Former minister of Education, Paulo Renato Souza, dies of heart attack

Paulo Renato Souza, 65, the former minister of Education during the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration, died of a heart attack this weekend.

Paulo Renato, who was an economist, was also a state secretary of Education (São Paulo), a federal deputy, the rector of the State University of Campinas and a manager at the Inter-American Development Bank. He was one of the founding members of the PSDB political party.

In a note, president Dilma Rousseff called the death of Paulo Renato a sad event and lamented the loss of someone who “had provided the country with relevant services.”

The governor of São Paulo, Geraldo Alckmin, and the mayor of São Paulo, Gilberto Kassab, both praised Paulo Renato for his “…enormous contribution to Brazilian education,” saying he was responsible for making access to elementary education in Brazil universal. Former minister of Finance, Mailson da Nobrega said that Paulo Renato had a “decisive influence in the Cardoso administration in the discussion of social assistance and economic policy. It would be hard to find anyone who made a more significant contribution to education.”