Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
been for two events along the way: the
strikes
in São Paulo in 1977 and the mass
campaign for direct elections
in 1983-84.
The strikes - led by unions that were still illegal, and the charismatic young factory
worker
Lula (Luís Inácio da Silva)
- began in the car industry and soon spread
throughout the industrial belt of São Paulo, in a movement bearing many parallels with
Solidarity in Poland. There was a tense stand-off between army and strikers, until the
military realized that having São Paulo on strike would be worse for the economy than
conceding the right to free trade unions. This dramatic re-emergence of organized
labour was a sign that the military could not control the situation for much longer.
Reforms
in the early 1980s lifted censorship, brought the exiles home and allowed
normal political life to resume. But the military came up with an ingenious attempt to
determine the succession: their control of Congress allowed them to pass a resolution
that the president due to take o
ce in 1985 would be elected not by direct vote, but
by an electoral college made up of congressmen and senators, where the military party
had the advantage. The democratic opposition responded with a counter-amendment
proposing a direct election. It needed a two-thirds majority in Congress to be passed,
and a campaign began for
diretas-já
, “direct elections now”. Even the opposition was
surprised by the response, as the Brazilian people, thoroughly sick of the generals, took
to the streets in their millions. The campaign culminated in huge rallies of over a
million people in Rio and São Paulo, and opinion polls showed over ninety percent in
favour; but when the vote came in March 1984 the amendment just failed. The
military still nominated a third of Senate seats, and this proved decisive.
Tancredo Neves
It looked like defeat; in fact it turned into victory. The moment found the man in
Tancredo Neves
(1910-85), ex-minister of justice under Vargas, ex-prime minister, and
a wise old
mineiro
fox respected across the political spectrum, who put himself forward
as opposition candidate in the electoral college. By now it was clear what the public
wanted, and Tancredo's unrivalled political skills enabled him to stitch together an
alliance that included dissidents from the military's own party. In January 1985 he
romped home in the electoral college, to great national rejoicing, and military rule
came to an end. Tancredo proclaimed the civilian
Nova República
, but tragically, the
“New Republic” was orphaned at birth. The night before his inauguration Tancredo
was rushed to hospital for an emergency operation on a bleeding stomach tumour; it
proved benign, but in hospital he picked up an infection and six weeks later died of
septicaemia. His funeral was the largest mass event in Brazilian history; a crowd of two
million followed his co
in from the hospital where he had died in São Paulo to
Guarulhos airport.
The New Republic: crisis and corruption
The vice-president,
José Sarney
(born 1930), a second-league politician from
Maranhão who had been fobbed off with a ceremonial post, suddenly found himself
serving a full presidential term. His administration was disastrous, though not all of it
was his own fault: he was saddled with a ministerial team he had not chosen, and a
newly powerful Congress that would have given any president a rough ride. But Sarney
1988
1989
1992
Rubber workers' leader
Chico Mendes assassinated;
Paulo Coelho publishes
The Alchemist
Fernando Collor de Mello
becomes first directly elected
president since 1960; inflation
out of control
Collor resigns after being
accused of corruption and is
impeached
