Brazilians Ask for Impeachment of Porto Alegre Mayor

On Thursday, Brunno Mattos da Silva, the secretary of Porto Alegre's Union of Neighborhood Associations (UAMPA), submitted a request for the removal of Porto Alegre Mayor Sebastiao Melo.

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The City Hall was negligent in maintaining the urban pumping stations and drainage system, which led to the greatest natural disaster in the history of this Brazilian city.

The UAMPA request cites a document signed by engineers who warned that there was no permanent maintenance on the floodgates and pump houses in Porto Alegre, a city with a robust, efficient, and easy-to-operate flood protection system.

Previously, state legislator Matheus Gomes denounced that the City Hall had been aware of the maintenance deficiencies since 2018, when engineer Marcos Goulart Machado alerted about the potential failures in the system.

The text reads, "New floods hit Porto Alegre. After a brief pause, heavy rains once again caused flooding in southern Brazil. In Porto Alegre, residents complained of not having been warned in advance. Cleanup work had to be done be cancelled."

The UAMPA document also references what happened in the Sarandi neighborhood, where the Fiergs dike broke, which was initially denied by the mayor of Porto Alegre.

"Mayor Melo played with the people because he knew the risks and did not prioritize the safety of the population. In Menino Deus, Cidade Baixa, Protásio Alves, and other areas south of the city, all the people suffered due to Melo's negligence," Mattos da Silva said.

"As if that were not enough, in the Sarandi and Farrapos neighborhoods, the state of calamity worsened even more due to the lack of maintenance of dikes, floodgates, and pump rooms," he added.

The rains recorded in Brazil left Porto Alegre neighborhoods completely flooded and without basic services. The impeachment request recalled that several meteorological institutes had warned about the high volume of rainfall expected in this city.