Djalma Maranhão

Djalma Maranhão (27 November 1915 – 30 July 1971) was a Brazilian politician. He was the mayor of the city of Natal for two terms, from 1956 to 1959, and again from 1961 to 1964. He also was a state deputy in and federal deputy from the state of Rio Grande do Norte. He was the first democratically elected mayor of Natal, as well as the last before the Brazilian military dictatorship.

Biography Maranhão was born on 27 November 1915 in Natal. Prior to his political career he was also a physical education teacher and a journalist. He was a founder and director of local newspapers. His brother was lawyer and Communist activist , who had been forcibly disappeared and murdered by the Brazilian military dictatorship after it came into power in 1964.

Maranhão was a member of the Brazilian Communist Party until the beginning of the 1940s. Afterwards, he became a member of the National Labour Party (PTN) and later the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB). He was elected by direct vote to his second mandate in 1960, the first direct vote for mayor in Natal.

Considered to be left-wing, after the coup d'état in April 1964, Maranhão was removed from office as mayor. He was imprisoned by the military on the island of Fernando de Noronha and in Recife. He was freed after a habeas corpus order by the Supreme Federal Court in December 1964, and afterwards went into exile in Uruguay. He died while in exile in Uruguay at 55 years old. His corpse was repatriated and was buried at Cemitério do Alecrim in Natal.

There is a bust of Maranhão in front of the Padre Miguelinho Palace in Natal.