President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva attended this Sunday (11) the wake of former mayor of Santos Telma de Souza, who died at the age of 82.
The former mayor passed away on Saturday (10) after suffering a stroke and urinary infection. She governed Santos between 1989 and 1992.
Founder of the PT, Telma met Lula in 1980. She also served as a councilor, state deputy and federal deputy for 3 terms.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) lamented, on social media, this Sunday (11), the death of the former mayor of Santos Telma de Souza, aged 82. He highlighted the PT member's legacy in creating public policies for mental health and AIDS prevention and treatment.
The only woman elected mayor of Santos, Telma governed the municipality between 1989 and 1992. She was also a state and federal deputy for São Paulo, with three terms in the Chamber of Deputies, and participated in the founding of the Workers' Party (PT).
The former mayor died at 8:27 pm on Saturday (10). She was admitted to the Mont Serrat Hospital, in Vila Mathias, after suffering a cerebrovascular accident (CVA) and having a urinary infection. Telma had already recovered from an ischemic stroke suffered about a year earlier and, since then, had restricted participation in public events.
This Sunday morning, Lula mourned the death of the former mayor, as did several other political leaders and authorities. He highlighted the PT member's trajectory as one of the founders of the party and recalled that she was the only woman to command Santos City Hall.
"I am sure that many lives were saved, many people began to be treated in a more dignified way thanks to the experiences that Telma implemented and the public policies that she defended and formulated in her career", wrote the president.
In the publication, Lula also recalled that Telma's initiatives in the area of mental health helped pave the way for the creation of Psychosocial Care Centers (Caps). "Our public policies owe a lot to what she defended and put into practice," he said.
He also highlighted that the AIDS prevention and treatment policies implemented by the former mayor, at the end of the 1980s, served as a reference for other municipalities and for actions developed by the Unified Health System (SUS) across the country.
Lula also recognized the importance of the former mayor's political trajectory, which passed through the Santos City Council, the São Paulo Legislative Assembly and the Chamber of Deputies.
Founder of PT
Lula and Telma met in 1980, during the formation process of the Workers' Party (PT). The Santos member participated in the founding of the party and, later, helped organize the party in Santos. During that period, Lula, then a union leader, became one of the main national leaders of the party.
Political life
Telma entered institutional political life in 1982, when she was elected councilor of Santos. She then held the positions of state deputy, mayor and federal deputy for three terms. She also returned to the Chamber of Santos, where she served until 2024.
The first woman elected mayor of Santos
Elected in 1988, Telma took over as Mayor of Santos in 1989. During her tenure, she implemented the polyclinics alongside the then municipal Health Secretary David Capistrano, who later succeeded her in command of the city.
In an interview with the Baixada em Pauta podcast, Telma said that she felt "afraid" when she found out that she had been elected mayor.
"I spent two, three days crying and everyone said: How sensitive she is, how emotional she is. Nothing, I was scared, because I knew what I shouldn't do, but I wasn't sure what I should do", he recalled.
