Aecio Neves da Cunha

Aécio Neves da Cunha is the governor of Minas Gerais State in Brazil since 2002. He was born in March 10, in Belo Horizonte in 1960. He is the youngest governor to take over this position in Minas Gerais’ state. Aécio is the second-longest running governor in the state after Benito Valadares who was governor for 10 years. Aecio’s approval rate overcame 77% in his second term according to the research conducted by the DataFolha Institute in March 2009.The current governor of Minas Gerais graduated in Economics from Pontifícia Universidade Catolica de Minas Gerais. He participated in his grandfather's campaign, who was elected Minas Gerais’ governor in 1982. When Tancredo took over the governor post, he invited Aecio who was 21 years old at the time, to be his private secretary. In 1985 Tancredo was elected President of Brazil, but he passed away April 21st before his inauguration as President of the Republic. At that time, Aécio was nominated the Chairman of the International Year of the Youth’s Committee from the Ministry of Justice, leading a group of 130 people who went to Moscow to participate in the 12th World Meeting of Youth and Students.Aécio represented Minas Gerais at the Chamber of Deputies for four terms. In the first four years (1986-1990) he participated in the National Constituent Assembly in which he was Vice- Chairman of the Committee on Sovereignty and Rights and Guarantees of Men’s and Women's Rights. He also proposed the amendment that established the right to vote at the age of 16. In his second term (1990-1994) he voted in favour of the “impeachement” of President Fernando Collor de Melo. In 1992 Aécio competed for Belo Horizonte’s Mayor post but Patrus Ananias won the election. In 1995, in his third term (1994-1998) as Federal deputy, he was elected president of Minas Gerais Party PSDB. In 1997, he became the leader of that Party in the Chamber. In the 1998 election, he was PSDB deputy with the highest number of votes in the country.In 2001, Aecio was elected President of the Chamber of Deputies with more votes than the sum of all the other candidates. Among his achievements, there is the “Ethics Package” which ended the immunity of Parliamentarians for ordinary crimes. In June 2002, he applied for Minas Gerais’ governor post and he was elected in the first round with more than 5 million votes. In Minas Gerais, he implemented “Management Shock”, a policy that reorganized and modernized the State. He reduced the costs of the government state, increasing investment in the social area and in infrastructure. This policy improved the quality of service and was approved by international companies such as the World Bank and the Interamerican Development Bank. In 2006 he was reelected with 77.03% of the valid votes, confirming his high rate of approval. The second generation of "Management Shock" or “State for Results” currently implemented in Minas Gerais is advanced in relation to the first policy and focuses its planning on citizen development.Nowadays the political parties in Brazil are campaigning for the president, governor, federal and state deputies’ elections in 2010. Aécio Neves is one of the strongest candidates from the PSDB party to compete for the Presidential post.[edit] Political HistoryAécio had his first professional experience at the age of 17 as an Officer of the Administrative Council of Economic Defense of the Ministry of Justice of Rio de Janeiro. In 1980, Christmas night. Tancredo Neves called Aécio and asked him if he wanted to quit his surfer life to get to know his “hometown” better. (Aécio Neves in an interview to the magazine Revista Isto É Gente, 30/09/02). Aécio’s political life began right after that episode when he was 20 years old. At that time, his grandfather called him to say that the time had arrived and then he invited him to participate in his campaign for Minas Gerais Government. Aecio’s political influences also came from his other family’s side. His other grandfather Tristao Ferreira da Cunha, originally from Teofilo Otoni, north of Minas Gerais, was a politician, lawyer and professor. He signed the Manifesto dos Mineiros and he was Secretary of the Agriculture Industry and Trade when Juscelino Kubitschek was governor (1951-1955). Aécio Cunha, Tristao’s son and Aecio’s father was state deputy from 1955 to 1963 and federal deputy from 1963 to 1987. Although they were rivals in politics, Tancredo Neves (MDB) and his son-in-law Aecio Cunha (Arena) were friends and they shared an apartment in Brasilia for 18 years. In 1982, in Belo Horizonte, Aécio started working in his grandfather's campaign for the Government of Minas Gerais participating in meetings and rallies in more than 300 cities in Minas Gerais. Fernando Lyra, one of the main managers of Tancredo Neves’ campaign for the Presidency in 1985 has recently released a book “Daquilo que eu sei – Tancredo e a transicao democrática” (without official translation). In an interview for the website Terra Magazine regarding his book release, Lyra claimed that Aecio followed the steps of Dr. Tancredo. In this time of democratic transition in Brazil, new leaders come up, and Lyra believes that Aécio is a great leader.
Sourced from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C3%A9cio_Neves