Brasília, October 6, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - In an official note, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, regretted, Sunday (5), the death of José Carlos Martinez, national president of the PTB, one of the parties that make up the government's allied support base. According to Lula, Martinez was "an expressive ally in the reforms that are being debated in the National Congress."

In the note, the President recalls that Deputy José Carlos Martinez was a legislator who, in his parliamentary role, "made important contributions to our country and was an expressive ally in the indispensable reforms that are now being debated in the National Congress."

The single-engine plane that crashed in the Guaratuba region, on the coast of Paraná, causing the death of the president of the PTB, the pilot, Carlos Luíz da Luz, and two of the deputy's friends, was given up as lost on Saturday. The bodies were only found yesterday (5).

Deputy José Carlos Martinez was born in São Paulo, was 55 years old, and leaves behind four children. He was in his fourth term representing the state of Paraná. He recently assumed the presidency of the Brazilian Workers Party (PTB). Last year he led the presidential campaign of the candidate Ciro Gomes, who is currently Minister of National Integration. (DAS)