Gilberto José Spier Vargas, better known as Pepe Vargas (born 29 October 1958) is a Brazilian doctor and politician. He served as the mayor of

Caxias do Sul Caxias do Sul () is a city in Rio Grande do Sul, Southern Brazil, situated in the state's mountainous Serra Gaúcha region. It was established by Italian Brazilian, Italian immigrants on June 20, 1890. Today it is the second Largest cities in R ...

from 1997 to 2005, as well as a state and federal deputy in the state of

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, ; ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative units of Brazil#List, fifth-most populous state and the List of Brazilian s ...

. During the

Dilma Rousseff Dilma Vana Rousseff (; born 14 December 1947) is a Brazilian economist and politician who served as the 36th president of Brazil from 2011 until her impeachment and removal from office on 31 August 2016. She is the only woman to have held the ...

administration, he served in various ministerial roles.

Political career

Elected office

In 1996, Vargas was elected to become the mayor of the city of

. He advanced from the first round with more than 80,000 votes, or 48.68%, and faced the second place candidate from the PMDB, Germano Rigotto, who received 77,079 votes. In the second round, Vargas obtained 51.13% and won the election. Four years later, he would go on to run for reelection against

José Ivo Sartori José Ivo Sartori (born 25 February 1948) is a Brazilian politician. He is a former city councilor and former mayor of Caxias do Sul and belongs to PMDB. He is married to Maria Helena Sartori, with whom he has two sons, Marcos and Carolina. He w ...

, also of the PMDB. Vargas came in first in the first round again with 48.15% of the vote (94,923), against Sartori's 43.11% (84,989). Kalil Sehbe Neto, of the PDT, came in third with 8.72% (17,194). Weeks after, in a tight race, Vargas won against Sartori, becoming the first mayor in Caxias do Sul's history to be reelected. Vargas became the minister of Agrarian Development, at the invite of president

, on 14 March 2012, substituting Afonso Florence. He left the post on 17 March 2014 during a period of ministerial reforms. Vargas was a federal deputy from 2007 to 2019. He voted against the admission of the request for the

impeachment of Dilma Rousseff The impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, the president of Brazil, began on 2 December 2015 with a petition for her impeachment being accepted by Eduardo Cunha, then president of the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil), Chamber of Deputies, and continued int ...

on 17 April 2016. In 2020, he once again ran to become the mayor of Caxias do Sul as a member of the PT. He reached the second round, but only obtained 40.43% of the vote and was defeated by PSDB candidate, Adiló Didomênico, who received almost 60% of the vote.

Ministerial posts

On 29 December 2014, Vargas was announced to become the Secretary of Institutional Affairs. On 7 April 2015, the duties of the office were transferred to the vice president and the secretariat was disbanded. On 16 April 2015, soon after leaving the secretariat, he became the Minister of Human Rights and Citizenship.

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vargas, Pepe 1958 births Living people People from Caxias do Sul Workers' Party (Brazil) politicians Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil) from Rio Grande do Sul Members of the Legislative Assembly of Rio Grande do Sul Government ministers of Brazil