Vinicius Konchinski and Elaine Patrícia Cruz            Reporters Agência Brasil

São Paulo – In an all-night session, August 20-21, the City Council (“Câmera Municipal”) of Campinas voted to remove the mayor (“cassar o mandato” – a kind of forfeiture of office, impeachment and bill of attainder combination). The session lasted 44 hours and the final vote was 32 to 1.

The mayor, Helio de Oliveira Santos (PDT), is accused of administrative corruption at the municipal level, involvement in fraudulent contracts at the local water company (“Sanasa”), irregular real estate dealings in the city, tax evasion (the mayor has undeclared rural properties outside Campinas) and illegal business selling and installing antennas for cell phone operation in the municipality of Campinas. All of these activities have been under investigation by São Paulo state attorneys (“Ministério Público”) for some time. In fact, at the beginning of August, state prosecutors filed a suit at a state court demanding the immediate removal (“afastamento”) of Helio and calling for impounding his assets (“bloqueio de bens”). The suit also recommended the same treatment for his wife, Rosely, who was formerly his chief of staff (“chefe de gabinete”) at City Hall.

At the end of the weekend City Council session, around 5:00 am, Sunday morning, the president of the council, Pedro Serafim, signed a decree removing Helio and placing the vice mayor, Demétrio Vilagra (PT), in office.

“This is not a happy moment. But I feel certain the city can rise above it. Campinas is bigger than this crisis,” declared Serafim.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English

Link - Câmara de Campinas cassa o mandato do prefeito Hélio de Oliveira Santos

Link - Ministério Público pede afastamento e bloqueio de bens do prefeito de Campinas (this article is from August 5)