Departures of note

Telma de Souza was a Brazilian teacher, lawyer and politician who became the only woman ever to govern the city of Santos, serving as mayor from 1989 to 1992. Born in Santos in 1944, she was the daughter of two city councilors who were stripped of office by the 1964 military dictatorship, and she followed them into public life. In 1980 she was one of the founders of the Workers' Party (PT), leading its Santos branch, and she was elected city councilor in 1982 and state deputy in 1986. As mayor she inherited a financially troubled city and carried out an administrative reform, made Santos the first Brazilian city to open an AIDS reference center, and decreed the landmark 1989 intervention at the Casa de Saúde Anchieta that became a milestone in Brazil's psychiatric reform. She later served three terms as a federal deputy from 1995 to 2007 and returned to the Santos city council from 2017 to 2024, also running for mayor again in 2024. She died on 10 October 2026 at the age of 82 after suffering a stroke.