Gilberto Kassab ( or ; born 12 August 1960) is a Brazilian politician and former mayor of São Paulo. His term ended in 2012. A civil engineer and economist, one of the most famous Brazilians of Syrian descent, Kassab took over from

José Serra José Serra Chirico (; born 19 March 1942) is a Brazilian politician who has served as a Congressman, Senator, Minister of Planning, Minister of Health, Mayor of São Paulo, Governor of São Paulo state, and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bra ...

, after Serra decided to run for

governor of São Paulo A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

. He belongs to the Syrian community of São Paulo, and is a member of the Partido Social Democrático (PSD). He is mentioned in 2017 among the beneficiaries of bribes from the multinational JBS.

Political career

*1993–1994: Councillor of São Paulo *1995–1999: State Deputy of São Paulo *1999–2004: Federal Deputy (resigned to run as vice mayor of São Paulo alongside

) *2005–2006: Vice Mayor of São Paulo *2006–2013: Mayor of São Paulo (re-elected on 26 Oct 2008 for a four-year term)

Administration

The advertising industry criticized the city of São Paulo administration for the

Cidade Limpa Lei Cidade Limpa (Portuguese for ''clean city law'') is a law of the city of São Paulo, Brazil put into law by proclamation in 2006 that prohibits advertising such as that of outdoor posters. It was proposed by mayor Gilberto Kassab. 15,000 bi ...

law, which prohibits all forms of external media and visual pollution such as

billboards A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

. Ad companies tried to keep the billboards in the streets with injunctions, but the supreme court determined the law to be constitutional. At any rate, support for the initiative from the public continues to be widespread.

Appearance in ''The Greatest Movie Ever Sold''

Mayor Kassab appeared at length in the

Morgan Spurlock Morgan Valentine Spurlock (born November 7, 1970) is an American documentary filmmaker, humorist, television producer, screenwriter and playwright. Spurlock's films include '' Super Size Me'' (2004), '' Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?'' ( ...

2011 documentary '' The Greatest Movie Ever Sold'' talking about the decision of the City Council to ban advertising in the city.

2022 presidential bid

In July 2021, Kassab announced that he would support

Rodrigo Pacheco Rodrigo Daniel Pacheco Carrillo (born 14 January 1983) is a Peruvian badminton player. Pacheco started playing badminton when he was 6 years old at the club Regatas Lima. He had made his debut at the Pan Am Junior Championships in 1996, and bec ...

in the 2022 presidential election.

Car Wash Operation

The biggest implicated company,

Odebrecht Odebrecht S.A. (), officially known as Novonor, is a Brazilian conglomerate, headquartered in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, consisting of diversified businesses in the fields of engineering, construction, chemicals and petrochemicals. The company w ...

kept an entire department to coordinate the payment of bribe to politicians. In the Car Wash Operation, officers seized several electronic spreadsheets linking the payments to nicknames. Every corrupt politician received a nickname based on physical characteristics, public trajectory, personal infos, owned cars/boats, origin place or generic preferences. Gilberto Kassab's nickname was 'Chefe Turco' and 'Kibe', portuguese form of 'Turkish Boss' and '

Kibbeh Kibbeh (, also kubba and other spellings; ar, كبة, kibba; tr, içli köfte) is a family of dishes based on spiced ground meat, onions, and grain, popular in Middle Eastern cuisine. In Levantine cuisine, kibbeh is usually made by pounding ...

', respectively, alusing his

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

ancestry.

References

External links

Official page (Portuguese)BBC News article about Cidade Limpa
* ttp://www.citymayors.com/mayors/saopaulo_mayor.html CityMayors profile (much incorrect information) , - , - , - , - 1960 births Living people People from São Paulo Brazilian people of Syrian descent Brazilian people of Italian descent Liberal Party (Brazil, 1985) politicians Democrats (Brazil) politicians Social Democratic Party (Brazil, 2011) politicians Government ministers of Brazil Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil) from São Paulo Members of the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo Mayors of São Paulo University of São Paulo alumni Ministers of Science and Technology of Brazil {{Brazil-politician-stub