Who is Helder Barbalho?
Helder Barbalho, born in 1979, is the son of Jader Barbalho, a long-time MDB figure from Pará. He was a city councillor and then Mayor of Ananindeua, and held three federal ministries under Dilma Rousseff and Michel Temer. He lost the 2014 governor runoff, then won the governorship in 2018 with 55.4 percent and again in 2022 with 70.4 percent. He resigned in April 2026 to run for the Senate, and Vice-Governor Hana Ghassan succeeded him. On 4 October 2026 he was elected one of Pará's two senators, alongside Chicão of União Brasil. Their eight-year terms begin on 1 February 2027.
Previously: Governor of Pará (elected 2018, re-elected 2022), resigned in April 2026 to run for the Senate · Minister of National Integration under President Michel Temer · Minister-chief of the Secretariat of Ports and Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture under President Dilma Rousseff · Mayor of Ananindeua (elected 2004, re-elected 2008)
Documented positions
- In September 2023 he announced a goal of zero illegal deforestation in Pará by 2025, and said the state would act coercively while standing forest is worth far less than cleared farmland.Source: dol.com.br
- He proposed paying family farmers three times more to preserve forest than they earn from farming, and set up a voluntary jurisdictional carbon credit system with UNEP and Ipam.Source: dol.com.br
- At COP30 in Belém he presented the Vale Bioamazônico brand for the state's forest economy, and Pará filed documentation for a 38 million tonne CO2 reduction in 2023 with the ART TREES standard.Source: oliberal.com
- He delivered to President Lula a letter signed by all 27 governors asking the COP30 final text to recognise the role of subnational governments in climate targets.Source: oliberal.com
- His Senate platform includes tougher penalties and measures against organised crime, new public hiring contests and investment in police equipment and vehicles.Source: cnnbrasil.com.br
- His platform also lists building and strengthening educational institutions in Pará.Source: cnnbrasil.com.br
- In June 2026 he said the MDB should be supportive of Lula's re-election, and that the alliance with Lula had brought important investments to Pará.Source: congressoemfoco.com.br
Record
He governed Pará for just over seven years, winning two terms in the first round, and used the hosting of COP30 in Belém in November 2025 to promote a carbon-credit and forest-economy agenda. In October 2024, the Supreme Federal Court's Minister Edson Fachin archived, at the prosecutor-general's request, a 2018 inquiry into alleged donations by J&F to MDB politicians in the 2014 elections, which also covered Helder Barbalho and others.
Supporters credit his forest and climate programme, his wide re-election margins and the state's profile at COP30. Critics point to the federal investigations that have touched his governments over the years.
