Ulysses Guimarães

Ulysses Silveira Guimarães, a lawyer from Rio Claro in São Paulo state, was elected federal deputy in 1950 for the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and served as minister of industry and commerce in the 1961-1962 parliamentary cabinet. After the military regime created a two-party system in 1965 he joined the opposition MDB and became its president. In 1973 he ran a symbolic 'anticandidacy' against the regime's nominee to denounce censorship and repression. He was a leading figure of the 1984 Diretas Já campaign, presided over the Constituent Assembly of 1987-1988 and ran for president in 1989. He died in a helicopter crash off Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

Nicknamed 'Senhor Diretas' (Mr. Direct Elections) by the press in 1984, Ulysses Guimarães is remembered in Brazil as a symbol of the democratic transition. Admirers credit him with keeping a legal opposition alive under military rule and with steering a fragmented assembly to a constitution that expanded rights and restored civilian institutions. Critics of the 1988 text, especially economic liberals, argued that it locked in costly social and fiscal commitments and nationalist economic rules, several of which were later amended. Others note his early support for the 1964 coup and his weak result in the 1989 election, when voters turned to new figures. His 1973 campaign slogan, 'Navegar é preciso, viver não é preciso' (to sail is necessary, to live is not), became a lasting emblem of the opposition.