Magalhaes, force in Brazil politics, dies at 79

SAO PAULO, July 20 (Reuters) Antonio Carlos Magalhaes, the best known and most influential of a vanishing type of Brazilian political figure, died today. He was 79.

A burly man who ruled the northeastern state of Bahia for decades, Magalhaes had been hospitalized in Sao Paulo since June 13 and died of multiple organ failure, a hospital spokesperson said.

Trained as a doctor, Magalhaes was a white man who came from a prominent family of politicians and professors in Bahia, a poor state seen as the center of Afro-Brazilian culture.

His death marked the end of a political career that spanned four decades and included a pivotal role as one of the loyal lieutenants of Brazil's 1964-1985 military dictatorship.

Magalhaes was elected lower house deputy from the National Democratic Union party in 1958. But after the military dictatorship seized power, he joined the regime's party, ARENA, and was re-elected to Congress on the military ticket.

In 1971 he was appointed governor of Bahia, a post he held for more than a decade.

Magalhaes won allies in Bahia as he oversaw an industrial boom during Brazil's ''economic miracle'' years, but a reputation for cruelty earned him the nickname ''Mean Tony.'' His career extended well past 1985, when the military ceded power. He was named communications minister by Brazil's first democratically elected president in two decades, and he was elected senator from Bahia three times by popular vote.

Magalhaes reached his apex of power as Senate president in the mid-1990s. He was known as a behind-the-scenes kingmaker who often used chicanery to achieve his goals.

In one infamous case, he was accused of hacking into the Senate's electronic voting system. He stepped down from his post in 2001 only to be re-elected the next year.

Magalhaes was finally unseated last year when he lost a race for Bahia governor to Jacques Wagner, a rising star in President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's Workers' Party.

He is survived by his wife and two children, including Antonio Carlos Magalhaes Jr., who runs a media empire in Bahia state. His grandson is a congressman.

REUTERS DH PM0105