Fernando Collor de Mello

Fernando Affonso Collor de Mello was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1949 into a political family from Alagoas and trained as an economist. He was mayor of Maceió and, as governor of Alagoas, built a national image as a 'hunter of maharajas', public employees with very high salaries. Running for the small PRN, he defeated Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the 1989 runoff. His government froze most bank balances, began privatization and cut import tariffs. In 1992 his brother Pedro accused campaign treasurer Paulo César Farias of running a corruption scheme. The Chamber authorized impeachment on 29 September, and he resigned on 29 December as the Senate trial ended; the Senate then barred him from office for eight years. He returned as senator for Alagoas from 2007 to 2023.

Supporters credit Collor with breaking with decades of import substitution, starting privatization and exposing Brazilian industry to foreign competition, reforms that later governments continued. Critics remember the savings freeze, which confiscated the liquidity of millions of households and failed to end inflation, and a deep recession. His presidency ended in the first impeachment process of a Brazilian president, driven by street protests of students known as 'painted faces'. The Supreme Court acquitted him of criminal corruption charges in 1994 for lack of evidence. In May 2023, however, the Supreme Court convicted him of passive corruption and money laundering for bribes linked to contracts at BR Distribuidora, a Petrobras subsidiary, and sentenced him to 8 years and 10 months. He was arrested in April 2025 and, from 1 May 2025, was allowed to serve the sentence under house arrest on health grounds.