Celso Augusto Daniel (April 16, 1951 – January 18, 2002) was the mayor in 2002 for the third time of the city of Santo André in São Paulo, Brazil, as a representative of the Workers' Party (PT).

[1] A civil engineer who graduated in 1973, from the Engenharia Mauá School, in São Caetano do Sul, he followed an academic career and obtained a master's degree in public administration from the Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV-SP) and a doctorate in political science from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica (PUC-SP).

[3] Celso Daniel's murder has not been properly solved by the local authorities, and the conclusions obtained by the investigations are still under dispute; the criminals who kidnapped him have been arrested but theories about their motivation for the crime vary from suggestions that it was a botched kidnapping attempt caused by a misunderstanding of the mayor's identity to theories that the crime was politically motivated and the killers were actually paid by figures of Daniel's own political party, PT.

He left the restaurant in an armoured Pajero driven by his former body-guard Sérgio Gomes da Silva, nicknamed Sombra ("Shadow").

[4] On the morning of Sunday January 20, the body of Celso Daniel, with 11 gunshot wounds, was found in the Estrada das Cachoeiras in the neighborhood of Carmo in the city of Juquitiba, along the Régis Bittencourt Highway (BR-116).

According to their final report, presented by Armando de Oliveira Costa Filho of the Department of Homicide (DHPP), six individuals of a criminal gang from a favela called Pantanal in the southern part of São Paulo committed the crime.

The member of the criminal band were identified as: Rodolfo Rodrigo de Souza Oliveira (Bozinho), José Édson da Silva (Édson), Itamar Messias Silva dos Santos (Itamar), Marcos Roberto Bispo dos Santos (Marquinhos), and Elcyd Oliveira Brito (John).

One of public prosecutors showed the minor alleged to have fired the shot a photo of Celso Daniel, whom he apparently failed to recognize.

[6] João alleged that his brother was a part of a corruption scheme in Santo André used to divert funds to the Brazilians Worker's Party (PT).

The supposed scheme involved members of the municipal government and businesspeople in the transportation sector, and key PT figures like José Dirceu and Gilberto Carvalho, Brazilian President Lula's personal secretary.