220RO
• CSISO151CUBA
• CSISO15ITALIAN
• CSISO16PORTUGESE
• CSISO17SPANISH
• CSISO21GERMAN
• CSISO25FRENCH
• CsISO49INIS
• CSISO4UNITEDKINGDOM
• CsISO50INIS8
• CSISO60DANISHNORWEGIAN
• CSISO60NORWEGIAN1
• CSISO61NORWEGIAN2
• CSISO69FRENCH
• CSISO84PORTUGUESE2
• CSISO85SPANISH2
• CSISO86HUNGARIAN
• CSISO88GREEK7
• CSISO92JISC62991984B