History Of Brazil V

Vargas’s Second Presidency

Getúlio Vargas returned to power as president in January 1951, after defeating two rival candidates by a large plurality in elections held the previous October. Vargas formed a coalition cabinet representative of all major parties. The government took immediate steps to balance the national budget and develop a program to reduce living costs, increase wages, and extend social reforms. Inflation and high living costs, however, persisted throughout the postwar period, which was marked by an upsurge of Communist underground activities and a revival of nationalism that led to the nationalization of petroleum resources in September 1952. In addition, the so-called austerity program of the government caused anti-Vargas conservatives to become increasingly critical.

In August 1954, during a congressional election campaign, an air force officer was killed in the attempted assassination of an anti-Vargas newspaper editor. The killing brought the governmental crisis to a head: military officers demanded that Vargas resign. Early on August 24, Vargas agreed to relinquish power temporarily in favor of Vice President João Café Filho. Vargas committed suicide a few hours later.

The Kubitschek, Quadros, and Goulart Administrations

The former governor of Minas Gerais, Juscelino Kubitschek, had the support of Vargas’s followers and the Communists. Kubitschek won election to the presidency in October 1955 and was inaugurated in January 1956. Kubitschek announced an ambitious five-year economic development plan. The announcement was followed by the acquisition of U.S. Export-Import Bank loans totaling more than $150 million, and by the approval of plans, in September, for a new federal capital, Brasília. The fast pace of industrial development was tempered, however, by a drop in world coffee prices in the mid- and late 1950s. Inflation continued, prodding social unrest that resulted in frequent strikes and riots by workers and students.

Jânio da Silva Quadros, former governor of São Paulo, became president of Brazil in January 1961 and immediately initiated a program of rigorous economies. All governmental ministries were ordered to reduce expenditures by 30 percent, and some civil-service employees were dismissed. Quadros also proposed to eliminate the corruption alleged to have flourished during the Kubitschek administration. President Quadros suddenly resigned his office in August, giving no explanation, and referring only to the “forces of reaction” that had blocked his efforts. Military leaders expressed opposition to the assumption of office by Vice President João Belchoir Marques Goulart, maintaining that he was sympathetic to the Communist regime of Fidel Castro in Cuba. A compromise was reached, however, when the Brazilian legislature amended the constitution in order to strip the presidency of most powers; executive authority was vested in a prime minister and cabinet who were responsible to the legislature. Goulart was installed in office in September 1961.

A year later, Goulart precipitated a cabinet crisis with a request for a national plebiscite to measure support for a return to a presidential form of government. The plebiscite was held and the proposal approved; in January 1963, the legislature enacted the change into law. Later that year Goulart pressed strongly for legislative approval of a program of basic reforms, and early in 1964 he signed decrees setting low-rent controls, nationalizing petroleum refineries, expropriating unused lands, and limiting export of profits. The measures seemed only to aggravate the nation’s chronic inflation. On March 31 Goulart was overthrown by an army revolt and fled to Uruguay. General Humberto Castelo Branco, army chief of staff, was elected president.

Military Government

The new regime, with extraordinary powers under the Institutional Act signed in April, suppressed opposition, particularly from the Left, and deprived some 300 people of political rights. It also adopted moderate versions of many reforms demanded by Goulart and fought inflation with wage controls, tightened tax collections, and other measures. A law passed in 1965 curbed civil liberties, increased the power of the national government, and provided for congressional election of the president and vice president.

The former minister of war Marshal Artur da Costa e Silva, candidate of the government’s ARENA Party, was elected president in 1966. The Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), the only legal opposition party, had refused to enter a candidate in protest against the government’s disfranchisement of its most challenging opponents. Also in 1966 ARENA won the national and state legislative elections. President Costa headed a militarily oriented government that was concerned primarily with economic development. Although 1968 was marked by antigovernment activities, including student riots, the economy gained momentum. In December Costa assumed unlimited powers, which resulted in political purges, economic curbs, and censorship. In August 1969 he was incapacitated by a stroke, and in October the military chose as his successor General Emílio Garrastazú Médici; Congress elected him president. The Médici regime intensified repression, and revolutionary groups became more active. As the government encouraged economic growth and development of the vast interior regions, the economy was plagued by high energy costs, runaway inflation, and a large balance-of-payments deficit. The Roman Catholic clergy became increasingly critical of the government’s failure to improve the condition of the poor.

In 1974 General Ernest Geisel, the president of Petrobras, the national oil monopoly, became president. At first he followed relatively liberal policies, relaxing press censorship and allowing opposition parties considerable freedom, but in 1976 and 1977 controls were tightened again just before the election of João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo, who succeeded Geisel in 1979.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!