José Alencar

José Alencar Gomes da Silva (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʒoˈzɛ alẽˈkaʁ ˈɡomis dɐ ˈsiɫvɐ]; 17 October 1931 – 29 March 2011), also known as José Alencar, the Strong, was a Brazilian businessman and politician, and the Vice President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010. In business since a young age, Alencar was a self-made multimillionaire, as the chief executive of Coteminas, after working as travelling salesman and in failed food wholesale start-ups. He turned his family's small clothes factory and retail store into a leading textile manufacturer in his country, producing goods for traditional brands in its portfolio, such as Artex, Santista and Calfat, and vying for dominance of the global market after a merger with South Carolina-based Springs Industries. In the 1990s, Alencar groomed his son to succeed him at the company, and opted to enter politics in his home state, Minas Gerais.^[1]

Alencar had a business-oriented political platform, advocating market liberalization and deregulation of production. His expensive political campaigns received hefty funds from Coteminas. After a failed run in 1994 for governor of Minas Gerais, he won the election for the Senate of Brazil, representing his home state, in 1998. In 2002, Alencar was invited by the left-wing Worker's Party to run for Vice President, on the same ticket as Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The alliance between the leftist union leader and Alencar, an experienced entrepreneur, proved successful. They won the presidential elections in 2002 and were re-elected in 2006. Over the years, Lula da Silva and Alencar developed a close and affectionate friendship. Diagnosed with cancer of the stomach and kidney in 1997, Alencar succumbed to the disease in 2011.

Alencar came to be revered among journalists and politicians for his spirited posture and friendly demeanor. He overcame his lack of formal education, arguing vehemently in favor of less taxes, especially indirect taxation over consumers, and a simpler tax system; lower interest rates and greater oversight of the banking industry; and social welfare and assistance programs. As Vice President, Alencar sometimes spoke out against his own government's orthodox policies, causing embarrassment for fellow administration members.^[2] His unwavering determination to live in the face of terminal cancer also marked public perception, during and after his time in office.

Personal life and early political career

Alencar was born into a family of small entrepreneurs from Muriaé, in the inland state of Minas Gerais on 17 October 1931. He was the eleventh son of Antônio Gomes da Silva and Dolores Peres Gomes da Silva. He started working while still a child, dropping out of primary school to help his father in the family business, and then worked with his brothers until he became a successful businessman on his own. In 1967, Alencar founded Coteminas, which would become one of Brazil's largest textile manufacturers.^[3] In 2002, he left the presidency of the company, by then a leading player with roughly 850 million reais in yearly net sales, to his son Josué Gomes da Silva, in order to run for Vice President of Brazil.^[4][5]

In July 2010, retired teacher Rosemary de Morais was recognized in court as the daughter of José Alencar.^[6][7] Alencar refused to undergo parental testing, but, according to Brazilian law 12.004/2009,^[8] this refusal is accepted as evidence of paternity.^[9] The legal case over Morais's parentage is still ongoing. Alencar had other children: one son, Josué, and two daughters, Maria da Graça and Patrícia.

Before being elected for the Senate in 1998, Alencar ran for governor of Minas Gerais in 1994. While in the Senate, José Alencar worked on several Commissions, including the Senatorial Commission for Economic and Social Matters. In 2002 he was tapped to be Lula's running mate, in an effort to assuage worries about the candidate's alleged anti-business bias. He was the honorary President of center-right Liberal Party, but left his party at the end of 2005 to associate himself with the new Brazilian Republican Party.^[3]

Vice Presidency

In office, Alencar stood alongside another successful businessman in the cabinet, Luiz Fernando Furlan, to channel the demands of Brazilian businessmen against the government. Thus, they came to voice discontent over bureaucracy, insufficient infrastructure and cautious monetary policy. His efforts led to the strengthening of Apex-Brasil, a pro-export agency seen as instrumental in the Brazilian economy's recent rise in exports.^[10]

Alencar was the most notable person in government to openly complain of the conservative monetary policies of the Brazilian Central Bank, under Henrique Meirelles, backed by ministers Antonio Palocci and Paulo Bernardo. He often criticized his own administration for failing to lower the Central Bank's base interest rates and demanded a reform of the country's tax system. In November 2004 he was sworn in as Defense Minister, following the resignation of José Viegas Filho. Lula turned to him to occupy a vacant position for which the President found no better-suited candidate. Alencar tried to resign on several occasions, claiming that a businessman would hardly be the best choice for running a nation's military forces. Nevertheless, President Lula convinced him to stay until March 2006, when Alencar did resign his ministerial post, in favor of anti-graft activist Waldir Pires.^[11][12]

Despite his disagreements with some policies of the Lula administration, Alencar was officially invited by Lula to once again be his running mate in the 2006 general elections. With Lula's re-election victory on 29 October, Alencar secured his position as Vice President for another term. Alencar then adopted a lower tone, while still espousing his traditional positions. He sought to run for the Senate in 2010, but was forced to give up due to the advanced stage of his cancer disease.

Disease and death

On a routine check-up, José Alencar was diagnosed with stomach and kidney cancer in 1997. After undergoing treatment for some length of time, he had his right kidney and two-thirds of his stomach surgically removed. Five years later, a malignant tumor in his prostate was removed. However, the disease continued to spread, and in 2006 doctors discovered a sarcoma in his abdomen. On 26 January 2009, a surgery extirpated eight tumors, along with compromised portions of his small and large intestine and the ureters. He was treated for digestive hemorrhage in December 2010 with an urgent surgery, his last as Vice President; though doctors could not remove the tumors present in Alencar's abdomen, because of the number of surgeries to which he had been subjected – eighteen in all. Alencar received chemotherapy for many years. He was mostly attended at Hospital Sírio-Libanês, in São Paulo, and also received experimental treatment at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.^[13][14][15]

Alencar died in March 2011, in the city of São Paulo, after 13 years battling recurrent malignant tumors.^[16] His death was met with expressions of grief and respect by members of different institutions and across the political spectrum^[17] – former President Lula said he knew "few men with José Alencar's goodness and spirit"^[18] and President Rousseff said it was an "honor" to have served alongside him.^[19] Brazil held a state funeral for José Alencar, and Vice President Michel Temer decreed seven days of official mourning.^[20] Alencar is remembered as an honest and independent politician who favored social welfare and economic freedom.^[11]

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