Francisco de Assis Rodrigues (born 23 April 1951) better known as Chico Rodrigues, is a federal senator of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

representing the state of Roraima. Although born in

Pernambuco Pernambuco () is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it seventh-most populous state of Brazil and with around 98,148 km², being the 19 ...

, he has spent his political career representing Roraima, and was previously governor from April 2014 to December 2014, vice-governor from 2011 to 2014, and also served in the chamber of deputies from 1991 to 2011.

Personal life

Rodrigues was born to Sebastião Rodrigues Silva and Eugênia Andrade Silva. He is married to Selma Rodrigues. Rodrigues is an alumnus of the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco. Before becoming a politician he worked as an engineer.

Political career

Rodrigues served in the federal chamber of deputies for 20 years, from 1991 to 2011. From 2007 onwards he was the vice leader for the Democrats in the lower house. Rodrigues was appointed vie-governor of Roraima under

José de Anchieta Júnior José de Anchieta Júnior (11 March 1965 – 6 December 2018) was a Brazilian politician and member of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB). He served as the Governor of the northern Brazilian state of Roraima from the death of his predece ...

, and was governor in a care tacker role until he was impeached from office for violating the state's campaign and finance laws. The ruling was considered some what controversial as it was Júnior who had broken these laws while he was governor and Rodrigues was vice-governor, but as Júnior was no longer in office, Rodrigues received the punishment instead. In September 2015 Rodrigues joined the

Brazilian Social Democracy Party The Brazilian Social Democracy Party ( pt, Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira, PSDB), also known as the Brazilian Social Democratic Party or the Party of Brazilian Social Democracy,. is a political party in Brazil Brazil has a multi-pa ...

. Shortly before the 2018 elections Rodrigues re-aligned himself with the Democrats. In the

2018 Brazilian general election General elections were held in Brazil on 7 October 2018 to elect the president, National Congress and state governors. As no candidate in the presidential election received more than 50% of the vote in the first round, a runoff round was held ...

he was elected to the federal senate with 111,318 votes, or 22.75%. In October 2019, following an all-expenses-paid trip to China, Rodrigues announced his strong support for

Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smar ...

to build Brazil's 5G network. A number of Brazilian news outlets reported on 15 October 2020 that Rodrigues was accused of stealing money which was intended to help the people of Roraima due to the economic woes resulting from the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The Federal Police in Brazil reported that they found R$30.000 in his underwear and more than R$100.000 in his house.Terra
“ Who is Chico Rodrigues, the senator with money in his underwear”

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodrigues, Chico 1951 births Living people Politicians from Recife Brazilian engineers Democrats (Brazil) politicians Brazilian Democratic Movement politicians Brazilian Social Democracy Party politicians Brazilian Socialist Party politicians Members of the Federal Senate (Brazil) Governors of Roraima Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil) from Roraima Members of the Legislative Assembly of Roraima