Leonel de Moura Brizola (
CarazinhoCarazinho is a city located 246 km from Porto Alegre, in the northwest portion of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Carazinho-RS was founded on 1931 and today has a population of 59,857. Carazinho's primary economy is focused on agriculture...
,
Rio Grande do SulRio Grande do Sul is the southernmost State of Brazil, and the State with the fourth highest Human Development Index in the country. In Rio Grande do Sul we can find the most southern city of the country, Chuí, on the border with Uruguay...
, January 22, 1922 —
Rio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America. The city was the capital of Brazil for nearly two centuries, from 1763 to 1822 during the Portuguese colonial era, and...
, June 21 2004) was a
BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean...
ian
politicianA politician or political leader is an individual who is involved in influencing public decision making. This includes people who hold decision-making positions in government, and people who seek those positions, whether by means of election, coup d'état, appointment, electoral fraud, conquest,...
. He was
governorA governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
of the state of
Rio Grande do SulRio Grande do Sul is the southernmost State of Brazil, and the State with the fourth highest Human Development Index in the country. In Rio Grande do Sul we can find the most southern city of the country, Chuí, on the border with Uruguay...
from 1959 to 1962 and served two terms as governor of
Rio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro is one of the 26 states of Brazil.It is located in the Brazilian geopolitical region of the Southeast and its boundaries, all of them with other Brazilian states in the Southeast region , are with Minas Gerais ,...
state (1983–1987 and 1991–1994). He was also vice-president of the
Socialist InternationalThe Socialist International is a worldwide organisation of democratic socialist, social democratic, socialist, and labour political parties. It was formed in 1951.- History :...
, as well as Honorary President of that organization for a few months, from October 2003 until his death. Brizola and his party (Democratic Labour Party) preached and practiced a kind of social democratic left-wing
History
A disciple of former Brazilian presidents
Getúlio Dornelles VargasGetúlio Dornelles Vargas served as president of Brazil from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 until his suicide in 1954.-Background:...
and
João GoulartJoão Belchior Marques Goulart was a Brazilian politician and the 24
th president of Brazil until a military coup d'état deposed him on April 1, 1964. He is considered to have been the last left-wing President of the country before Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in 2003.-Name:João...
(brother of Brizola's wife, Neusa Goulart), Brizola began his political career as a member of the
Brazilian Labour PartyThe Brazilian Labour Party is the name of two different parties, first a historical one and secondly a present-day party. The former was a left-populist political party that arose in 1945 supported by followers of Getúlio Vargas and later dissolved after 1964 military coup...
(
Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro or PTB). He inherited from Vargas a preference for
populismPopulism is a political discourse that juxtaposes "the people" with "the elites." Populism may comprise an ideology urging social and political system changes and/or a rhetorical style deployed by members of political or social movements...
, which politicians often used in mid-20th century
South AmericaSouth America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere...
. During the presidency of Goulart (1961–1964) Brizola was an important supporter of his brother-in-law, first as governor and later as a deputy in the
National Congress of BrazilBrazil's bicameral National Congress consists of Senate of Brazil and the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil ....
. Brizola gained nationwide visibility by twice acting in defense of
democracyDemocracy is a system of government in which either the actual governing is carried out by the people governed , or the power to do so is granted by them...
and Goulart's rights as president. First, when
Jânio QuadrosJânio da Silva Quadros , PC was a Brazilian politician who served briefly as President of Brazil in 1961.-Career:...
resigned from the presidency in August 1961, the Brazilian military ministers in the Cabinet attempted to prevent Goulart from becoming president. Brizola then forged a pool of radio stations in Rio Grande do Sul, the so-called "
cadeia da legalidade" (legality chain), which revealed to the country the intentions behind the Cabinet ministers' actions. This first coup failed, and Goulart was inaugurated as president.
In April 1964, when a
coup d'étatA coup d'état , or coup for short, is the sudden unconstitutional deposition of a legitimate government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another, either civil or military...
successfully overthrew Goulart, Brizola was the only governor to offer support for the president, sheltering him in
Porto AlegrePorto Alegre is the eleventh most populous municipality in Brazil and the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian state. Porto Alegre is one of the most important cultural, political and economic centers of...
, capital of Rio Grande do Sul with the hope that democracy would be restored. (Governor Miguel Arraes of
PernambucoPernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about 187 kilometers of beaches, some of the most...
also supported Goulart, but Arraes was detained as soon as the coup was declared.) Because of his connection with Goulart, the military regime exiled Brizola in 1964; he went to
UruguayUruguay , is a country located in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to 3.46 million people, of whom 1.1 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area. An estimated 88–94% of the population are of mostly European and/or mixed descent.Uruguay's only land border is...
, where Goulart had gone into exile earlier that year.
But Brizola did not find peace in Uruguay, since the Brazil's new military government pressured the authorities of Uruguay to seize Brizola. In 1977 he was deported from Uruguay for alleged "violations of norms of political asylum". After spending some time in the United States, Leonel Brizola went to live in
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
.
In the late 1970s the Brazilian military dictatorship was dying, and an
amnestyAmnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent persons. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the offense. The word has the same root as amnesia...
of Brizol'a exile was announced. Brizola returned to Brazil and founded a new party, the
Democratic Labour PartyThe Democratic Labour Party is a populist, social-democratic political party of Brazil. It was founded in 1979 by left-wing leader Leonel Brizola as an attempt to reorganize the Brazilian leftist forces during the end of the Brazilian military dictatorship...
(Partido Democrático Trabalhista, PDT). The party joined the
Socialist InternationalThe Socialist International is a worldwide organisation of democratic socialist, social democratic, socialist, and labour political parties. It was formed in 1951.- History :...
in 1986, and since then the party symbol contains a hand with a red flower (symbol of SI).
In the last decades of his life, Brizola ran for president twice. In 1989 he finished third, losing the second position by a very narrow margin to
Luiz Inácio Lula da SilvaLuiz Inácio Lula da Silva , known popularly as Lula, is the thirty-fifth and current President of Brazil.A founding member of the Workers' Party , he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in 2002, and was inaugurated as President on 1...
(
Fernando Collor de MelloFernando Affonso Collor de Mello was president of Brazil from 1990 to 1992, when he resigned to avoid being impeached. He was elected a Senator of the republic in the 2006 general elections and began his term in February 2007....
was elected), Brizola accused Rede Globo network of manipulating of his interviews and Lula's debate. He was very popular in his home state of Rio Grande do Sul and in his adopted home state of Rio de Janeiro, but never got more than 2% of the votes from São Paulo state. In 1994 he finished fifth (the winner was
Fernando Henrique CardosoFernando Henrique Cardoso, PC - also known by his initials FHC - was the 34
th President of the Federative Republic of Brazil for two terms from January 1, 1995 to January 1, 2003. He is an accomplished sociologist, professor and politician...
). Four years later he was Lula's running mate: they lost to Cardoso.
In 2002 Brizola supported the candidacy of
Ciro GomesCiro Ferreira Gomes is a Brazilian lawyer and politician. He was a founding member of the then-center-left Brazilian Social Democracy Party , but left the party in 1996. He later moved to the Socialist People's Party and ran as the PPS' presidential candidate in 1998 and 2002...
for president. Gomes finished third, while Lula was elected president. The PDT was has had a weak showing against new parties in Brazil's political scene, so Brizola became a secondary figure in his last years. Despite supporting Lula at some periods during his career, Brizola's last public acts were criticizing Lula for what he termed
neoliberalistNeoliberalism is a synonym of classical economic liberalism. The term was coined in 1938 at the Colloque Walter Lippmann by the German sociologist and economist Alexander Rüstow, one of the fathers of Social market economy. The label is referring to a redefinition of classical liberalism,...
policies and for neglecting traditional left-wing and workers' struggles.
Brizola died in 2004, after a
heart attackMyocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, is the interruption of blood supply to part of the heart, causing some heart cells to die...
.
Brizola and the enforcement of laws in Rio de Janeiro slums
During Brizola's period as Rio de Janeiro State governor (1983-1986), he adopted a radicially new policy for police action in the poor suburbs and slums (favelas) within the
Rio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America. The city was the capital of Brazil for nearly two centuries, from 1763 to 1822 during the Portuguese colonial era, and...
metropolitan areaA metropolitan area is a large population center consisting of a large metropolis and its adjacent zone of influence, or of more than one closely adjoining neighboring central cities and their zone of influence...
. Alleging old relations and modus operandi were founded on repression, conflict and disrespect, he ordered the state police to be soft on those areas and not to enforce some laws of the military government (that was, at the time, represented by president João Baptista Figueiredo).
This decision was controversial, and allegedly made suburbs and slums an open territory for
organized crimeOrganized crime or criminal organizations can be defined as a transnational grouping of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for the purpose of generating a monetary profit...
, represented by huge gangs like
Comando VermelhoComando Vermelho is a Brazilian criminal organization founded in 1979 in the prison Cândido Mendes, on the Ilha Grande island, Rio de Janeiro, as a collection of ordinary convicts and left-wing political prisoners who were members of the Falange Vermelha , which fought the military dictatorship...
(
Red Command) which were born through the association of common convicted prisoners and leftist militia prisoners in the 1970s.
Darcy Ribeirothumb|right|150px|Darcy RibeiroDarcy Ribeiro was a Brazilian anthropologist, author and politician. Darcy Ribeiro's ideas of Latin American identity have influenced several later scholars of Latin American studies...
, a politician who strongly agrees with Brizola's views on urban housing, argued that "slums are not part of the problem, but part of the solution" and that the dissetlements of people of the slums should be stopped.
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