Duda Mendonça

José Eduardo Cavalcanti de Mendonça, known as Duda Mendonça (10 August 1944 – 16 August 2021) was a Brazilian politician and advertising strategist.

Biography
He owned a publicity agency called Duda Propaganda, where he became known for his political campaigns, managing more than 55 national campaigns, including mayoral, senatorial, gubernatorial and presidential races with more than 20 years of experience.

His work in the 2002 presidential campaign for Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was praised. Duda was known as "the man who elected Lula", as it was the fourth time in a row that Lula was seeking to be elected to the highest office position in the country.

He also worked on the campaigns of Paulo Maluf, Miguel Arraes, and Ciro Gomes in Brazil, and of the Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho.

In October 2004, he was arrested at an illegal cock fighting arena in the State of Rio de Janeiro.

Worked for Óscar Iván Zuluaga's campaign in the 2014 Colombian presidential elections. He was allegedly paid with money illegally paid by the multinational Odebrecht to Zuluaga's campaign. Between June and July 2014, Odebrecht wired US$1,610,000 to the accounts of a company that the publicist had in Panama.

Personal life
Mendonça was born in Salvador and died on 16 August 2021 in São Paulo, at the age of 77, from COVID-19, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil.