Wilson Barbosa Martins

In 2013, he was hospitalized after suffering a stroke. In August 2014, he was hospitalized after a sudden illness. The following day, rumors circulated that Wilson had died, which were denied by the hospital.

In recent years, the former governor had difficulty walking due to the stroke he suffered in 2013 and did not speak because of the tracheostomy in 2014. However, he remained lucid, living with his daughter Thaís. In February 2018, he died at home, aged 100.

He married the writer and artist Nelly Martins, daughter of Vespasiano. They were together for almost 60 years until his wife's death in 2003. He had three children: Thaís, Celina and Nelson.

With the 1998 elections, Wilson ruled out running for re-election and then a new candidacy for the Senate, opening space for the former mayor of Campo Grande Juvêncio da Fonseca to run for a seat in the upper house of Congress.

He continued with stopped works and started others. Faced server strikes and resource lockouts. He was one of the governors who pressured Congress and the federal government for administrative reform, in addition to the renegotiation of state debt. In 1996, he signed an agreement with the Union to reduce debt payments and supported André Puccinelli in the Campo Grande municipal elections. In the following year, he was accused of making irregular application of state resources in different areas by the former Secretary of State for Education, Aleixo Paraguassu and appointed by the national press as a candidate for re-election for his support and effort for the approval of Constitutional Amendment 16. Still in 1997, Wilson authorized the privatization of Mato Grosso do Sul Energy Company (Enersul), with the aim of obtaining funds to pay debts with the Union.

Elected in 1994, he assumed the position of governor for the second time in 1995, with Braz Melo as deputy. He once again took over the management of a state in financial difficulties, but this time he did not get much help from the federal government. In March 1995, Martins was admitted by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso to the Order of Military Merit in the rank of Special Grand Officer.

After the enactment of the Constitution and the reestablishment of Congress, he was a fourth-alternate member of the Senate's Board of Directors, being rapporteur for CPIs and important projects, such as Provisional Measure No. 318, which established new rules for the Housing Finance System (SFH). He traveled on an official mission to Venezuela in 1990, and in 1992, he voted in favor of the removal and then for the impeachment of the mandate of then-president Fernando Collor, who faced an impeachment process. He resigns from office in December 1994, after being elected governor of Mato Grosso do Sul again.

In 1987, he took office as a senator, and as a member of the Constituent Assembly. Among the most diverse policies that would come to compose the current Federal Constitution, he voted in favor of protection against unfair dismissal, voting at age 16 and the expropriation of productive property. He was against the death penalty, abortion, presidentialism, and the five-year term of then-President José Sarney. He abstained on limiting external debt burdens and was absent from the vote on creating a fund to support agrarian reform and limiting the right to private property.

In 1986, he resigned from office to run for a vacancy in the Federal Senate, which led Lieutenant Governor Tebet to the Governorship. He made Miranda his successor and was elected senator.

He takes office in March 1983, with then state deputy Ramez Tebet as deputy. Early on, he faces the challenge of overcoming the imbalance of public accounts, with functional payrolls and late contracts; being forced to take out loans and renegotiate debts with the Union.

With the approach of the first direct elections for the state government, at first he articulated his brother's candidacy. Plinio discarded the idea, and the new Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) ended up supporting Wilson to run to succeed Pedrossian, being elected in 1982.

In the 1980s, he fell out with his brother Plínio, from whom he stayed away for a long time. The two disagreed on supporting a gubernatorial candidate, Gandi Jamil. Plínio didn't want to support him, because he didn't have good relations with the Jamil family. He was also opposed to his daughter Celina's candidacy as Gandi's deputy, but accepted after she did not change her mind.

His mandate was revoked in 1969 and his political rights suspended for ten years, which led him back to law.

In his second term, he was deputy leader of the MDB, a member of the Constitution and Justice Commission and other CPIs, in addition to making an official trip to Peru. The mood in the Chamber and in 1968, the military government granted Institutional Act Number Five (AI-5), which led to the closure of the National Congress and the withdrawal of parliamentary mandates.

In 1966, he refused a candidacy for the government of Mato Grosso to succeed Corrêa da Costa. On that occasion, the man who would become his main political opponent, Pedro Pedrossian, was elected. Wilson preferred to seek re-election as a congressman, and won.

In his first term in the Chamber of Deputies, he was a member of four Parliamentary Commissions of Inquiry (CPIs) and traveled on an official mission to Japan. With the 1964 coup and the consequent installation of the military dictatorship, he joined the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) with the installation of bipartisanship.

Promoted the first public tender in the history of municipal public administration and infrastructure works, such as building schools and asphalt paving. In 1962, he was elected federal deputy for Mato Grosso, even with the rejection of part of the UDN, which branded him a communist. At that time, a candidacy for the state government was already being considered, even before the creation of Mato Grosso do Sul.

He takes office in January 1959, in an election marked by the coalition that brought together the UDN and the PCB. Despite being a medium-sized city, Campo Grande had a disorganized administration, which led Wilson to promote a reform with the approval of the City Council. Despite strong opposition, the reform was approved.

He defended improvements to Campo Grande's electricity supply. The management company of the service had its board dismissed and Wilson's group took over management. The undertaking made him known, which qualified him to run for mayoralty again, being elected in 1958. Before, he was an alternate for the then senator for Mato Grosso João Vilasboas.

He was in the founding group and wrote a column for the newspaper Correio do Estado. During the administration of the then mayor of Campo Grande, Fernando Corrêa da Costa, he was the general secretary of the city hall. He ran for mayoralty in 1950, but lost to Ary Coelho.

He joined the National Democratic Union (UDN) when it was formed in 1945. He did not run for office, but worked to elect his friend Fragelli as state deputy. Uncle Vespasiano was elected senator by the same party in that same election.

He then worked in a store as a salesman until he graduated in 1939. He practiced law for a few years in an office, until he decided to return to his hometown. He opened his own office in the city until he started getting involved in politics for good.

With the Revolution of 1932, the family engaged in the fight against the government of then President Getúlio Vargas. Wilson's father and other relatives commanded battalions in the revolutionary new state of Maracaju. With the defeat after a few months, Vespasiano was exiled and the family returned to routine.

Political unrest continued after 1932. Wilson timidly involved himself in student movements, which led to his being imprisoned for a day. At the time, the group that the student identified with was considered leftist. From 1935, he became a censor of the federal government, still led by Getúlio Vargas.

The first studies began with his father and then in private schools in the city. In 1929, the family returned to Campo Grande so that Wilson and his brother Ênio could continue their studies. At that time, the young man had his first contact with his future father-in-law Vespasiano Barbosa Martins.

Wilson Barbosa Martins (21 June 1917 – 13 February 2018) was a Brazilian centenarian, lawyer and politician affiliated with the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB). For Mato Grosso do Sul, he was governor of Mato Grosso do Sul for two terms, senator and federal deputy for two terms, as well as mayor of the future capital Campo Grande.