Luiz Gushiken (8 May 1950 – 13 September 2013) was a Brazilian union leader and politician. He was formerly the head of the social communication office of

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (; born Luiz Inácio da Silva; 27 October 1945), known mononymously as Lula, is a Brazilian politician, trade unionist, and former metalworker who is the president-elect of Brazil. A member of the Workers' Party ...

's administration, a position which carried a ministerial rank. He was a second-generation

Japanese-Brazilian , , lead=yes are Brazilian citizens who are nationals or naturals of Japanese ancestry or Japanese immigrants living in Brazil or Japanese people of Brazilian ancestry. The first group of Japanese immigrants arrived in Brazil in 1908. Brazil i ...

, with Ryukyuan parents from

Okinawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 Square kilometre, km2 (880 sq mi). ...

. In his youth he was a supporter of O Trabalho, a party linked to the French Organisation Communiste Internationaliste (OCI). He broke with this international current to work closely with Lula in the PT. He worked at Banespa bank and was associated with unions. He was elected a federal deputy in the Congress three times, from 1987 to 1998, and was the coordinator of the presidential campaigns for Lula in 1989 and 1998.

Early life

Luiz Gushiken was born in the small town of Osvaldo Cruz (in Presidente Prudente) and was the first-born son of seven children of the photographer and violinist ShoeiLuiz Gushiken - Nem a distância impediu que a pacata Osvaldo Cruz, cidade de 20 mil habitantes a 570 quilômetros de São Paulo, ecoasse o golpe militar de 1964.
Por Luiz Cláudio Cunha. '' ISTOÉ'', 15 de dezembro de 2004. and Setsu Gushiken,

Japanese immigrants The Japanese diaspora and its individual members, known as Nikkei (日系) or as Nikkeijin (日系人), comprise the Japanese people, Japanese emigration, emigrants from Japan (and their Kinship, descendants) residing in a country outside Japan. ...

from

. While he was still a young man, he moved to the city of

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaW ...

. He lived in the

Brás Brás is one of 96 districts in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Administratively part of the Southeast Zone of São Paulo, Brás is located immediately to the east of the historic downtown in the Subprefecture of Mooca. The district is an a ...

suburb of the city and began to work as a bank clerk at the São Paulo State Bank (Banespa), where he stayed until 1999.

Political career and involvement

He began his political life as a union leader and participated intensely in the strikes of the 1980s during the

military dictatorship A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the ...

. He presided over the São Paulo Banker's Union from 1984 to 1986. He was arrested four times by the military regime's Department for Political and Social Order (''Departamento de Ordem Política e Social'' or DOPS'').'' He was also one of the founders of the Brazilian Workers' Party (PT) and the Unified Worker's Centre (CUT), in addition to being one of its leaders (he was the Workers' party's National President from 1988 to 1990).Morre o ex-ministro do governo Lula, o petista Luiz Gushiken
. UOL, 13 de setembro de 2013.Áudio

Político trabalhou nas campanhas de Lula e se tornou um dos membros mais moderados do partido. Comentário de Kennedy Alencar. CBN, 13 de setembro de 2013.Morre o ex-mininstro e ex-deputado Luiz Gushiken
13 September 2013 He was a member (''deputado federal'') of the ''Câmara dos Deputados do Brasil'' for three consecutive parliamentary terms (including in the

Brazilian Constituent Assembly (1988) The 1988 Constituent Assembly ( pt, Assembléia Constituinte de 1988), also known as the National Constituent Assembly ( pt, Assembléia Nacional Constituinte) was a constituent assembly held in Brasília to establish Brazil's new democratic Co ...

) from 1987 until 1999, and presidential campaign coordinator for Lula in 1989 and 1998. He was also the head of the ''Secretaria de Comunicação Social'''' ''(SeCom), part of the

Presidency of Brazil The president of Brazil ( pt, Presidente do Brasil), officially the president of the Federative Republic of Brazil ( pt, Presidente da República Federativa do Brasil) or simply the ''President of the Republic'', is the head of state and head o ...

''.'' In 2005, Gushiken was accused - and defended himself - in ongoing lawsuits at the Court of Accounts of the Union (''Tribunal de Contas da União'', TCU'') ''and at the

Supreme Federal Court The Supreme Federal Court ( pt, Supremo Tribunal Federal, , abbreviated STF) is the supreme court (court of last resort) of Brazil, serving primarily as the Constitutional Court of the country. It is the highest court of law in Brazil for consti ...

(''Supremo Tribunal Federal, ''STF'')''. He left SeCom and lost the rank of minister, assuming the position as Chief of the Center for Strategic Affairs (''Núcleo de Assuntos Estratégicos'', NAE). He permanently left the government in 2006, shortly after Lula's reelection. As a union leader, he defended pension funds against the losses caused by the agreement with Daniel Dantas' Opportunity Asset Management (''Banco Opportunity''). Gushiken distinguished himself in his defense of PREVI (''Caixa de Previdência dos Funcionários do Banco do Brasil'', the pension fund for workers of

Banco do Brasil Banco do Brasil S.A. ( en, Bank of Brazil) is a Brazilian financial services company headquartered in Brasília, Brazil. The oldest bank in Brazil, and among the oldest banks in continuous operation in the world, it was founded by John VI, King ...

) during the

privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

s promoted by the

Fernando Henrique Cardoso Fernando Henrique Cardoso (; born 18 June 1931), also known by his initials FHC (), is a Brazilian sociologist, professor and politician who served as the 34th president of Brazil from 1 January 1995 to 31 December 2002. He was the first Brazi ...

administration, when the fund was used to incorporate consortiums of foreign corporations in auctions of the iron and steel, electric and telephone service sectors. He was the target of relentless media campaigns, suffering frequent accusations - none of which were ever proven - related to the use of SeCom funds. Out of office, his house came under malicious attacks and came to be wrongly included in the AP 470 (the Mensalão Scandal criminal lawsuit) by the

attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

Antonio Fernando de Souza - who would come to win a

Brasil Telecom Brasil Telecom S.A. (BrT, ) was a major Brazilian telecommunications company headquartered in the Brazilian capital of Brasilia. The company was one of three land lines and eight mobile telephone companies – and only long-distance service provid ...

mega contract, controlled by Daniel Dantas and which entered into the creation of Oi-Telemar.

Mensalão scandal and acquittal

Gushiken was accused of being part of a cash-for-votes scandal, known as the

Mensalão Scandal The Mensalão scandal ( pt, Escândalo do Mensalão, ) was a major parliamentary vote-buying scandal by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's administration that threatened to bring down his government in 2005. ''Mensalão'' is a neologism, a variant of ...

, after which he was demoted and left the government soon thereafter. Later he was acquitted from all accusations in the AP 470 criminal lawsuit, in a verdict from the

decided in 2012, due to lack of evidence from his role in the scandal. Ex-Minister of the Supreme Federal Court

José Dirceu José Dirceu (; born March 16, 1946), in full José Dirceu de Oliveira e Silva, is a former Brazilian politician. His political rights were suspended by the Brazilian House of Representatives and he was found guilty by the Brazilian Supreme Cour ...

later commented that Gushiken's indictment was "one of the great injustices of the ensalão scandal and "with no regard for the presumption of innocence". Notwithstanding, the press was no less brutal in its remorseless campaign against all of those who were indicted in the scandal, with no formal apology being made for the rash and misguided conclusions of reporters.

Death

Gushiken died on 13 September 2013, at the age of 63 whilst admitted to

Hospital Sírio-Libanês The Hospital Sírio-Libanês (Syrian-Lebanese Hospital) is one of the most important hospitals in Brazil and South America. The hospital was founded by the large Syrian and Lebanese community of São Paulo in 1921. It is one of the most well-know ...

in critical condition, due to

gastric cancer Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a cancer that develops from the lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a number of subtypes, including gastric adenocarcinomas. Lymph ...

from which he had suffered since 2002. During treatment of his illness, Gushiken spent most of his time in his

Indaiatuba Indaiatuba is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Campinas. The population is 256,223 (2020 est.) in an area of . The elevation is . The city's name derives from the Tupi language Old ...

country house (or ''chácara''), in upstate

. He would only leave his country retreat every two weeks to receive

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

treatment. A former

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

Rosicrucian Rosicrucianism is a spiritual and cultural movement that arose in Europe in the early 17th century after the publication of several texts purported to announce the existence of a hitherto unknown esoteric order to the world and made seeking its ...

and Umbandist, he also adhered to Cabala and

Zen Buddhist Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

beliefs, even maintaining close contact with the

Baháʼí Faith The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the Baháʼí Faith and the unity of religion, essential worth of all religions and Baháʼí Faith and the unity of humanity, the unity of all people. Established by ...

throughout his life (of which members of his family have been followers for many years).Corpo do Ex-Ministro Luiz Gushiken é velado em São Paulo
/ref> Prior to his death, he formally declared himself a Baháʼí, and his body was buried in a Baháʼí funeral at Redentor Cemetery in São Paulo on 14 September 2013.

References

External links