Jânio Quadros

Career

Quadros was born in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul. His meteoric career can be attributed to his widespread use of populist rhetoric and his extravagant behavior. He became mayor of the city of São Paulo in 1953 and governor of the state of São Paulo just two years later, in 1955. He was elected president of Brazil by a landslide in 1960, heading a coalition of his National Labour Party (PTN), the Christian Democratic Party and the largest opposition party, the National Democratic Union. His 15.6 percent margin of victory would be the largest margin for a presidential election held by popular vote until Fernando Henrique Cardoso won by 27 points in 1994. When he took office on January 31, 1961; it was the first time since Brazil became a republic in 1889 that an incumbent government peacefully transferred power to an elected member of the opposition. It was also the first time in 31 years that the presidency was not held by an heir to the legacy of Getúlio Vargas.

Quadros laid the blame for the country's high rate of inflation on his predecessor, Juscelino Kubitschek. As president, Quadros outlawed gambling, banned women from wearing bikinis on the beach, and established relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba, trying to achieve a neutralist international policy. The re-establishment of relations with the Socialist Bloc in the middle of the Cold War cost him the support of the UDN in Congress, so that he was left with no real power.

Resignation

On August 21, 1961, Quadros signed a bill annulling the mining rights of Hanna Mining, thus returning the iron ore reserves of the Minas Gerais region to the national reserve. Quadros resigned on August 25, 1961, citing foreign and "terrible occult forces" in his cryptic resignation letter. His resignation is commonly thought to have been a move to increase his power, expecting to return to the presidency by the acclamation of the Brazilian people or by the request of the National Congress of Brazil and the military. This maneuver, however, was immediately rejected by the Brazilian legislature, which accepted his resignation and called on the president of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil, Pascoal Ranieri Mazzilli, to assume office until the vice president, João Goulart, came back from his trip to the People's Republic of China. Goulart finally took the oath as president on September 7, 1961, although his power was restricted by an amendment to the Constitution passed on September 2, that created a parliamentary system of Government. He was not of the same party as Quadros; at the time, Brazilians could vote for a ticket that had candidates for president and vice president from different parties.

Quadros's resignation initiated a serious political crisis that culminated in a military coup in 1964. While the military did not allow him to participate in politics, by the 1980s Quadros had made a comeback. He joined the Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro, and was candidate for governor of São Paulo in 1982, only to be defeated by André Franco Montoro. Nevertheless, he was elected mayor of São Paulo in 1985, for the second time in his career, defeating the favored candidate, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, later president of Brazil. Quadros served as mayor until 1988 and died in São Paulo in 1992.