Rio de Janeiro Politics
Things have changed greatly for the politics in Rio in the past years. Nowadays, the city of Rio de Janeiro is just the capital of the state that has the same name. Until 1960, the city of Rio was the national capital and the city of Niterói was the State’s capital. In the year of 1960 the Government transferred the capital to Brasília.
Since the states in Brazil have absolutely no autonomy to come up with their set of laws, Rio’s politics like in any other state, will only go so far before it reached the Federal boundary. Rio de Janeiro can only have the federal bicameral Congress to vote for criminal or civil rules. The States in Brazil do not have the same self-government possibilities the States in the U.S. have.
The city of Rio de Janeiro has a mayor and the legislative body that is only elected directly by the people that reside in that city. The Court of Law ruled by the government will agglomerate many different towns (called Municípios) in one justice administration that is called a Comarca. There are many courts of Law in the city but they follow only the rules of the Country, not the State for the States are not separately independent.
The current mayor of Rio de Janeiro belongs to the right wing party (PMDB). Although the election was tight between Eduardo Paes (right party,winner) and Fernando Gabeira from the Green Party, the strong right doesn’t show signs of backing down, even though the President belongs to the left party. In fact what elected Eduardo Paes was that he only got 1.66% more votes than Fernando Gabeira did, causing great stormy moods between Rio de Janeiro’s residents.
Politics in Rio de Janeiro is constantly under pressure from the media and its residents. This is due its well known troubles with the drug mafias that rule loosely around the outskirts of town, also known as Favelas. Local and international media keep their eyes open for any activity regarding the drug traffic situation in Rio.
Because of the major disparities that seem more significant than ever between the rich and the poor in Rio de Janeiro, Rio’s politics seem to split along with the major economic gap. Although the city is one of the wealthiest in South America, its riches are not fairly distributed and that’s why there was an initial pressure to have Fernando Gabeira (Green Party) as the city’s Mayor. Politics in Rio de Janeiro are slowly showing positive changes, but are still strongly connected to their past.
Beyond anything, the politics in Rio de Janeiro like in Brazil itself, have always been tinted with the dark colors of corruption. Slowly the city and the entire country are learning to clean up their acts and get their population reunited. It’s a matter of time until they do so.
Read on the next page: Rio de Janeiro Culture »
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