Administrative region

A Brazilian administrative region is a subdivision of the Federal District, Brazil (31 in all), or of the city of Rio de Janeiro (33 in all). The official name in Portuguese is região administrativa, abbreviated "RA".

The division of the Federal District into administrative regions was made official through Law No. 4,545/64. Before this law, the Federal District had an administration similar to an ordinary city-state with its own city hall (Prefeitura do Distrito Federal).

The administrative regions are territorial subdivisions of the Federal District, for which physical limits, established by public power, define the jurisdiction of government action for purposes of administrative decentralization and coordination of public services of a local nature.

Broadly speaking, the administrative region is the set of urban, suburban and rural areas belonging to the control of an urban center (seat of the administrative region), as a municipality. Although they are comparable to municipalities in the states, administrative regions have different forms of administration and governance, respecting Federal District's centrality.

Each regional administration is commanded by a regional administrator, who is indicated by the governor of the Federal District. The administrators has most tasks reserved for mayors in the states, but some of them (municipality-only matters) are handled directly by the governor itself.

The city of Rio de Janeiro is divided into 33 administrative regions. Those are different from the Brasiliense ones, as they are merely a kind of local districts.

...
Wikipedia