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$Unique_ID{bob00121}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Brazil
Chapter 1D.   The Vargas Era, 1930-45}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Jan Knippers Black}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{vargas
government
president
state
war
new
elections
paulo
sao
constitution}
$Date{1982}
$Log{}
Title:       Brazil
Book:        Brazil, A Country Study
Author:      Jan Knippers Black
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1982

Chapter 1D.   The Vargas Era, 1930-45

The Provisional Government

     Vargas established and headed a provisional government that lasted from
November 1930 until 1934. All legislative bodies at every level were abolished
and were replaced by appointees of the provisional government. Vargas used
veterans of the tenente movement extensively in his administration, although
the original composition of the provisional government reflected the range of
political groups that had supported the successful revolution, and military
officers again headed the ministries of war and navy.

     One of the government's continuing problems was what to do about the
coffee glut. The decision was made to try to maintain prices by destroying
excess stocks, which were burned or thrown into the sea. Further, the
extension of the land planted in coffee was prohibited for three years.
Another major political issue was whether, or how soon, to hold elections for
a constituent assembly that would draft a new constitution. On this issue
there were essentially two positions: that of the liberal constitutionalists,
who were strong in the cities, especially in Sao Paulo, and that of the
tenentes, now organized in the "3rd of October Club," who wanted Vargas to
stay in power and put through various reforms without either having to secure
legislation or being opposed by recalcitrant state governments. Vargas
sympathized with the tenente position but found it politically advantageous to
stay in the background. On February 24, 1932, Vargas published a new electoral
code, thus seeming to identify himself with the demands of constitutionalists
for elections. At the same time, however, he apparently encouraged the
organization of a raid against the Diario Carioca, a pro-constitutionalist
newspaper in Rio. Vargas made it clear that he supported the tenentes by
naming their candidate, General Espiritu Santo Cardoso as minister of war,
replacing General Leite de Castro, and by retiring General Bartoldo Linger of
Mato Grosso, also opposed by the tenentes. Four students were killed in an
anti-Vargas demonstration in Sao Paulo, and the liberal constitutionalist
forces, spearheaded by leaders from Sao Paulo, prepared for armed revolt.

     The opposition was strongest in Sao Paulo. Although Vargas had opponents
everywhere, in Sao Paulo his former enemies-those who had supported the
candidacy of Julio Prestes against him in 1930-were joined by his previous
supporters in that state who had been alienated by the arbitrary behavior of
Joao Alberto, the interventor (temporary governor, appointed by and an agent
of the government). The police chief also succeeded in alarming the middle
class in Sao Paulo by organizing a popular militia force. The last-minute
removal of Joao Alberto by Vargas failed to eliminate the resentment, and on
July 9, 1932, the revolt in Sao Paulo began. In Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do
Sul, minor revolts in sympathy with the liberal constitutionalists took place,
led by the patriarchs of the First Republic, Borges de Medeiros and Bernardes.
Neither constituted a serious threat.

     In Sao Paulo the efforts of the revolutionaries were more serious, but
most of the army stayed loyal to the provisional government, and the revolt
was crushed. The rebels in Sao Paulo held out for two months against the
onslaught of federal troops, who resorted to aerial bombardment. The use of
bombardment from the air, then a shocking novelty, led to the suicide of the
great Brazilian aviation pioneer, Alberto Santos Dumont.

     In typical fashion Vargas moved to conciliate the defeated paulistas.
The federal government assumed responsibility for paying the bonds issued by
the rebels to finance their movement, and Vargas scheduled elections for the
constituent assembly, which took place on May 3, 1933. The elections were
more honest than any held under the First Republic, and the assembly began
work in November 1933. In July 1934 the assembly completed the new
constitution, converted itself into the Chamber of Deputies of the new system,
and elected Vargas as constitutional president for the term 1934-38.

     The constitution of 1934 combined ideas deriving from quite different
schools of thought: traditional Brazilian liberalism, republicanism, and
federalism; European social democracy; and corporatism. The constitution
maintained Brazil's federal structure, along with the separation of powers
system, but it eliminated the post of vice president. The two-chamber
legislature was continued; two senators were to be elected by each state for
eight-year terms, and deputies were to be elected by proportional
representation from each state for a term of four years. At Vargas'
insistence, corporatist representation was added, in that about 10 percent of
the membership of the chamber was to be elected by labor unions and employers.
Voting was to be secret, and women were given the vote for the first time in
Brazilian history.

     "Social" features of the constitution included authorization for the
federal government to set minimum wages, the eight-hour day, social insurance,
and paid holidays. Primary education was made free and compulsory. In
addition, various nationalist provisions were included. The federal
government was given the authority to restrict immigration, a provision
probably aimed against the Japanese. Foreign enterprises were to have at least
two-thirds Brazilian employees and were forbidden to own newspapers,
magazines, or radio stations. Special tribunals were established to protect
individual liberties and to arbitrate labor disputes.

Economic Crisis and Extremism

     The constitutional government was bedeviled by the continued world
economic crisis and by the growth of extreme political movements of right and
left, as was taking place in Europe at the time. Vargas shrewdly manipulated
these movements, and the popular reaction against them, to prepare the way
for his perpetuation in power. Although without a professed ideological
commitment, Vargas drew his political orientation from the positivist
tradition of Rio Grande do Sul, the socialist and corporatist ideas in vogue
in Europe during the 1930s, and possibly from his own military training,
although he had not followed a military career. His orientation might be
considered authoritarian populism, and in this he was not far from the
thinking of the tenentes. Nevertheless, he was always pragmatic and
opportunistic in his policies.

     On the right, the Brazilian fascist movement was known as the
Integralistas (Acao Integralista Brasileira-AIB) and was led by Plinio
Salgado. It bore all the familiar fascist trappings of colored shirts (green),
street rallies, anti-Semitism, and straight-arm salutes. Vargas kept in touch
with the Integralistas and used them for his own purposes. On the left, the
PCdoB started a broad antifascist "popular front" movement called the
National Liberation Alliance (Alianca Nacional Libertadora); Luis Carlos
Prestes was its president. On March 30, 1935, Congress passed a national
security law giving the government special powers to act against "subversive"
activities. Vargas used these powers on July 13 to raid the headquarters of
the National Liberation Alliance and seize documents indicating that the
alliance was supported by the international communist movement. The government
proceeded to arrest the leaders of the alliance and of the PCdoB. The more
extreme members of the movement thereupon organized an armed revolt, which
took place in November 1935 in Natal, Recife, and Rio de Janeiro. The revolt
played into Vargas' hands so perfectly that many believed that his agents
within the communist movement had been responsible for fomenting the revolt.
It was easily suppressed, although in the course of the rebellion senior
military officers were killed, which served to embitter the officer corps
against the PCdoB. After the rebellion it was easy for Vargas to get congress
to vote a state of seige giving the government emergency powers; this occurred
on November 25, 1935.

     Congress voted four times to extend the state of seige; it also agreed
to create a special national security tribunal to try subversives. The
tribunal sentenced Luis Carlos Prestes to 17 years in prison and deported his
German-born wife to Germany, where she was later to die in a Nazi
concentration camp.

     Meanwhile, preparations were being made for the elections of January
1938. The three leading candidates were Armando de Sales Oliveira, the
governor of Sao Paulo, representing liberal constitutionalism; a tenente, Jose
Americo de Almeida of Paraiba, representing authoritarian nationalism; and
Salgado, the leader of the Integralistas. While the candidates were attempting
to line up support, Vargas was secretly having a close associate, Francisco
Campos, prepare an authoritarian constitution. In July 1937 Vargas appointed
Goes Monteiro, the military leader of the 1930 revolution, as army chief of
staff, and he shifted army commands to ensure a favorable military.

     With Goes Monteiro as chief of staff and General Eurico Gaspar Dutra as
minister of war, the army was under control. The Communists had been broken,
and the Integralistas were supporting Vargas. Four months before the
scheduled elections, General Dutra announced the discovery of the "Cohen
Plan," which he described as a communist plan to overthrow the government and
establish a dictatorship. The document was actually forged by Integralistas.
Nevertheless, it was enough to panic the Congress into declaring a state of
war, which enabled Vargas to suspend all constitutional rights and
incorporate the state militias into the federal army; that eliminated any
possible armed opposition to the planned coup, which took place on November
10, 1937. Vargas then promulgated Campos' new constitution, although the
constitution was never ratified, no elections were held under it, and no
parliament met under its provisions. Ostensibly a corporatist state, the
Estado Novo (new state) created by the constitution was no more than
single-person dictatorship under Vargas, without any particular ideological
direction or programmatic commitment.

The Estado Novo

     In the wake of the coup, Vargas instituted many of the trappings of the
contemporary dictatorships of Europe. All business establishments were
required to display his picture; a department of press and propaganda was set
up to censor the country's newspapers; and all political parties were
dissolved, including the Integralistas, who had hoped to be the government
party of the new regime. A group of Integralistas, together with some
anti-Vargas elements of the military, thereupon rose in revolt on May 10,
1938, and attacked the presidential palace. The local military garrison was
curiously slow in sending troops, but the president, his daughter, and his
personal staff managed to hold the attackers at bay until help arrived. Vargas
then dissolved the "non-political" clubs and associations run by the
Integralistas, which had not been covered by the decree banning political
parties. Vargas also introduced the death penalty, which had not been used in
Brazil for 40 years. Salgado went into exile, as did other opponents of
Vargas, including former President Bernardes.

     During the next seven years, Vargas ruled Brazil by decree. Unlike other
contemporary dictators he did not create an official party, although near the
end of his dictatorship he created two political parties, looking toward a
future period of democratic political competition. Vargas left an ambiguous
heritage. There is no doubt that he operated a dictatorship, complete with
secret police, arbitrary arrest, press censorship, and a "cult of
personality," but in some respects his government made progress in developing
the economy and forging national unity. Social welfare legislation provided
the workers pensions and medical insurance, but at the same time, the new
labor legislation was used to control the unions in various ways. The Ministry
of Labor took charge of the union dues deducted from workers' pay and
distributed them to the unions, thus guaranteeing that they would be under the
government's control.

     Authority was centralized in Rio, and the power of the states-which had
included the power to negotiate separate agreements with foreign
governments-was either abolished or drastically limited. Vargas went so far as
to hold a ceremony in which state flags were burned. The government became
heavily involved in the economy, founding agencies to promote agrarian
diversification and technical innovation and making government investments in
the expansion of coffee production, for example. Similarly, considerable
emphasis was given to industry, either through the establishment of mixed
public-private companies or through the creating of wholly owned public
corporations, especially in steel but also in aircraft production and
hydroelectric power development. The huge steel plant at Volta Redonda was
built with loans from the United States Export-Import Bank after Vargas had
let the United States know that Germany was interested in financing steel
development

     During the Vargas era great impetus was given to industrialization.
Coffee production declined, but manufacturing output increased substantially.
By 1940 Brazil's capacity for electricity generation reached 1 million
kilowatts, of which 60 percent was located in the Sao Paulo area, primarily
due to the construction of hydroelectric power stations. Cement production
increased from 87,000 tons in 1930 to 700,000 tons in 1940. Iron and steel
output went from 90,000 tons in 1929 to 150,000 tons in 1939. The number of
manufacturing establishments more than doubled during the decade, reaching
50,000 by 1940. Factories in the Sao Paulo area employed 35 percent of the
industrial labor force and generated 43 percent of the value of industrial
production.

     The outbreak of World War II provided Vargas with an excuse for the
continuation of rule by decree and of a government role in the promotion of
heavy industry and arms production. At first, Vargas tried not to commit the
country to either side, although the population was clearly pro-Allies. He
used Brazil's neutrality and occasional friendly gestures toward the Axis
powers to secure loans, grants, and other favorable treatment from the United
States. Eventually Vargas came down firmly on the side of the United States;
he broke relations with the Axis powers in January 1942 and declared war the
following August.

     Brazilian support for the Allied powers was unstinting. Allied bases were
established in the Northeast, a convenient refueling point for planes en route
to or from Africa and for ships plying the Atlantic route. A Brazilian
expeditionary force was sent to fight in Italy. Joao Alberto, the former
interventor in Sao Paulo, was designated director of a full-scale war
mobilization effort. The United States sent a technical mission to assist in
administrative reorganization. Because Brazil had decided to cooperate
wholeheartedly in the war effort, the early equivocation, the speeches by
Vargas favorable to fascism, and the blind eye that had been turned to Nazi
activities in the late 1930s were all forgotten. American attitudes toward
Brazil at both official and popular levels were very favorable, and the
undemocratic character of Vargas' regime was overlooked.

The Crisis of 1945

     Brazil's support for the Allies, however, and the pro-Allies propaganda
that flooded the country, necessarily highlighted the democratic ideals of the
Allies and the dictatorial realities of Brazil. When it became clear that the
Allies' cause would be victorious, pressure grew for the return of the country
to democracy. In April political prisoners were released, including Prestes,
who commented, "Getulio is very flexible. When it was fashionable to be a
fascist, he was a fascist. Now that it is fashionable to be democratic, he
will be a democrat." The press became vocal, and censorship was
relaxed. Support began to gather behind possible presidential candidates.
Flexible as ever, Vargas yielded to pressure and declared that elections would
be held in December 1945 for the presidency, the legislature, and state and
local officials.

     Support began to crystallize behind Brigadier Eduardo Gomes, the survivor
of the 1922 revolt and now commander of the air force in the Northeast. Gomes
was supported by former tenentes and by the opposition to Vargas organized as
the National Democratic Union (Uniao Democratica Nacional-UDN). Vargas
realized the time had come to become a democrat, and he promoted the
organization of two parties of his own supporters. The Social Democratic Party
(Partido Social Democratico-PSD) was made up of upper status persons who had
served in administrative positions under the dictatorship, while the Brazilian
Labor Party (Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro-PTB) represented the unions
sponsored by the regime. The two parties joined to support Vargas' choice, his
minister of war, General Dutra.

     Behind the scenes, however, Vargas was preparing to stay in office. He
engineered a popular movement to demand that, instead of popular elections for
president, a new constituent assembly be formed to draft a new democratic
constitution (and also to elect Vargas to another term). In October Vargas
moved up the date of state and local elections to December 2 and designated
his brother, an unsavory character named Benjamin, chief of police of the
Federal District. Many people realized what Vargas was doing and took action
to thwart him. General Monteiro sounded out the officer corps and determined
that there was solid opposition to any attempt by Vargas to remain in office.
On October 29 General Dutra went to the palace and presented the president
with an ultimatum: he would be removed by the army unless he withdrew his
brother's nomination as Rio police chief. Vargas refused, thus guaranteeing
that the next ultimatum, given the same evening, would be a demand that he
resign. Convinced that resistance would be impossible, Vargas left for his
ranch in Rio Grande do Sul. The military designated the chief justice of the
Supreme Federal Tribunal, Jose Linares, interim president until the president
elected in the December elections could take office.

The Second Republic, 1946-64

     A period of pluralistic political activity was initiated by the ousting
of Vargas. It was characterized by competition among more than a dozen
parties, a proliferation of interest groups, and an expanding electorate,
although the lower classes, for the most part, remained disenfranchised by the
literacy requirement for voting. Partially as a result of this antiquated
electoral system, the large landowners who controlled the economic and
political life of the rural areas also dominated Congress. Stalemates between
this body and the president, whose constituency included urban middle-and
lower class voters, provoked many of the political crises that developed
between 1945 and 1964. For a time, the interests of the urban upper class that
gained importance in the 1930s and the urban working class coincided, at least
in terms of promoting industrialization; but this new upper class, less
paternalistic and more materialistic than its rural counterpart, was equally
resistant to reforms that did not offer it increased wealth and power.

     The party system that prevailed from 1945 to 1964 was a legacy of the
Vargas era. The PSD, a basically middle-class party in which landowners were
the strongest element, and the PTB, representing organized labor and other
lower income groups but with some leadership from elite elements from the
Northeast and South, had been formed by supporters of Vargas. The government,
during most of that period, rested on a tenuous coalition between the two
parties. The UDN, representing primarily urban and industrialist anti-Vargas
forces, was the strongest opponent of the coalition.

     The PSD was the largest party, and during most of the period of
democratic rule the UDN ranked second, but both parties steadily lost ground
to the PTB. Meanwhile, a nationwide network of university student
organizations and an outspoken body of worker-priests, inspired by the
Christian social principles expounded in recent papal encyclicals, joined
organized labor and sectors of the government bureaucracy in calling for basic
socioeconomic reforms. By 1964 the political spectrum was largely polarized as
the increasingly militant leftist nationalist movement confronted traditional
and newly emerging economic interest groups.

President Eurico Dutra

     Dutra's victory over Gomes was made certain by Vargas' endorsement. Dutra
received 55 percent of the vote nationally; Gomes, 35 percent; and the
candidate of the PCdoB, 10 percent. The major event of the 1946-51 period was
the adoption of a new constitution. The Congress that was elected in 1945
served also as a constituent assembly and produced the fourth republican
constitution, which was promulgated in September 1946. The new constitution
reintroduced the vice presidency, gave the vote to all literates over 18 years
of age except for soldiers on active duty, established a five-year
presidential term without immediate reelection, and gave each state three
senators.

     The PCdoB emerged from the 1945 elections as the strongest communist
party in Latin America, including in its membership 14 congressmen and one
senator (Luis Carlos Prestes). At that time, the international communist line
of antifascist coalition with democratic forces was abandoned, and Stalin
embarked on a new orientation of opposition to liberal and democratic forces.
Apparently trying to purge the international movement of lukewarm party
members attracted by the antifascist struggle but not completely dedicated to
the primacy of the Soviet Union, Stalin appeared to have asked communist
leaders in several countries to make their loyalty clear by announcing
publicly that in the event of war between their own country and the Soviet
Union, loyal Communists would fight on the side of the Soviet Union. Prestes
made this declaration in March 1946, which was a gratuitous way of making the
party unpopular, apart from the fact that the contingency it contemplated
seemed highly remote. It had the effect of prompting the Dutra government to
purge government employees known to be Communists. Nevertheless, the party did
well in subsequent state and local elections.

     The Dutra government finally decided to invoke a clause in the
constitution that could be used to ban "anti-democratic" parties, and the
PCdoB was declared illegal by the electoral tribunal in May 1947. The
government went on to outlaw the communist union federation and replaced
elected union officers with federal agents. In October 1947 the government
severed diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, and in 1948 Congress voted
to remove Communists from any public offices to which they had been elected.
The anticommunist turn in Brazilian policy, which was consonant with the
developing cold war and the position of the United States, found its strongest
supporters among the liberal constitutionalists, now strongest in the UDN, and
among army officers strongly committed against the Communists, because
officers had been killed in the attempted coup of November 1935.

     Dutra's economic policy began with an attempt to return to a policy of
free currency exchange and free trade. However, this rapidly exhausted the
favorable foreign exchange balance that had been built up during the war
period, and in June 1947 exchange controls were reintroduced. Without being
intended by the administration, which seemed to have no coherent development
policy other than a reliance on the free market, the shortage of foreign
exchange gave impetus to the expansion of domestic industry, but it also
contributed substantially to inflation. In turn, inflation and the expansion
of the urban labor force led to a growth in support for the political left.
The PCdoB had been outlawed. Thus the beneficiary was the PTB, which in 1950
nominated the former dictator for president; the PTB did this in alliance with
the Social Progressive Party (Partido Social Progressista-PSP). This latter
party was essentially a personalist vehicle for Adhemar de Barros, the
flamboyant populist governor of Sao Paulo, noted for his response to a heckler
at an election rally: "Sure I steal; they all steal. But I build as well."

     Before accepting the candidacy of the PTB and PSP, Vargas ascertained
from the army commander in chief that the military would not veto his
candidacy. He was told that the military would find him an acceptable
candidate if he committed himself to respect the constitution and rights of
the military. President Dutra engineered the nomination by the PSD of a
little-known lawyer named Cristiano Machado from the state of Minas Gerais.
The UDN again nominated Gomes, who campaigned against the pro-labor heritage
of the Vargas regime, even advocating repeal of the minimum wage law. Gomes
was also endorsed by the remnants of the former Integralista movement.
Although the PSD officially supported Machado, many of the state PSD leaders
still retained ties to Vargas and supported him. Vargas won in a landslide,
garnering 48.7 percent of the total vote, while Gomes received 29.7 percent,
and Machado, 21.5 percent. Vargas won one-third of his total popular vote in
the state of Sao Paulo and the Federal District, indicating the heavily urban
nature of his support.

Getulio Vargas

     The new administration was characterized by the ex-dictator's instinct
for compromise and conciliation. His first cabinet included five members of
the PSD and only one each from the PTB, the PSP, and the UDN. General Estillac
Leal, a former tenente, was appointed minister of war. Adhemar de Barros was
allowed to designate the new president of the Bank of Brazil, an important
post for the Sao Paulo business community.

     The government was soon beset with major economic problems. A decline in
export prices meant that the cruzeiro was overvalued and that imports rose. A
steady decline in the country's financial reserves forced the introduction of
a multiple exchange rate system in January 1953. A joint economic development
commission was set up between Brazil and the United States, under President
Harry S Truman's "Point IV" program, leading to the creation in 1952 of the
National Economic Development Bank. This was to set guidelines for major
investment programs that would conform to the technical requirements of
foreign lending institutions. At the same time, to avoid nationalist charges
that he was selling out to foreign banks and international financial
institutions, Vargas pursued a policy of economically nationalist gestures. In
December 1951 he sent Congress a bill to create a public corporation
possessing a monopoly on oil production. The bill passed in October 1953, thus
creating the corporation known today as Petrobras.

     During the discussion over the creation of the oil monopoly, the fairly
conservative majority in Congress was attacked from the left, which saw
nationalism as a vehicle for the restoration of its popularity. The campaign
slogan of the left was "the petroleum is ours" (O petroleo e nosso). To some
extent Vargas pandered to this nationalist sentiment in speeches attacking
"international trusts." In January 1952 the government decreed a limit on the
amount of profit that could be taken out of the country by foreign
corporations. The petroleum campaign helped to create a strongly nationalist
public opinion.

     The petroleum campaign and Vargas' other nationalist measures, together
with cold war rhetoric, contributed to a polarization of opinion in the
country among the former liberal constitutionalists (led by a young
journalist, Carlos Lacerda), the UDN, and the pro-labor leftist nationalists
(represented by Vargas and the PTB). The polarization spread to the military.
Although nationalist sentiments were certainly present in the officer corps,
the beginning of the Korean War in 1950 had strengthened the pro-American
elements still loyal to the spirit of collaboration established between the
United States and Brazil during World War II. Military sentiment was clearly
reflected in elections for the presidency and vice presidency of the Military
Club. All officers in the country could vote in these elections. In 1950
General Leal had been elected president, but in the elections of May 1952 Leal
received only 4,489 votes against 8,288 cast for the conservative and
pro-American slate headed by General Alcides Etchegoyen. Vargas had already
seen the writing on the wall and in March 1952 had replaced Leal as war
minister with the conservative General Espiritu Santo Cardoso.

     Meanwhile, economic problems mounted. A severe frost reduced the coffee
crop; this sent prices up, but volume was so reduced that even with the
increased prices, income from sales fell. The sudden increase in prices caused
ties with the United States to deteriorate. Relations were in poor shape in
any case; Dwight D. Eisenhower had replaced Truman, and foreign economic
assistance was given much more reluctantly by the new administration. It
became necessary for Vargas to put through an economic stabilization program
to reduce inflation, which meant a limit on wage increases. In order to
protect himself from left-wing attacks, Vargas intensified the nationalistic
content of his speeches. This also reflected his frustration at the restraints
placed on his freedom of action by international financial institutions.

     Economic problems led to political problems. In early February 1954 a
memorandum prepared by junior officers but signed by 42 colonels and 39
lieutenant colonels was presented to the minister of war and leaked to the
press. The memorandum protested the deterioration of army equipment,
armaments, and pay resulting from the government's attempt to exercise
budgetary restraint. There was a lack of opportunities for promotion, hence
demoralization, and according to the memorandum the weakened state of the army
would doubtless strengthen the attempts of communists to propagandize enlisted
men and subvert the nation generally. In other words, the officers wanted more
money.

     The memorandum seemed to come as a surprise to Vargas who, at age 72,
seemed not to be as alert or politically able as in the past. During the same
month Labor Minister Joao Goulart (known as Jango) recommended to the
president an increase of 100 percent in the minimum wage to compensate workers
for inflation. Vargas asked Goulart to resign, mainly because he had become a
focus of right-wing attacks on the president, and Vargas felt that he needed
to ease the pressure from that quarter. Goulart had been depicted in the
right-wing press as the spearhead of a sort of Brazilian Peronism, Juan Peron
of Argentina being at the time the bete noir of liberal constitutionalists
everywhere.

     The anti-Vargas forces saw an opportunity in the colonels' memorandum,
and they began to cultivate opposition in the armed forces to the getulistas
(from Vargas' first name, Getulio), working toward the possibility of a coup.
Carlos Lacerda continued his bitter attacks on Vargas in the press. Vargas,
realizing that his sacrifice of Goulart had not immunized him from right-wing
attack, changed course and attempted to build up support on the left. On May
1, Labor Day, he announced his acceptance of Goulart's recommendation for a
100 percent increase in the minimum wage. Employers were furious and attempted
unsuccessfully to fight the decree through the court system. But even so,
left-wing support for Vargas was not wholehearted. The PCdoB, for example, was
ambivalent about Vargas, supporting his pro-labor position but opposing his
attempts to maintain good relations with the United States.

     Matters came to a head when officers in the president's personal guard,
egged on by Vargas supporters, decided it would be a favor to the president to
assassinate Lacerda. In an ambush in Rio, Lacerda was injured, but his
companion, an air force major, was killed. The attempt played perfectly into
the hands of the opposition. Lacerda was able to play the hero's role, and his
attacks on Vargas in the press and on the radio intensified. Gomes, the UDN's
former presidential candidate and a former air force officer, easily mobilized
air force demands for Vargas' resignation, especially after the air force's
own investigation uncovered the link to the president's guard. The person who
had hired the gunman was the head of the guard, who said that two leading
Vargas supporters, an ex-governor of the Federal District and a member of the
Chamber of Deputies, were the true instigators. Further investigation of the
presidential staff revealed cases of corruption and improper activities;
Vargas became increasingly depressed, as intimated in his widely quoted
remark, "I have the feeling I am standing in a sea of mud."

     Twenty-seven army generals issued a manifesto asking Vargas to step down.
Demands for the president's resignation reached the point that his minister of
war, a strong supporter, reluctantly told the president there was no
alternative to resignation. Vargas had earlier told his opponents, "I am too
old to be intimidated and I have no reason to fear death," and on August 24,
1954, he committed suicide rather than resign.