Brazil’s presidential race is in stunned disarray after one of the top three contenders was killed on the campaign trail when a small plane carrying him and his aides crashed into a residential area in this port city.
Socialist politician Eduardo Campos and the six other people aboard the aircraft died in the accident on Wednesday, which came less than two months before the Oct. 4 presidential election.
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who opinion polls say leads the race, declared three days of official mourning for Campos and said she was suspending her campaign during that time. The other main candidate, Aecio Neves, also said he was putting his campaign on hold.
Photo: Reuters
“Brazil is in mourning and reeling from a death that took the life of a promising young politician,” Rousseff said. She said Campos had had “an extremely promising future.”
The 49-year-old from a powerful political family from the northeastern state of Pernambuco, Campos had been a fixture on the Brazilian political scene since his youth, having served as state and federal representative and also as Pernambuco’s governor. He had been allied with Rousseff and her Workers Party, but broke away before the presidential campaign. Opinion polls had said Campos was running in third place, behind Rousseff and Neves.
Campos was married to his high-school sweetheart and the two had five children.
The candidate, four members of his campaign staff and two pilots were traveling from Rio de Janeiro to the city of Guaruja when the Cessna 560XL went down in nearby Santos at about 10am.
Aeronautical officials said the plane was trying to land in bad weather, although the Globo television network broadcast interviews with witnesses who said the aircraft was in flames before it crashed among apartment buildings. An investigation has been opened to determine the exact cause, Brazil’s aeronautical agency said.
Daniel Onias, a civil defense officer on the scene, said the victims’ bodies were “disintegrated.” Five people on the ground at the time of the crash were slightly injured, he said.
The accident sent shock waves through Brazil’s political class and had pundits speculating about how it might affect the election.
Campos’ running mate, former minister of the environment Marina Silva, is widely seen as one of Brazil’s most popular politicians and a potential political threat to Rousseff. Brazilian law gives parties 10 days to choose a substitute in the case of a candidate’s death and it was thought likely that the Brazilian Socialist Party would choose Silva to step in for Campos.
Silva herself did not give any hints about her political future. In a brief statement to reporters in Santos, a shaken Silva spoke solely about Campos and her relationship with him. Silva, who got 20 percent of the vote in the 2010 presidential election, joined Campos’ ticket last October after she was unable to set up her own party in time to run against for president.
“During these 10 months of partnership, I learned to respect him, admire him and feel confidence in his attitudes and his ideals in life,” she said in a soft, wavering voice. “This is, without a shadow of a doubt, a tragedy which plunges us into a profound sadness that I know that every single Brazilian is sharing with each and every one of us.”
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
RSS