Getúlio Vargas

Getúlio Dornelles Vargas, a lawyer and politician from Rio Grande do Sul, came to power through the Revolution of 1930, which ended the First Republic. He governed provisionally, was chosen president under the 1934 Constitution, and in November 1937 closed Congress and imposed the Estado Novo, an authoritarian regime with a new constitution, censorship and appointed state governors. The military removed him in 1945. He returned as an elected president in 1951 and died by suicide in office in August 1954, leaving a letter addressed to the Brazilian people. In his second term he pursued economic nationalism, raising the minimum wage and creating Petrobras amid fierce opposition from the UDN and parts of the military.

Vargas remains one of the most debated figures in Brazilian history. Admirers credit him with founding modern labor rights, social security, a national industrial base and a stronger sense of national unity, and the labor tradition he inspired shaped parties such as the PTB and later the PDT. Critics stress that the Estado Novo was a dictatorship that closed Congress, censored the press, imprisoned and tortured opponents and placed unions under state control. Historians also debate how far his reforms reached rural workers, and the label 'father of the poor' coexists with his record of repression. His suicide letter, which blamed national and foreign interests for his downfall, turned him into a lasting symbol for the labor movement and for economic nationalists, while liberal opponents saw it as the final act of a personalist political style.