Olívio de Oliveira Dutra (born 10 June 1941 in Bossoroca

Bossoroca

Bossoroca is a municipality of the [western part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The origin of the name comes from the Tupi words iby meaning earth and soroc which combines to mean erosion...

, Rio Grande do Sul

Rio Grande do Sul

Rio Grande do Sul is the southernmost state in Brazil, and the state with the fifth highest Human Development Index in the country. In this state is located the southernmost city in the country, Chuí, on the border with Uruguay. In the region of Bento Gonçalves and Caxias do Sul, the largest wine...

) is a Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

ian politician. He is a founding member of the Workers' Party

Workers' Party

Workers' Party is a name used by a number of political parties throughout the world. While the name has been used by both left-wing and right-wing organizations, it is currently used by left-wing followers of Communism, Maoism, Marxism, Marxism-Leninism, Social Democracy, Socialism and...

.

Early political career (1961-1989)

Dutra graduated in Grammar school

Grammar school

A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...

 and became an employee of Banrisul

Banrisul

Banrisul is the largest bank in Southern Brazil and operates primarily in the state of Rio Grande do Sul , with a network that serves 364 cities . The services, however, are extended to other localities of Brazil...

, Rio Grande do Sul's then state owned bank, on 1961. In that position, he became familiarized with the Porto Alegre Bank Workers Union. He was elected President of the organization in 1975. On 1979 he organized a major strike of the government employees. For that reason, he was arrested by the political police of the military dictatorship and lost his term as the Union's President.

During the redemocratization of Brazilian politics, Dutra participated of the foundation of the Workers' Party section in his state, of which he was the President from 1980 to 1986. On the 1982 gubernatorial elections, the first in over twenty years, he was released as the Workers' Party candidate. He received unexpressive voting, coming in last place with more than 50,000 votes. In 1986, Dutra was elected Constitutional

Constitution of Brazil

During its independent political history, Brazil has had seven constitutions. The most recent was ratified on October 5, 1988.-Imperial Constitution :Background...

 Congressman with over 55,000 votes. During the time in which he lived in Brasília

Brasília

Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...

, Dutra shared an apartment with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , known popularly as Lula, served as the 35th President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.A founding member of the Workers' Party , he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was inaugurated as...

, also a Congressman and the former President of Brazil

President of Brazil

The president of Brazil is both the head of state and head of government of the Federative Republic of Brazil. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the Brazilian Armed Forces...

. Since then, they are close friends.

Mayor of Porto Alegre (1989-1993)

In 1988, contradicting all opinion polls, Dutra is elected Mayor of Porto Alegre

Porto Alegre

Porto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...

 with 34% of the votes. Differently from nowadays, at that time Brazilian electoral law did not allowed the dispute of a second round if any of the candidates failed to achieved more than a half of the valid votes. According to the polls, Congressman Antônio Britto

Antônio Britto

Antonio Britto Filho is a Brazilian journalist and executive, who held the positions of Congressman, Social Security Minister, and Governor of the state of Rio Grande do Sul.- Life academic and journalistic :...

 from the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party was the favorite candidate among the population by a large margin. Britto ended up the dispute in third place, underneath fellow Congressman Carlos Araújo (then husband of Dilma Rousseff

Dilma Rousseff

Dilma Vana Rousseff is the 36th and current President of Brazil. She is the first woman to hold the office. Prior to that, in 2005, she was also the first woman to become Chief of Staff of Brazil, appointed by then President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva....

) of the Democratic Labour Party

Democratic Labour Party (Brazil)

The Democratic Labour Party is a populist, democratic socialist political party of Brazil. It was founded in 1979 by left-wing leader Leonel Brizola as an attempt to reorganize the Brazilian leftist forces during the end of the Brazilian military dictatorship...

. It is interesting to note that Araújo belonged to the same party of the city's Mayor at the time, Alceu Collares, but failed to gather his electorate.

Dutra's term as Mayor of Porto Alegre, starting in 1989 and ending in 1992, was the first of four consecutive terms of the Workers' Party in the city, totalizing 16 years of administration. Because of that, Porto Alegre became a sort of display cabinet for the party in the rest of Brazil. A place where it experimented successful and innovative initiatives. Nevertheless, Dutra's administration was criticized for its intervention on the public transportation system, what generated bad relations between the City Hall and the bus concessionaire companies, forcing the government to pay them an indemnification.

After his term as Mayor had ended, in 1994, Dutra tried the governorship for a second time. He managed to obtain 35% of the votes on the first round and 47.79% on the second. He lost the office to Britto by a small margin of less than 5% of the valid votes.

Governor of Rio Grande do Sul (1999-2003)

In 1998, Britto tried the re-election and faced Dutra for a third time. Dutra's campaign focused on criticizing Britto's actions perceived as neoliberal politics, such as the privatization

Privatization

Privatization is the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector to the private sector or to private non-profit organizations...

 of the state owned telephony and energy companies. This time, Dutra won the election on second round by a small margin of only 97 thousand votes.

Dutra's term as Governor, from 1999 to 2003, was marked by the suspension of a deal established by Britto's administration concerning the opening of two car manufacturing companies in the state (General Motors

General Motors

General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...

 and Ford). The deal included high tax exemption and flotation with interest rate below the market for the companies. The renegotiation proposed by Dutra was only accepted by GM. Other accomplishments of his administration include the creation of a State University and the introduction of the participatory budgeting

Participatory budgeting

Participatory budgeting is a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making, and a type of participatory democracy, in which ordinary people decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget...

 at state level, following the previous experience of its implementation in Porto Alegre by his party.

Suffering from a large defamation campaign, promoted mainly by RBS media conglomerate (Rede Globo

Rede Globo

Rede Globo , or simply Globo, is a Brazilian television network, launched by media mogul Roberto Marinho on April 26, 1965. It is owned by media conglomerate Organizações Globo, being by far the largest of its holdings...

's local affiliate), as soon as a corruption scandal involving the Workers' Party and the Jogo do Bicho

Jogo do Bicho

Jogo do Bicho is an illegal gambling game in Brazil, prohibited by federal law since 1946. Very popular throughout the country, the "game" is actually a lottery-type drawing operated on a regional basis by mobsters known as contraventores , bicheiros or banqueiros...

 erupted, and without the majority in the State Assembly, where he faced major defeats, Dutra was politically worn out near his term's end. As a result, Dutra's reelection campaign was rejected in the Workers' Party primaries, where then Mayor of Porto Alegre Tarso Genro

Tarso Genro

Tarso Fernando Herz Genro is a Brazilian politician, and a member of the Workers' Party . As a result of the Mensalão scandal, Genro served the remainder of José Genoíno's term as party president in 2005...

 was selected to represent the party. Genro would be defeated by a margin of 5% in the second round by Germano Rigotto

Germano Rigotto

Germano Rigotto is a Brazilian politician currently affiliated to the PMDB party. He was the governor of Rio Grande do Sul state until December 31, 2006. He ran for a second term in October 2006 elections, but he was unexpectedly defeated by Olívio Dutra and Yeda Crusius...

 from the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party.

Recent political activity (2003-present)

In 2002, Luís Inácio Lula da Silva was elected President, and appointed Dutra as Minister of Cities, a then recently created office. He would remain on this job until 2005, when Lula needed to reorganize the Brazilian cabinet

Cabinet of Brazil

The Cabinet of Brazil is composed of the Ministers of State and senior advisors of the executive branch of the federal government of Brazil. Cabinet officers are appointed and dismissed by the President. There are currently twenty-four Ministries of State and fourteen other cabinet-level...

 to suit the Progressive Party

Progressive Party (Brazil)

The Progressive party is a centre-right Brazilian political party embracing conservatism and elements of populism and liberalism....

 in it. Dutra was then replaced by Márcio Fortes in a negotiation of the government with then President of the Congress Severino Cavalcanti

Severino Cavalcanti

Severino José Cavalcanti Ferreira is a Brazilian politician, born in João Alfredo, Pernambuco. He is currently a member of the Progressive Party, despite having changed parties eight times in his career...

.

In 2006, Dutra was the Workers' Party gubernatorial candidate for Rio Grande do Sul for a fourth time. He was defeated by then Congresswoman Yeda Crusius

Yeda Crusius

Yeda Rorato Crusius is an economist and former governor of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul until December 31, 2011. She was the first female governor of the state.-Background and political associations:...

 of the Brazilian Social Democratic Party on a second round by a margin of 7.88% of the votes.