Leonel Brizola
Leonel Brizola | |
|---|---|
Brizola in 1984 | |
| Governor of Rio de Janeiro | |
| In office 15 March 1991 – 1 April 1994 | |
| Lieutenant | Nilo Batista |
| Preceded by | Moreira Franco |
| Succeeded by | Nilo Batista |
| In office 15 March 1983 – 15 March 1987 | |
| Lieutenant | Darcy Ribeiro |
| Preceded by | Chagas Freiras |
| Succeeded by | Moreira Franco |
| Member of the Chamber of Deputies | |
| In office 2 February 1963 – 1 February 1964 | |
| Constituency | Guanabara |
| In office 2 February 1955 – 30 December 1958 | |
| Constituency | Rio Grande do Sul |
| Governor of Rio Grande do Sul | |
| In office 29 March 1959 – 25 March 1963 | |
| Preceded by | Ildo Meneghetti |
| Succeeded by | Ildo Meneghetti |
| Mayor of Porto Alegre | |
| In office 1 January 1956 – 29 December 1958 | |
| Deputy | Tristão Sucupira Viana |
| Preceded by | Martim Aranha |
| Succeeded by | Tristão Sucupira Viana |
| State Deputy of Rio Grande do Sul | |
| In office 10 March 1947 – 31 January 1955 | |
| Constituency | At-large |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Leonel de Moura Brizola 22 January 1922 Carazinho, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil |
| Died | 21 June 2004 (aged 82) Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
| Political party | PDT (1979–2004) Independent (1964–1979) PTB (1945–1964) |
| Spouse |
Neusa Goulart
(m. 1953; died 1993) |
| Relations |
|
| Children | 3 (José Vicente, João Otávio and Neusinha) |
| Alma mater | Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul |
| Profession | Civil engineer |
Leonel de Moura Brizola (22 January 1922 – 21 June 2004) was a Brazilian politician. Launched into politics by Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas in the 1930–1950s, Brizola was the only politician to serve as elected governor of two Brazilian states. An engineer by training, Brizola organized the youth wing of the Brazilian Labour Party and served as state representative for Rio Grande do Sul and mayor of its capital, Porto Alegre.
In 1958 he was elected governor of Rio Grande do Sul and subsequently played a major role in thwarting a first coup attempt by sectors of the armed forces, who wished to prevent João Goulart from assuming the presidency following the resignation of Jânio Quadros in August 1961, under allegations of communist ties. Three years later, facing the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état that went on to install the Brazilian military dictatorship, Brizola called on the democratic forces to resist, but Goulart did not want to risk a civil war, and Brizola was exiled in Uruguay.
One of the few Brazilian major political figures able to overcome the dictatorship's twenty-years ban on his political activity, Brizola returned to Brazil in 1979, but failed in his bid to take control of the reemerging Brazilian Labour Party as the military government instead conceded it to Ivete Vargas. Brizola founded the Democratic Labour Party on a democratic socialist, nationalist and populist platform descended from Getúlio Vargas' own labour legacy, promoted as an ideology he called socialismo moreno ("tanned socialism"), a non-Marxist, Christian and markedly Brazilian left-wing political agenda for a post-Cold War setting.
In 1982 and 1990 Brizola was elected governor of Rio de Janeiro, after a failed 1989 bid for the presidency, in which he narrowly finished third, after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In the 1990s, Brizola competed for preeminence in the Brazilian left with future president Lula Workers' Party, later briefly integrating Lula's government in the early 2000s. He was also vice-president of the Socialist International and served as Honorary President of that organization from October 2003 until his death in June 2004. Known for his sharp, energetic rhetoric and frank, direct style, Brizola is considered one of the most important historic figures of the Brazilian left.