Eduardo Paes to Resign March 20 to Run for Rio State Governor

Overview

• Vice Mayor Eduardo Cavaliere is set to assume control of Rio City Hall when Paes steps down.
• Paes confirmed the timetable after previously dismissing the idea and later acknowledging it as a possibility in mid-January.
• Reporting says the arrangement would free Castro to pursue a Senate run without resistance in the capital while expanding Paes’s reach in the Baixada Fluminense and the interior.
• If Castro also resigns by the legal deadline, the state’s lack of a vice governor and the Alerj president’s suspension would require the Rio court president, Ricardo Couto, to oversee an indirect vote for a short-term successor.
• Castro is described as favoring Casa Civil chief Nicola Miccione for the caretaker role, with backstage support cited from Centrão figures such as Congressman Doutor Luizinho.