Fernando Mac Dowell

Fernando Luiz Cumplido Mac Dowell da Costa (July 7, 1945 – May 20, 2018) was a Brazilian engineer and politician. He worked for several governments in Brazil and was an advocate of established urbanism in Rio de Janeiro. He criticized the transport system of Rio de Janeiro during the government of Sérgio Cabral.

Career
Mac Dowell worked at GEIPOT, a transportion company created in 1965 by the military regime. He graduated with a degree in engineering from the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) in 1969, becoming a professor there. In the 1980s, he was director of the Carioca subway as the first line began running during the term of governor Chagas Freitas. He was president of Emop during the government of Moreira Franco and was considered a candidate for Moreira's succession, but he affirmed having broken with the latter because the government tried to inaugurate the Viaduto do Joa.

From 1991 to 1994, he participated in the second government of Leonel Brizola as a defender of the subway system. During this time, he participated in the construction of the Red Line. Recognized as one of the greatest experts in the area in the country, he made several criticisms of Brazil's subway systems, saying in 2009 that "metro in Brazil only exists in São Paulo, Rio and Distrito Federal." He made several critiques of the expansion of the subway during the government of Sérgio Cabral; in 2015, the subway visited "ghost stations" that had been ready since the 1980s but were never inaugurated.

Mac Dowell joined the Liberal Party (PL) in the 2010s and was elected vice mayor of Rio de Janeiro in the 2016 elections, on the ballot of Marcelo Crivella.

Death
Mac Dowell died of a heart attack and complications resulting from an extensive acute myocardial infarction on May 20, 2018 at age 72. The mayor of Rio de Janeiro decreed an official mourning period of three days after his death. An important highway in Rio de Janeiro city was renamed after him, the Lagoa–Barra Highway as Engenheiro Fernando Mac Dowell Highway ("engenheiro" being the Portuguese word for "engineer").