History of Brazil (1985-present)
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After the military coup, Brazil went into a troubled process of redemocratization.
Contents |
Transitional period
On January 15, 1985, the electoral college elected Tancredo Neves of Minas Gerais, Getúlio Dornelles Vargas' minister of justice in the 1950s, and former federal deputy, senator, and prime minister. Neves was a sensible politician with a reputation for honesty. However, he collapsed the night before his inauguration, and the presidency passed to Vice President José Sarney (president, 1985-90), long-time supporter of the military regime. Neves died on April 21. The hopes that 1985 would be a quick transition to a new regime faded as Brazilians watched this turn of events in a state of shock. Like the regime changes of 1822, 1889, 1930, 1946, and 1964, the 1985 change also proved to be long and difficult.
The Collor and Franco administrations
At the same time, an electoral college consisting of all members of congress and six delegates chosen from each state continued to choose the president. In January 1985, the electoral college voted civilian Tancredo Neves from the opposition Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB) into office as President. However, Neves became ill in March and died a month later, before being sworn in. His Vice President, former Senator Jose Sarney, became President upon Neves' death. Brazil completed its transition to a popularly elected government in 1989, when Fernando Collor de Mello won 53% of the vote in the first direct presidential election in 29 years. In 1992, a major corruption scandal led to the impeachment and ultimate resignation of President Collor.
His vice-president, Itamar Franco, assumed the presidency for the remainder of Collor's term culminating in the October 3, 1994 presidential elections, when Fernando Henrique Cardoso, formerly Franco's Minister of Treasury, was elected by 54% of the votes.
The Cardoso administration
The third president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, started his first term in January 1 1995 and was reelected in 1998. President Cardoso has sought to establish the basis for long-term stability and growth and to reduce Brazil's extreme socioeconomic imbalances. His proposals to Congress include constitutional amendments to open the Brazilian economy to greater foreign participation and to implement sweeping reforms - including social security, government administration, and taxation - to reduce excessive public sector spending and improve government efficiency.
But the growth of country's wealth and power was not followed by any improvements of people's life conditions. Although Brazil is today South America's leading economic power and the world's ninth largest economy, highly unequal income distribution, which had been at the root of political conflict throughout Brazilian history, especially during the Vargas years, remains a pressing problem. These socio-economic contradictions helped usher Lula da Silva, Brazil's first elected leftwing president, into the presidency in January 1, 2003.
Brazil started to negotiate with foreign powers in order to have its prominent role in the third world recognized. In 2004, the Brazilian government started to put pressure on United Nations to gain a permanent seat on UN Security Council.
The Lula administration
The Workers Party (PT) government of Luís Inácio da Silva, known as Lula, maintained relations with foreign banks and the IMF, and declined to adopt policies of nationalization of private companies or collectivization of land. Social movements such as the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) and the Unemployed People Movement started agitation in urban and rural areas, invading farms, buildings and even government buildings and courthouses in major cities. While Lula's mainstream economic policies disappointed his most radical allies, it restored investor confidence in the country that underwrot strong economic growth and employment expansion.
Due to the great amount of poor desperate people in big cities, some areas near Rio de Janeiro and other state capitals became controlled by powerful druglords who instituted their own private laws, ignoring the government. Those "parallel governments" instituted their "territory" in the edge of forest-covered hills and in the peripherical regions of larger metropolitan areas, and bought heavy weapons to defend themselves, such as grenade launchers, cannons and anti-aerial artillery. The army had to occasionally intervene in Rio de Janeiro to pacify areas under the rule of drug trafficking gangs.
In spite of the PT's reputation for clean and efficient government at the local level, a burgeoning corruption scandal in mid-2005 threatens to collapse Lula's administration. After PT ally and Labor Party leader Roberto Jefferson was implicated in a bribery case, he accused the PT in June of paying members of congress illegal monthly stipends to vote for government-backed legislation. Then in August, campaign manager Duda Mendonça admitted that he had used illegal money to finance the PT electoral victory of 2002. Lula's previously high popularity ratings fell and his re-election in 2006 thrown into doubt.
Related articles
| History of Brazil: Timeline & Topics Indians |
Colonial |
Empire |
1889–1930 |
1930–1945 |
1945–1964 |
1964–1985 |
1985–present |
