Brazil Cries for Its Last Caudillo

Leonel Brizola's position as one of Brazil's leading political
leaders over the past 50 years is undisputed. He spent 15 years
in exile after the military grabbed power from his brother-in-law,
João Goulart, in 1964. When an amnesty was granted in 1979 and
Brizola returned to Brazil he was given a rapturous welcome.

John Fitzpatrick

The death of Leonel Brizola came as a shock to everyone here even though he was 82 years old. Like a number of veteran Brazilian politicians and personalities, such as former President José Sarney, Bahia's senator Antonio Carlos Magalhães and architect Oscar Niemeyer, Brizola seemed to have more energy than men half his age.

As national president of the PDT (Partido Democrático Trabalhista—Democratic Labor Party) he was an active force in politics until the end and made no secret of his disapproval of the policies of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of the Workers' Party (PT).

Brizola was Lula's running mate in the 1998 election, which was won convincingly by Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Like many old-time socialists, Brizola felt that Lula had betrayed his comrades and supporters by maintaining Cardoso's economic policies.

Some of Brizola's more boorish supporters showed appalling misjudgment by booing Lula when he came to pay his last respects at Brizola's lying-in ceremony in Rio de Janeiro. They taunted him and shook their fists, chanting "Traitor" and "Brizola brasileiro".

It was a shocking display of disrespect, not only to Lula but to Brizola's family and common decency. However, several of those in attendance used the occasion to criticize the current government's policies.

The usual anti-Americanism appeared as well with some people—including singer Beth Carvalho and Senator Heloisa Helena—praising Brizola's anti-imperialism credentials. Predictably, one of the first foreign leaders to pay a tribute was Cuba's Communist dictator Fidel Castro.

Brizola abandoned Lula at the last election and supported Ciro Gomes of the PPS (Partido Popular Socialista—Popular Socialist Party), another small leftist party. At the time of his death he was trying to form an alliance with the PMDB (Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro—Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement) even though this party is actually a member of Lula's governing alliance. There were even some reports that Brizola himself wanted to stand for the presidency in 2006.

Brizola's position as one of the leading political leaders over the past 50 years is undisputed. He spent 15 years in exile after the military grabbed power from his brother-in-law, João Goulart, in 1964. When an amnesty was granted in 1979 and Brizola returned to Brazil he was given a rapturous welcome by thousands of supporters.

He was elected state governor of Rio de Janeiro twice but was rebuffed at presidential level, coming third behind Fernando Collor de Melo and Lula in the 1989 race. Brizola was later to lose much credibility when he supported Collor against accusations of corruption which eventually led Collor to resign as he was about to be impeached by the Senate in 1992.

While Brizola was an opponent of the military and a fighter for workers' rights he had much common with the nationalist views of many officers weaned on the "New State" of dictator Getúlio Vargas.

He believed that Brazil could develop by using its own resources and closing its economy. This policy was more or less followed by the military and ultimately led to the so-called decade of the 80s when the economic miracle of the 70s was overturned and the country defaulted on its foreign debt.

Stuck in the Past

Brizola gradually lost his influence because, unlike Lula and Cardoso, who changed their views, he was incapable of developing and changing his ideas. He was stuck in a time warp and could offer Brazilians nothing over the last decade except rhetoric.

He also strangled any intellectual or political development within his party which he ruled with an iron hand. Several of today's most prominent politicians, such as Anthony Garotinho and Jaime Lerner, left or were kicked out of the party.

The PDT became a one-man show and, in the absence of its founder and boss, could be absorbed into another party or become a fringe party. It has lost much support in recent years and has only 12 deputies in the House of Representatives and five Senators.

It is also weak at local level with only 68 representatives in state assemblies and less than 3,000 councilors. There is speculation that Garotinho or Lerner could return and revive the party but it would take someone of colossal force to fill Brizola's shoes.

There is no room to go into Brizola's legacy here but many people accuse him of being responsible for one of Brazil's greatest problems—the appalling lawlessness in parts of Rio de Janeiro. When he was state governor he was reluctant to send the security forces into the favela shanty towns which were spreading around the city.

Critics have said that this softly-softly approach was one of the main reasons for the development of the drug trafficking gangs which now run the favelas and terrorize the local people. These places are virtually no-go areas and police can only enter in military-style operations which generally end in deaths of innocent people, gangsters and policemen.

Gaúcho Carioca

Finally, it is worth stressing Brizola's origins. Despite his close connection with Rio, he was actually from the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. The people from there are known in Brazil as Gaúchos and share many of the cultural and political attitudes of neighboring Argentina. Despite this they are fiercely Brazilian and have a much more aggressive pugnacious spirit than most of their fellow countrymen.

It is not surprising that three of Brazil's most prominent political leaders in the 20^th century were Gaúchos—Getúlio Vargas, Luiz Carlos Prestes, who led the famous rebel Prestes Column on an amazing journey across Brazil in the mid-20s on a Brazilian equivalent of Mao Tse Tung's Long March, and, of course, Leonel Brizola.

John Fitzpatrick is a Scottish journalist who first visited Brazil in 1987 and has lived in São Paulo since 1995. He writes on politics and finance and runs his own company, Celtic Comunicações—www.celt.com.br—which specializes in editorial and translation services for Brazilian and foreign clients. You can reach him at jf@celt.com.br.

© John Fitzpatrick 2004