Caesar DePaço

César Manuel Cardoso Matos do Paço (born 21 September 1965), also known as Caesar DePaço, is a Portuguese businessman. He was an honorary consul for both Portugal and Cape Verde in the United States, in Palm Coast, Florida.

Career According to the Portuguese newspaper Expresso in 2014, DePaço has a degree in psychology and two doctorates while also a professor of psychology in Bangkok, Thailand, for four years.

DePaço is the chief executive officer of Summit Nutritionals International, a food-industry company.

On 3 October 2014, DePaço was appointed as Honorary Consul of the Portuguese Republic in Florida, based out of the city of Palm Coast. At the time, he was one of only two Honorary Consulates, with full powers other than the granting of visas.

In May 2020, DePaço resigned from his position as Honorary Consul, citing irreconcilable differences with the Portuguese Ambassador to the United States, Domingos Fezas Vital, on matters concerning Portuguese national interest and foreign policy, stating that "I leave because I cannot compromise my principles and I will not overlook unacceptable conduct".

On 11 January 2021, Portuguese news channel SIC Notícias broadcast a story asserting that DePaço had donated over ten thousand euros to Portugal's Chega party. This was controversial in Cape Verde due to Chega's opposition to immigration. The day after the SIC story was aired, Cape Verdean foreign minister Luís Filipe Tavares, who had recently appointed DePaço as Honorary Consul of Cape Verde to Florida, resigned due to the ensuing controversy. At the time he was appointed, Cape Verde already had a consul in Florida.

His wife, Deanna Padovani-DePaço, remains as honorary consul of Cape Verde to New Jersey as of 2021. In an article in January 2021, the newspaper A Nação questioned the case of a husband and wife being both appointed to as consuls, writing "This is the first time Cape Verde has ever nominated a couple, husband and wife, to consulates in the same country, at once, to different states in the U.S.A". Barreira asserted that DePaço paid for the consular activities out of his own pocket. DePaço said that he was never a financier of Chega, having made only one donation to the party within legal limits and otherwise uninvolved either as an activist or a party member. DePaço subsequently sued Wikipedia and editors. The Wikimedia Foundation characterized this as a strategic lawsuit against public participation. In December 2023, the Supreme Court of Portugal issued an order to Wikipedia demanding the removal of certain content that was deemed to be inaccurate. They also asked for the identification of the editors responsible for that content. On 25 January 2024, the Portuguese Supreme Court of Justice (STJ) reconfirmed the decision. According to Sábado magazine, the "Conference of judges maintained a decision taken in November 2023. Editors of the businessman's page could be revealed and subject to legal action." In April, an appeal by the WMF was rejected by the Constitutional Court.

On 4 August 2025, the Wikimedia Foundation announced compliance with local Portuguese court orders and subsequently removed content from the Wikipedia articles related to DePaço on both the English and Portuguese Wikipedia projects. Additionally, the IP and email addresses of eight involved Wikipedia editors were disclosed to DePaço, who stated that he would pursue further legal action against the editors. The American libertarian think tank Cato Institute criticized the court order as an instance of censorship that "threatens the global internet" by enabling a European court to take down online speech worldwide. The WMF has submitted another appeal of the order to the European Court of Human Rights. In 2020, DePaço became the owner and official patron of professional football club CF Canelas 2010.

Personal life As of 2022, he lives in New Jersey with his wife.