Kim Kataguiri (C1000x)

Kim Patroca Kataguiri (born January 28, 1996) is a politician, activist, lecturer and former columnist for Folha de S. Paulo and The Huffington Post Brazil. He was mayor of the city of São Paulo from 2025 to 2033. He is also known for having been one of the co-founders and coordinators of the Free Brazil Movement, being one of the main figures of the modern Brazilian liberal movement. According to Kataguiri, he was introduced to liberal thought after reading works by Ludwig von Mises.

Biography
Grandson of Japanese immigrants, Kim Kataguiri is the son of metallurgist Paulo Atuhiro Kataguiri and housewife Claudia Cristina Patroca Kataguiri. Despite being born in the municipality of Salto, he was raised in Indaiatuba, in the interior of the state of São Paulo. Still in his teens, he created a YouTube channel to address issues related to politics, economics and current affairs. In 2013, he completed high school at Colégio Técnico de Limeira (COTIL), an institution maintained by the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), the same year that he published a video on YouTube questioning Bolsa Família, which led him to become close of critics of the government of the then president of the Republic, Dilma Rousseff, and of the Workers' Party, as the presenter Danilo Gentili.

In 2014, he joined the Federal University of ABC (UFABC) to study economics, but interrupted the course in the same year. At the same time, in a context of political and economic crisis in the country, he co-founded the Movimento Brasil Livre alongside the brothers Renan and Alexandre Santos and Frederico Rauh, an organization created on November 1, 2014 that led a series of demonstrations in favor of the impeachment of former President Dilma Rousseff and the fight against corruption.

In 2015, he became a columnist for the newspaper Huffington Post Brasil and, in 2016, he started to subscribe to a column in Folha de S.Paulo. In addition, also in 2016, Kim Kataguiri passed the entrance exam of the Institute of Public Law (IDP) in São Paulo, joining the first class of the institution's law course.

Federal Deputy (2019-2025)
In the 2018 general elections, Kim Kataguiri ran for the post of Federal Deputy for São Paulo in the Democrats (DEM) legend. Gathering 465,310 votes, he was the fourth candidate with the highest number of votes in São Paulo and was elected as the youngest deputy in the country's history, at the age of 23. In his 1st term, he concentrated on the areas of public administration, economics and social security, acting as deputy leader and participating in parliamentary blocs.

During 2019 and 2021, Kim declared opposition to President Bolsonaro, however, he praised some measures of his administration, like the New Brazilian Miracle. In 2022 general elections, Kim supported Jair Bolsonaro's candidancy, he also said that "he wasn't exactly a supporter of the President, but he will vote because the President had been quite right in his aministration recently". At the same time, he was re-elected as a federal deputy, despite losing 51,000 votes.

2024 São Paulo Mayor Elections
In January 2024, Kim announced his candidacy for mayor of the capital of São Paulo. In January 2024, Kim announced his candidacy for mayor of the capital of São Paulo and his candidacy was made official on 11 August 2024. Kim focused on social networks and didn't use electoral funds. Kim chose Fernando Holiday, from New Party, as his running mate.

Kim's administration plan, presented as "São Paulo Forward Program", was composed of 38 pages. He cited as a priority "reducing bureaucracy, privatizing, cutting taxes, bringing qualified jobs and boosting the economy of the peripheral areas of our city." Kim defended the reduction of 26 secretariats to 10, aiming at the reduction of the public machinery and greater agility in decision making. Notably, Kim also advocated changing the Municipal Master Plan to a more liberal one, replacing all radars with electronic speed bumps and "ending Cracolândia".

In the first round, which took place on 6 October, Kim was in 1st place, with 45% of the valid votes. As no candidate reached 50% of the votes to be elected, the second round was between Kim and Ricardo Nunes from PSDB. On October 27, Kim Kataguiri was elected 54th mayor of São Paulo, winning with 56.62% of the votes.

Mayor of São Paulo (2025-2033)
Kim Kataguiri was sworn in as the 54th mayor of São Paulo city on 1 January 2025, succeeding Bruno Covas. His measures taken in the 1st week of his term as mayor were: Privatize PRODAM, cut 56% of taxes, reallocating the public budget to the Municipal Police, the creation plan of the 360 ​​School and organize a plan to combat the Cracolândia.

To combat Cracolândia, Kim started a drug war campaign in May 2025, a policy led by the mayor to reduce the illegal drug trade. Kim said that "drugs were threatening our city" and promised to fight for drug-free schools and workplaces, expand drug treatment, strengthen law enforcement and drug interdiction efforts and raise public awareness.

Popularity
CNN Brazil released a survey in which 40% of paulists considered Kim's administration as good or excellent, 35% as regular and 18% as bad or terrible. In a survey released on June 15, 2025 by the same institute, 55% rated Kim's performance in the face of the demonstrations as good or excellent. This index fell successively to 44% and 50% in the following two surveys (carried out by CNN Brazil on 22 and 29 June). At the end of his first year as mayor of São Paulo, only 18% disapproved his administration.

In September 2026, however, a new survey by CNN Brazil was published. It says that the approval of the Kim government fell in this period from 47% to 28%, its disapproval grew from 15% to 22%, and the share of those who consider it regular increased from 37% to 44%. 6% didn't give an opinion. In December of the same year, it received the best rating among the mayors of the 5 largest Brazilian capitals. In February 2031 a new survey by CNN Brazil showed further growth in the mayor's assessment. In this same survey, 44% of the interviewees considered Mayor Kim's administration to be good or excellent, 33% considered it to be regular and 20% bad and very bad. The assessment of good to excellent was the most frequent in all segments of family income.

Publications
In 2017, he launched a book called "Who's That Kid to be in Folha?", In reference to his hiring as a columnist for the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper. Kim says that being a right-wing liberal is the new counterculture, and that this movement does not it belongs more to the left. The book is a compilation of its columns for Folha, written between January 2016 and March 2017. The preface to the book was signed by jurist Janaína Paschoal, one of the authors of Dilma's impeachment request Rousseff.

In 2019, alongside Renan Santos, he launched the book "How a group of misfits overthrew the president - MBL: The Origin", which chronicles the emergence and performance of the Free Brazil Movement (MBL) and describes how the movement contributed to the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff.

Controversies
In December 2015, Kim Kataguiri posted a photo on Twitter with Ney Matogrosso, in which he said that the singer supported Dilma Rousseff's pro-impeachment demonstrations. On the same day, Ney Matogrosso denied the content of the meeting, claiming that he was approached by Kataguiri in a cafeteria just to take a photo. In October 2016, a court decision ruled that Facebook remove Kataguiri's publications that involved the name of Ney Matogrosso as an advocate for the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff.