Hélio de Carvalho Garcia (March 16, 1931 – June 6, 2016) was a Brazilian

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

and

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

. He served as

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...

from 1984 to 1987 and again from 1991 until 1995.

Biography

Garcia was born in

Santo Antônio do Amparo Santo Antônio do Amparo is a city in the southern part of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The population is 18,613 (2020 est.) in an area of 488.89 km2. The municipality was founded in 1938. Notable residents * Hélio Garcia, former Gov ...

, Minas Gerais, on March 16, 1931. He received his

law degree A law degree is an academic degree conferred for studies in law. Some law degrees are professional degrees that are prerequisites or serve as preparation for legal careers. These generally include the Bachelor of Civil Law, Bachelor of Laws, an ...

from the

Federal University of Minas Gerais The Federal University of Minas Gerais (, UFMG) is a federalIn the Brazilian Higher Education context, ''Federal'' does not mean ''collegiate'' (even though most Federal Universities in Brazil enjoy a similarly collegiate system), but it means ...

(UFMG) in Belo Horizonte. He began his political career as a state deputy in the

Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais The Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais () is the state legislature of Brazil's Minas Gerais state. It consists of 77 state deputies elected by proportional representation and is based in Belo Horizonte, the state capital. The Assembly has b ...

from 1963 to 1967.

Political career

In 1982, Garcia was elected vice governor of Minas Gerais as the

running mate A running mate is a person running together with another person on a joint ticket during an election. The term is most often used in reference to the person in the subordinate position (such as the vice presidential candidate running with a pre ...

Tancredo Neves Tancredo de Almeida Neves () (4 March 1910 – 21 April 1985) was a Brazilian politician, lawyer, and entrepreneur. He served as Ministry of Justice and Public Security (Brazil), Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs from 1953 to 1954, Pri ...

during the country's first direct gubernatorial elections since military rule. Neves and Garcia took office as governor and vice governor of Minas Gerais, respectively, on March 15, 1983. Soon after taking office, Governor Neves appointed Garcia as the Mayor of Belo Horizonte. (At the time, the Mayor of

Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte is the List of largest cities in Brazil, sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population of around 2.3 million, and the third largest metropolitan area, containing a population of 6 million. It is the List of cities in Sout ...

, the state capital, was still an appointed position, and there was no direct election of mayor. Garcia served simultaneously as both the vice governor of Minas Gerais and the mayor of Belo Horizonte from April 1983 until August 14, 1984. On August 14, 1984, Governor Tancredo Neves resigned from office to begin his campaign for

President of Brazil The president of Brazil (), officially the president of the Federative Republic of Brazil () or simply the ''President of the Republic'', is the head of state and head of government of Brazil. The president leads the executive branch of the ...

. Vice Governor Garcia succeeded him as the new Governor of Minas Gerais. Garcia, a member of the

PMDB The Brazilian Democratic Movement (, MDB) is a Brazilian political party. It is considered a " big tent party" and it is one of the parties with the greatest representation throughout the national territory, with the most numbers of senators, m ...

, served his first tenure as governor August 1984 until March 1987. Garcia was elected governor of Minas Gerais in 1990, this time as a member of the Brazilian Labour Party (PTB). He served as governor from 1991 until January 1, 1995. He then largely retired from politics and returned to his home in

. In 1998, Garcia ran for a seat in the

Federal Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. Senate or the Senate may also refer to: * Any one of the national senates in the world, including ** The Australian Senate ** The Brazilian Senate * ...

, but lost that election. Garcia had suffered from serious illnesses during his later life, including

heart arrhythmia Arrhythmias, also known as cardiac arrhythmias, are irregularities in the cardiac cycle, heartbeat, including when it is too fast or too slow. Essentially, this is anything but normal sinus rhythm. A resting heart rate that is too fast – ab ...

, coronary artery disease and Alzheimer's disease. He was admitted to Segundo o Hospital Unimed hospital in

on May 28, 2016, for

pneumonia Pneumonia is an Inflammation, inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as Pulmonary alveolus, alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of Cough#Classification, productive or dry cough, ches ...

and

respiratory failure Respiratory failure results from inadequate gas exchange by the respiratory system, meaning that the arterial oxygen, carbon dioxide, or both cannot be kept at normal levels. A drop in the oxygen carried in the blood is known as hypoxemia; a r ...

. He died from respiratory failure at the same hospital on June 6, 2016, at the age of 85. His funeral was held at the Parque da Colina Cemetery and Crematorium on June 14. The current governor of Minas Gerais,

Fernando Pimentel Fernando Damata Pimentel (born 31 March 1951) is a Brazilian politician and economist. He is a member of the Workers' Party (PT). He was the Mayor of Belo Horizonte from 2001 to 2009, the Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade in ...

, declared three days of mourning in the state following his death. Brazil's interim President

Michel Temer Michel Miguel Elias Temer Lulia (; born 23 September 1940) is a Brazilian politician, lawyer and writer who served as the 37th president of Brazil from 31 August 2016 to 1 January 2019. He took office after the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impe ...

called Garcia was one of the pillar who helped Tancredo Neves with the re-democratization of Brazil, in a message posted to

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

following his death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Helio 1931 births 2016 deaths National Democratic Union (Brazil) politicians National Renewal Alliance politicians Brazilian Democratic Movement politicians Brazilian Labour Party (1981) politicians Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil) from Minas Gerais Governors of Minas Gerais Vice governors of Minas Gerais Mayors of Belo Horizonte Members of the Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais