Obituary: General Ernesto Geisel | The Independent Obituary: General Ernesto Geisel Friday 13 September 1996 23:02 BST Click to follow The Independent Online General Ernesto Geisel was the military ruler who showed courage and common sense in putting Brazil back on the path to civilian rule during his term as President - from 1974 to 1979 - in a period of significant political and economic development in Latin America's largest country. He was the fourth in a line of five generals who ruled for 21 years from 1964 to 1985. Geisel had been a conspirator in the 1964 coup, backed by the United States, which overthrew President Joao Goulart at a time of increasing government instability and corruption. Military rule brought a ban on political and trade-union activity. Urban guerrilla groups were eliminated, and many people were imprisoned and tortured. To his credit, President Geisel detected the need for change and began the slow, gradual process of returning his country to civilian rule, despite hard-line opposition from sections of the armed forces.

He acted decisively in response to the notorious torture and killing of the journalist Vladimir Herzog, and a worker named Manuel Fiel Filho, sacking the Sao Paulo commander held responsible, and also, later, the army minister, General Sylvio Frota, for undermining his efforts to steer Brazil back to civilian rule. It was not an easy road. Geisel kept firm control of power as pressure grew from politicians and once-dormant student and labour movements to strengthen the legislative and judicial branches of government. He briefly suspended Congress in 1977 and introduced measures aimed at weakening Congress and guaranteeing future electoral victories for the government- controlled Arena party. Geisel presided over a burgeoning economy and manufacturing industry, boosted by a policy of encouraging an unprecedented degree of foreign investment while keeping state control over major industries. Brazil's cities expanded rapidly, and Sao Paulo became South America's biggest city. Towards the end of Geisel's tenure, the so-called economic miracle was beginning to fade. Fast growth complicated Brazil's enormous problems, burdening it with the world's largest foreign debt.

Geisel was able to do little to lessen the plight of homeless child workers and beggars, and the swelling ranks of the poor in drought-ridden states in the north- east or concentrated in vast city slum settlements called favelas. Rich mineral deposits and an expanding agricultural industry aggravated clashes with peasants and indigenous Indians driven out by gun-slingers brought in by developers. Geisel's presidency coincided with continuing destruction of vast areas of virgin rain forest in Amazonia, gouged out by roads and agricultural intrusion. Brazil's failure to find home-produced oil, unlike nearly all its neighbours, was exacerbated by the 1973 world oil crisis, exposing its vulnerability and dependence on imported oil from the Middle East and Nigeria. In response it built up its agricultural and manufactured exports, especially of military equipment such as tracked armoured vehicles and aircraft, becoming one of the world's biggest arms exporters to Arab countries and elsewhere. Lack of oil encouraged Brazil to develop alternative sources of energy, embarking upon a huge nuclear-energy industry and some of the world's biggest hydroelectric schemes on its massive river systems - the Amazon and the Parana.

Geisel had built up considerable expertise as an oil refinery superintendent, a member of the Petroleum Council, and as head of Brazil's state-owned oil monopoly, Petrobras. He introduced the innovative "proaclool" programme to produce alcohol from cane sugar, to propel cars, making Brazil a world leader in this new technology and mass producer of the alcohol engine which drives more than a million of Brazilian-built cars. Brazil has since discovered offshore oil and Petrobas has become a world expert in deep-sea oil extraction. Geisel was born in Bento Goncalves in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul. He attended army staff colleges in Brazil and the United States and held a variety of military and industrial posts, including Secretary- General for National Security and Secretary of Public Works. As President, Geisel came on a state visit to the United Kingdom, in return for a highly successful state visit by the Queen to Brazil. Ernesto Geisel, army officer, businessman and politician; born Bento Goncalves, Brazil 3 August 1907; President of Brazil 1974-79; married (one daughter); died Rio de Janeiro 10 September 1996.

More about: Ernesto Geisel Facts LINK / CITE ADD TO WORD LIST Ernesto Geisel Facts Ernesto Geisel (1908-1996) was a Brazilian army general, president of Brazil's national oil company (Petrobras), and president of the Republic (1974-1979). As president he began the process of disengaging the military from control of the Brazilian government. Ernesto Geisel was the fourth general to serve a term as president of Brazil during the so-called Military Republic (1964-1985). He belonged to a group of officers known as Castellistas (after President [General] Humberto de Castello Branco, 1964-1967) who did not favor continued military rule but who had lost out to those who did. Geisel's selection signaled the beginning of a nine-year process aimed at establishing a civilian presidency. He had the distinction of being the first Protestant to preside over the largest Catholic population in the world. Son of a German Lutheran immigrant, Geisel and his brother, Orlando, used the military as the means of upward social and economic mobility.

Both he and his brother achieved generals' stars, the latter serving as minister of the army (1969-1974). Born on August 3, 1908, in Bento Gonçalves, in the heart of Rio Grande do Sul's wine country where his father taught in the Lutheran school, Ernesto Geisel received his secondary education in the military school in Porto Alegre (1921-1924). He acquired his military preparation in the Escola Militar do Realengo, from which he was graduated first in the class of 1928 as an Aspirante in artillery. Early Military Career As a lieutenant he participated in the Revolution of 1930 on the side of the victorious forces of Getúlio Vargas. His early career mixed military and civilian assignments: as battery commander, as general secretary of the Rio Grande do Norte state government (1931), and as treasury and public works secretary in Paraiba (1934, 1935). This activity identified him with the military reformers known as tenentes (lieutenants).

He helped suppress the revolt of São Paulo (1932) and the Communist uprising of 1935. He taught at the Realengo military school between 1938 and 1941 and completed the general staff course in 1943. In early 1945 he was one of a large group of Brazilian officers who took a special course at the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In October 1945 he was chief of staff of an important armed unit in Rio de Janeiro which played a key role in the deposition of Vargas. In the next decade, as he advanced in rank, he served on the National Security Council staff (1946-1947), as military attache in Uruguay (1948-1950), on the Armed Forces General Staff (1950-1952), on the faculty of the Escola Superior de Guerra (1952-1955), and on President João Cafe Filho's military staff.

As a Military/Political Leader In 1957, while chief of the Army General Staff's intelligence section, he sat on the National Petroleum Council, beginning a long association with Brazilian oil. Promoted to brigadier general in March 1960, he was in command of the military zone in which Brasília is located when Brazil entered into political crisis with the resignation of President Janio Quadros and the military's subsequent resistance to Vargas' protegé Vice President João Goulart assuming the presidency. Though Goulart became chief of state, the crisis continued until he was deposed by a combination of political, business, and military opponents at the end of March 1964. Geisel was one of the high-ranking officers linked to the Escola Superior de Guerra in Rio de Janeiro who played an important role in the conspiracy, seizure of power, and planning for the political, economic, and administrative reorganization of Brazil. He successfully worked with several other like-minded generals for the selection of Army Chief of Staff Humberto de Castello Branco to complete Goulart's term of office. As chief of Castello's military staff, Geisel was intimately involved in the administration's decision-making processes.

Under Castello, he worked to stop the use of torture and other extreme methods by hard-line officers who believed that "bad Brazilians" wanted to turn the country toward Communism and so had to be dealt with harshly. Geisel and Castello Branco believed that the military should clean up the government, reform the economy, and then turn power back to civilians at the end of the term in March 1967. The subsequent struggle for control of this conservative revolution saw the Castellistas forced to cede ground to the radical demands of the hard-liners. In October 1965 when the Congress refused to approve a law that would have given the government greater power to intervene in the states, to judge civilians in military courts, and to suspend political rights of adversaries, Castello Branco decreed Additional Act II to the constitution abolishing political parties and establishing indirect presidential elections. Over Geisel's objections, Castello, seeking to preserve military unity, agreed to hard-liners' demands that instead of a civilian, the next president would be Minister of War Artur Costa e Silva.

Geisel argued that "we are selling the future for a precipitous solution to a present [problem]." He was correct; giving in to the right only prolonged military rule and only preserved a superficial military unity. Years with Petrobras During the Costa e Silva administration (1967-1969), Geisel, now a four-star general, sat as a judge on the Supreme Military Tribunal. Retiring from the army in 1969, he was appointed president of the national oil company, Petrobras, which he turned toward the production and distribution of derivatives and toward extensive exploration abroad and in Brazilian coastal waters. While a nationalist, he took the reasonable position that Petrobras was a means to supply Brazil with sufficient petroleum and not a barrier against foreign investment. His years at Petrobras coincided with a period of economic growth during which annual rates rose to 12 percent. Unhappily, the investments in Brazil's productive capacity came out of savings resulting from low wages, while criticism and labor unrest were suppressed with arrests, torture, and censorship. The military hard-liners formed an organizational structure outside the normal command structure.

A so-called "intelligence community" comprising the National Intelligence Service (SNI) and the intelligence services of the army, air force, and navy grew up after 1968. Army intelligence set up a network throughout Brazil of Departments of Internal Operations (DOIs). Government agencies and universities all had special agents assigned to them. Spies and informers proliferated. Institutionalized violence became the order of the day, as interrogation in a DOI commonly included torture. Within the armed forces this "outside" parallel activity generated divisions, irritation, and shame, while among civilians it made the military an object of distrust and contempt. As President It was in this atmosphere that Geisel came to the presidency. Nomination as the government party's candidate was tantamount to election, and the choice was in the hands of President Emílio Garrastazu Médici, who the military had put in office when Costa e Silva suffered a stroke in 1969. Preceding the official decision there was an intense behind-the-scenes struggle between the hard-liners and the more moderate Castellistas, now led by Geisel.

He was helped by the fact that his brother, Orlando, was minister of the army and that a close ally, General João Figueiredo, was chief of Médici's military staff. Though not immediately understood by civilians or by the United States government analysts, Geisel's rise to power marked a shift away from repression and toward the path to democratic rule. The hard-liners contested his authority over the repressive apparatus in several incidents of torture and/or disappearance. Geisel replied vigorously to such challenges, replacing various commanders with trusted subordinates. He labelled his political program distenção—"the slow, gradual, and secure relaxation" of control measures. It would be "the maximum of development possible with the minimum of indispensible security." His economic policy sought to maintain high rates of growth while attempting to deal with the effects of the oil price shocks. His national development plan called for massive investments in basic infra-structure such as highways, telecommunications, hydro-electric dams, mineral extraction, factories, and atomic energy. At the risk of bruising nationalist sentiments, the government opened Brazil to prospecting by foreign oil companies for the first time since the early 1950s.

The massive Itaipu dam on the Paraná river border with Paraguay symbolizes the era. Brazil borrowed billions of dollars to pour into concrete and steel as investment in future development. The economic necessities resulted in a markedly different foreign policy. Strict alignment with the United States and a world view based on ideological frontiers and blocs gave way to "responsible pragmatism." Accepting its then 80 percent dependence on imported oil and American inability to assist, Brazil modified its pro-Israeli stance and called for Israel to withdraw from Arab lands occupied in the 1967 war. Closer ties were established with Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Brazil recognized China, Angola, and Mozambique and moved closer to Latin America, Europe, and Japan. Its 1975 agreement to build nuclear reactors with what was then West Germany led to conflict with the Carter administration, which was also, oddly enough, criticizing the Geisel government for the very human rights abuses that it was struggling to stop. In frustration at American high-handedness and lack of understanding, the Geisel administration renounced Brazil's military alliance with the United States.

Politically, Geisel's last two years as president centered on the question of succession, which led to further confrontations with the hard-liners. Admitting that Brazil enjoyed only "relative democracy," Geisel did not hesitate in April 1977 to rewrite the rules of the political game to contain the opposition parties and to dismiss the far-right minister of the army, General Sílvio Frota, in October 1977. Curiously, though distenção presupposed a more open, decentralized political system, Geisel employed a highly centralized decision-making process in his administration. In 1978 with the Frota crisis behind him, Geisel had to deal with the first labor strikes since 1964 and successive election victories by the opposition Brazilian Democratic Movement party. He eased restrictions on exiles, reestablished habeas corpus, annulled the government's extraordinary powers decrees, and imposed João Figueiredo as his successor. When he left office in March 1979 Brazil was less dependent on foreign imports and was a major industrial goods exporter, but on the negative side it was suffering a 42 percent inflationary rate and was over $43 billion in debt to foreign lenders.

His determination to disengage the military from control of government, while gradually reestablishing democratic practices, marked his administration. The basic economic infrastructure that the Geisel years provided will carry Brazilian development into the 21st century. Geisel died of cancer in September 1996. Further Reading on Ernesto Geisel There are no biographies of Geisel in English. There is a good summary of 20th-century Brazilian history in Thomas E. Skidmore and Peter H. Smith, Modern Latin America (1984) and a useful review of recent decades in Robert Wesson and David V.

Fleischer, Brazil in Transition (1983); Jerry Dubrowski, "Brazilian ex-military ruler Ernesto Geisel dies" Reuters (September 12, 1996) Ernesto Geisel - Biography Ernesto Geisel Bith Date: August 3, 1908 Death Date: September, 1996 Place of Birth: Bento Gonçalves, Brazil Nationality: Brazilian Gender: Male Occupations: general, president, organization president Ernesto Geisel (1908-1996) was a Brazilian army general, president of Brazil's national oil company (Petrobras), and president of the Republic (1974-1979). As president he began the process of disengaging the military from control of the Brazilian government. Ernesto Geisel was the fourth general to serve a term as president of Brazil during the so-called Military Republic (1964-1985).

He belonged to a group of officers known as Castellistas (after President [General] Humberto de Castello Branco, 1964-1967) who did not favor continued military rule but who had lost out to those who did. Geisel's selection signaled the beginning of a nine-year process aimed at establishing a civilian presidency. He had the distinction of being the first Protestant to preside over the largest Catholic population in the world. Son of a German Lutheran immigrant, Geisel and his brother, Orlando, used the military as the means of upward social and economic mobility. Both he and his brother achieved generals' stars, the latter serving as minister of the army (1969-1974). Born on August 3, 1908, in Bento Gonçalves, in the heart of Rio Grande do Sul's wine country where his father taught in the Lutheran school, Ernesto Geisel received his secondary education in the military school in Porto Alegre (1921-1924).

He acquired his military preparation in the Escola Militar do Realengo, from which he was graduated first in the class of 1928 as an Aspirante in artillery. Early Military Career As a lieutenant he participated in the Revolution of 1930 on the side of the victorious forces of Getúlio Vargas. His early career mixed military and civilian assignments: as battery commander, as general secretary of the Rio Grande do Norte state government (1931), and as treasury and public works secretary in Paraiba (1934, 1935). This activity identified him with the military reformers known as tenentes (lieutenants). He helped suppress the revolt of São Paulo (1932) and the Communist uprising of 1935. He taught at the Realengo military school between 1938 and 1941 and completed the general staff course in 1943. In early 1945 he was one of a large group of Brazilian officers who took a special course at the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

In October 1945 he was chief of staff of an important armed unit in Rio de Janeiro which played a key role in the deposition of Vargas. In the next decade, as he advanced in rank, he served on the National Security Council staff (1946-1947), as military attache in Uruguay (1948-1950), on the Armed Forces General Staff (1950-1952), on the faculty of the Escola Superior de Guerra (1952-1955), and on President João Cafe Filho's military staff. As a Military/Political Leader In 1957, while chief of the Army General Staff's intelligence section, he sat on the National Petroleum Council, beginning a long association with Brazilian oil. Promoted to brigadier general in March 1960, he was in command of the military zone in which Brasília is located when Brazil entered into political crisis with the resignation of President Janio Quadros and the military's subsequent resistance to Vargas' protegé Vice President João Goulart assuming the presidency.

Though Goulart became chief of state, the crisis continued until he was deposed by a combination of political, business, and military opponents at the end of March 1964. Geisel was one of the high-ranking officers linked to the Escola Superior de Guerra in Rio de Janeiro who played an important role in the conspiracy, seizure of power, and planning for the political, economic, and administrative reorganization of Brazil. He successfully worked with several other like-minded generals for the selection of Army Chief of Staff Humberto de Castello Branco to complete Goulart's term of office. As chief of Castello's military staff, Geisel was intimately involved in the administration's decision-making processes. Under Castello, he worked to stop the use of torture and other extreme methods by hard-line officers who believed that "bad Brazilians" wanted to turn the country toward Communism and so had to be dealt with harshly. Geisel and Castello Branco believed that the military should clean up the government, reform the economy, and then turn power back to civilians at the end of the term in March 1967.

The subsequent struggle for control of this conservative revolution saw the Castellistas forced to cede ground to the radical demands of the hard-liners. In October 1965 when the Congress refused to approve a law that would have given the government greater power to intervene in the states, to judge civilians in military courts, and to suspend political rights of adversaries, Castello Branco decreed Additional Act II to the constitution abolishing political parties and establishing indirect presidential elections. Over Geisel's objections, Castello, seeking to preserve military unity, agreed to hard-liners' demands that instead of a civilian, the next president would be Minister of War Artur Costa e Silva. Geisel argued that "we are selling the future for a precipitous solution to a present [problem]." He was correct; giving in to the right only prolonged military rule and only preserved a superficial military unity. Years with Petrobras During the Costa e Silva administration (1967-1969), Geisel, now a four-star general, sat as a judge on the Supreme Military Tribunal.

Retiring from the army in 1969, he was appointed president of the national oil company, Petrobras, which he turned toward the production and distribution of derivatives and toward extensive exploration abroad and in Brazilian coastal waters. While a nationalist, he took the reasonable position that Petrobras was a means to supply Brazil with sufficient petroleum and not a barrier against foreign investment. His years at Petrobras coincided with a period of economic growth during which annual rates rose to 12 percent. Unhappily, the investments in Brazil's productive capacity came out of savings resulting from low wages, while criticism and labor unrest were suppressed with arrests, torture, and censorship. The military hard-liners formed an organizational structure outside the normal command structure. A so-called "intelligence community" comprising the National Intelligence Service (SNI) and the intelligence services of the army, air force, and navy grew up after 1968. Army intelligence set up a network throughout Brazil of Departments of Internal Operations (DOIs). Government agencies and universities all had special agents assigned to them. Spies and informers proliferated. Institutionalized violence became the order of the day, as interrogation in a DOI commonly included torture.

Within the armed forces this "outside" parallel activity generated divisions, irritation, and shame, while among civilians it made the military an object of distrust and contempt. As President It was in this atmosphere that Geisel came to the presidency in 1974. Nomination as the government party's candidate was tantamount to election, and the choice was in the hands of President Emílio Garrastazu Médici, who the military had put in office when Costa e Silva suffered a stroke in 1969. Preceding the official decision there was an intense behind-the-scenes struggle between the hard-liners and the more moderate Castellistas, now led by Geisel. He was helped by the fact that his brother, Orlando, was minister of the army and that a close ally, General João Figueiredo, was chief of Médici's military staff. Though not immediately understood by civilians or by the United States government analysts, Geisel's rise to power marked a shift away from repression and toward the path to democratic rule. The hard-liners contested his authority over the repressive apparatus in several incidents of torture and/or disappearance. Geisel replied vigorously to such challenges, replacing various commanders with trusted subordinates.

He labelled his political program distenção--"the slow, gradual, and secure relaxation" of control measures. It would be "the maximum of development possible with the minimum of indispensible security." His economic policy sought to maintain high rates of growth while attempting to deal with the effects of the oil price shocks. His national development plan called for massive investments in basic infra-structure such as highways, telecommunications, hydro-electric dams, mineral extraction, factories, and atomic energy. At the risk of bruising nationalist sentiments, the government opened Brazil to prospecting by foreign oil companies for the first time since the early 1950s. The massive Itaipu dam on the Paraná river border with Paraguay symbolizes the era. Brazil borrowed billions of dollars to pour into concrete and steel as investment in future development. The economic necessities resulted in a markedly different foreign policy. Strict alignment with the United States and a world view based on ideological frontiers and blocs gave way to "responsible pragmatism." Accepting its then 80 percent dependence on imported oil and American inability to assist, Brazil modified its pro-Israeli stance and called for Israel to withdraw from Arab lands occupied in the 1967 war.

Closer ties were established with Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Brazil recognized China, Angola, and Mozambique and moved closer to Latin America, Europe, and Japan. Its 1975 agreement to build nuclear reactors with what was then West Germany led to conflict with the Carter administration, which was also, oddly enough, criticizing the Geisel government for the very human rights abuses that it was struggling to stop. In frustration at American high-handedness and lack of understanding, the Geisel administration renounced Brazil's military alliance with the United States. Politically, Geisel's last two years as president centered on the question of succession, which led to further confrontations with the hard-liners. Admitting that Brazil enjoyed only "relative democracy," Geisel did not hesitate in April 1977 to rewrite the rules of the political game to contain the opposition parties and to dismiss the far-right minister of the army, General Sílvio Frota, in October 1977. Curiously, though distenção presupposed a more open, decentralized political system, Geisel employed a highly centralized decision-making process in his administration.

In 1978 with the Frota crisis behind him, Geisel had to deal with the first labor strikes since 1964 and successive election victories by the opposition Brazilian Democratic Movement party. He eased restrictions on exiles, reestablished habeas corpus, annulled the government's extraordinary powers decrees, and imposed João Figueiredo as his successor. When he left office in March 1979 Brazil was less dependent on foreign imports and was a major industrial goods exporter, but on the negative side it was suffering a 42 percent inflationary rate and was over $43 billion in debt to foreign lenders. His determination to disengage the military from control of government, while gradually reestablishing democratic practices, marked his administration. The basic economic infrastructure that the Geisel years provided will carry Brazilian development into the 21st century. Geisel died of cancer in September 1996. Associated Organizations Further Reading There are no biographies of Geisel in English. There is a good summary of 20th-century Brazilian history in Thomas E. Skidmore and Peter H. Smith, Modern Latin America (1984) and a useful review of recent decades in Robert Wesson and David V.

Fleischer, Brazil in Transition (1983); Jerry Dubrowski, "Brazilian ex-military ruler Ernesto Geisel dies" Reuters (September 12, 1996) Need a custom written paper? Let our professional writers save your time. Not a member yet? Who's Missing From Brazil's Cabinet? You are using an older browser version. Please use a supported version for the best MSN experience. Who's Missing From Brazil's Cabinet? The Atlantic 26/05/2016 Marina Koren © Reuters Brazil's interim President Michel Temer looks on after a ceremony for inauguration of the new Minister of Culture, Marcelo Calero, at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia Last December, Michel Temer wrote a letter to his boss. Temer, the vice president of Brazil, complained that Dilma Rousseff had excluded him from government decisions and treated him like nothing more than a “decorative vice president.” The note was leaked and published online by several newspapers, and the denizens of the Internet quickly worked their magic, producing memes depicting Temer as a Christmas decoration.

Fast-forward six months and Temer is the interim president of Brazil, put in office as the country’s legislature decides whether to impeach Rousseff, the leader of the center-left Workers Party (PT),over allegations she manipulated economic data ahead of her re-election. Temer is a constitutional lawyer and a member the centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), the country’s largest political party. (He’s also embroiled in hisown political scandals.)In his first days in the presidency, Temer has vowed to fight corruption and introduced measures to reduce the fiscal deficit as Brazil faces itsworst recession in decades. He has also named a new cabinet of ministers that has attracted a lot of attention for what it’s missing: women. All the ministers in the cabinet are men who identify as white, making Temer the first president since Ernesto Geisel, who served from 1974 to 1979, not to include women. The reshuffling has cut the number of cabinet posts from 31 to 22, and unseated six female cabinet ministers, one of whom was the only Afro-Brazilian minister in the government, according to the AP.

Temer aides toldReutersthat the cabinet was selected quickly from parties that would support the new government. The acting president had asked Ellen Gracie Northfleet, a judge who in 2000 became the first woman to be appointed to the country’s Supreme Court, to take the office of the comptroller general, but she declined, according to Brazilian media. “We tried to look for women, but it wasn't possible,” said Eliseu Padilha, Temer's new chief of staff, when the new cabinet was named. Last week, Josi Nunes, a female PMDBlawmaker, told reporters in Brasilia that Temer said he would hire women in his government “a little further ahead.” But for supporters of PT, whose policies have for years promoted social justice and racial equality, Temer’s decision is troubling. The cabinet’s composition has raised concerns the new president seeks to make Brazil more conservative. His decision to eliminate the ministry of women, racial equality, and human rights and consolidate it into the justice ministry, as well as tomerge the culture ministry into the education ministry, has only compounded their fears. Temer’s critics point out his new cabinet is not representative of Brazil’s population, which is 51 percent female.

But it is does mirror the makeup of the country’s congress, which has been about 90 percent male since 2003, and more than that in the years before. For advocates of women’s rights around the world, the new cabinet is a step backward, especially as it comes after Rousseff, before her precipitous decline, became Brazil’s first female president in 2010. Worldwide, 22percent of all national legislators were female as of August 2015, up from 11 percent in 1995, according to the United Nations. The current U.S. Congress has 108 female lawmakers, 20 percent of the legislature but a record in American history. Canada’s legislature is 26 percent female, though last fall Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the country’s first 50 percent female cabinet. Brazil is behind its fellow South American countries Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, and Paraguay in female representation in parliament, according to the World Bank. The Inter-Parliamentary Union, an international organization of parliaments, ranks Brazil 155th in female representation among 191 countries.

Women first joined the Brazilian cabinet in 1979 during the military dictatorship under General Joao Figueiredo. All successive presidents named women to their cabinets. A year into Rousseff’s first term, the Palacio do Planalto, where Brazil’s president works, looked different than in previous administrations. Der Spiegel’s Jens Glüsingdescribed the president’s office in 2012: Planning Minister Miriam Belchior rushes past on her way to visit Chief of Staff Gleisi Hoffmann, with whom she will discuss a multi-billion-real investment program to combat poverty. On the way she is greeted by Ideli Salvatti, the woman who manages the government's relations with Congress. Two floors down, Press Secretary Helena Chagas is talking on the phone. In the front office, several women are reviewing the day's newspapers. Wherever you look in this white marble palace, there are female ministers, female advisers, female experts and female undersecretaries. Only the waiters and the security guards in the entrance hall are men. Thanks to President Dilma Rousseff, everything else at government headquarters is firmly in female hands. Ten of them sit in the cabinet. All but one of her inner circle of advisers are women.

This isn't because of quotas. “Given a choice between a man and a woman with the same qualifications, she prefers to hire the woman,” says Gilberto Carvalho, who runs the presidential office. When she began her second term in 2014, Rousseff appointed six women to cabinet positions. Earlier this month, after she was suspended, she criticized Temer’s cabinet picks. “Blacks and women are fundamental if you truly want to construct an inclusive country,” Rousseff told Bloomberg. “From its formation, I think the government clearly reflects that it is going to be liberal in the economy and extremely conservative on the social and cultural side.” This week, Temer, who is two weeks into the job, announced several proposals aimed at salvaging the country’s deteriorating economy. He bashed his critics, saying his new government was the victim of “psychological aggression,” The New York Times reported Tuesday. For a moment, the Temer who wrote that letter to Rousseff last year appeared. From the Times: “Slapping his hand on his desk before television cameras, a perturbed Mr.

Temer proclaimed: ‘I’ve heard, ‘Temer is very fragile, poor little thing, he doesn’t know how to govern.’ Gibberish!’” Constitutional history of Brazil | ConstitutionNet Constitutional history of Brazil Introduction With an area of 8.5 million square km and a population of over 202 million, Brazil is the largest and most populated Latin American country. After more than three hundred years of Portuguese rule, Brazil became independent in 1822. It first adopted a monarchical system until 1889, when a republic was established. Since 1889, the country has had several forms of government, including state autonomy and centralization, authoritarianism, and democracy. Constitutional history Brazil’s independence was proclaimed on September 7th 1822, by the then Prince of Portugal, who became Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil. Since then, the country wrote seven other constitutions beginning with the constitution of 1824. The 1824 Constitution gave the Emperor wide control over governing institutions, such as the legislature and provincial governments and lasted until 1889, when Pedro II was overthrown and the Republic of Brazil was formed.

1891 Constitution This first republican constitution was very similar to the United States Constitution. It established a presidential system and male universal suffrage from the age of 21. It contained provisions for separation of powers, checks and balances, a bicameral legislature, direct elections, and created a Federal Chamber. The former provinces were declared States, giving these individual entities a strong presidential or gubernatorial character. 1934 - 1937 Constitutions In 1930, Getulio Vargas organized a military revolt and led a Coup de’ Etat. His government created a new Constitution in 1934. A couple of years later, Vargas faced a counter-revolution, forcing him to stage a coup, after which he began a new constitutional process. The resulting 1937 Constitution was authoritarian, concentrating executive and legislative powers in the President, who was the supreme authority of the State, elected by indirect elections for a term of six years. Article 187 of the Constitution required conducting a plebiscite in order to approve the text before it entered into force, but it was never held.

The President had powers to appoint the Governors of the provinces, who in turn appointed the mayors of cities. As this was a de facto rule, Vargas legislated by decree. During this period all political parties were dissolved; the Congress was closed; and individual rights and guarantees were suspended. The government had a great intervention in the economy, and the subsoil and waterfalls were nationalized. The 1937 Constitution allowed Vargas to proclaim a dictatorship called the New State (Estado Nôvo) and to remain in power for another decade. The 1946 Constitution The 1946 Constitution replaced the New State’s dictatorship of Getúlio Vargas after he was overthrown by his war minister. A representative democracy was established and a new President, Eurico Gaspar Dutra, was elected for five years. A constituent assembly drafted a more balanced and liberal Constitution which re-established basic individual rights and the separation of powers. The document also maintained an important role of the state in the nation’s economy and reflected the influence of the U.S. Constitution with respect to federalism.

The 1967 -1969 Constitutions In the following years, the 1946 Constitution suffered many amendments through Institutional Acts which severely compromised the document’s spirit and eliminated its democratic character. It was replaced by a new constitution in 1967. This document was again changed through a constitutional reform in 1969. Both constitutions were characterized by centralized power in the executive, in particular in the President, as they sought to institutionalize the military regime. The presidential term of office was increased from four to five years, and the President was given more power to decree laws related to taxation, creation of public employment, and the determination of salaries for civil servants. Institutional acts were used by military leaders to remove opposition members from the Congress. The transition to the 1988 Constitution In the 1970s, the military regime faced popular uprisings and dissatisfaction as economic progress began to slow. The transition from authoritarian rule to democracy started in 1974 when President Ernesto Geisel and his Chief of Cabinet, General Golbery de Couto e Silva conducted a gradual process of political opening—or liberalization—which was characterized by small advances that limited the establishment of a full democracy.

The first important measure was the organization of free congressional elections in 1974. In 1982 the military allowed direct elections for state governors and gradually increased federal transfers to municipal governments. Additionally, a new law on political parties led to an opening of the political life. In 1985, the government approved the convocation of the National Constituent Assembly (Assembléia Nacional Constituinte--ANC) to draft a new constitution. For the 1988 Constitution drafting process, the 559-member Assembly adopted a "from scratch" participatory methodology and organized public hearings. After twenty months of deliberation, the ANC produced the 1988 “citizen constitution.” This text required each state to rewrite its constitution and each municipality to elaborate its Organic Law. Structure of Government under the 1988 Constitution as amended Under the current Constitution, Brazil is a presidential, federal republic. Through an amendment in 1996, municipalities were incorporated with states as part of the federation. Consequently, the country is composed of 26 states and the Federal District (Brasilia). The federal, state, and municipal governments have their own legislative, executive and judicial institutions.

The aim of the 1988 text was to give state and municipal governments administrative autonomy and responsibility for policy implementation, decentralizing the federal power. The executive branch The executive is headed by a President who is directly for a four year term. He or She is both head of the state and head of the government. Although all of Brazil's constitutions since 1891 prohibited consecutive presidential terms, a 1997 amendment changed this rule. A president now has no limit on number of terms but may not serve more than two terms consecutively. Of the 48,000 positions the Brazilian President has the power to appoint–including Ministers of State, military officers, and judges—only ambassadors, higher-court judges, the solicitor general, and Central Bank directors must have Senate approval. The legislative branch The federal legislative branch is bicameral, consisting of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. There are 513 federal deputies: 3 members from each state and federal district are elected to serve eight-year terms. One-third and two-thirds of members are alternately elected every four years. 81 senators are elected by proportional representation from each state and serve four-year terms.

The judicial branch The federal judiciary is composed of the Federal Supreme Court, the Superior Court of Justice, regional federal courts, labour courts, the Electoral court and the Military court. The Supreme Federal Court is the highest court and consists of 11 justices appointed by the president and approved by the Senate. The Court can declare federal, state, and municipal laws unconstitutional and therefore null. New constitutional developments and challenges In 2013, the Brazilian government faced a wide-spread national dissatisfaction, expressed in the country’s largest protests in 20 years on a range of issues. These included corruption accusations, the costs associated with hosting the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and the general high living costs. President Dilma Rousseff sought to overcome this situation, proposing to vote on amending Brazil's constitution by calling for a constitutional assembly to reform the political system.

Structure of Government Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–11, Part 2, Documents on South America, 1973–1976 - Office of the Historian Foreign Relations of the United States Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976, Volume E–11, Part 2, Documents on South America, 1973–1976 99. Memorandum From Director of Central Intelligence Colby to Secretary of State Kissinger 1 Washington, April 11, 1974. SUBJECT Decision by Brazilian President Ernesto Geisel To Continue the Summary Execution of Dangerous Subversives Under Certain Conditions 1. [1 paragraph (7 lines) not declassified] 2. On 30 March 1974, Brazilian President Ernesto Geisel met with General Milton Tavares de Souza (called General Milton) and General Confucio Danton de Paula Avelino, respectively the outgoing and incoming chiefs of the Army Intelligence Center (CIE).

Also present was General Joao Baptista Figueiredo, Chief of the Brazilian National Intelligence Service (SNI). 3. General Milton, who did most of the talking, outlined the work of the CIE against the internal subversive target during the administration of former President Emilio Garrastazu Médici. He emphasized that Brazil cannot ignore the subversive and terrorist threat, and he said that extra-legal methods should continue to be employed against dangerous subversives. In this regard, General Milton said that about 104 persons in this category had been summarily executed by the CIE during the past year or so. Figueiredo supported this policy and urged its continuance. 4. The President, who commented on the seriousness and potentially prejudicial aspects of this policy, said that he wanted to ponder the matter during the weekend before arriving at any decision on [Page 279] whether it should continue. On 1 April, President Geisel told General Figueiredo that the policy should continue, but that great care should be taken to make certain that only dangerous subversives were executed.

The President and General Figueiredo agreed that when the CIE apprehends a person who might fall into this category, the CIE chief will consult with General Figueiredo, whose approval must be given before the person is executed. The President and General Figueiredo also agreed that the CIE is to devote almost its entire effort to internal subversion, and that the overall CIE effort is to be coordinated by General Figueiredo. 5. [1 paragraph (12½ lines) not declassified] 6. A copy of this memorandum is being made available to the Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs. [1½ lines not declassified] No further distribution is being made. W.E. Colby Summary: Colby reported that President Geisel planned to continue Médici’s policy of using extra legal means against subversives but would limit executions to the most dangerous subversives and terrorists. Source: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of the Director of Central Intelligence, Job 80M01048A: Subject Files, Box 1, Folder 29: B–10: Brazil. Secret; [handling restriction not declassified]. According to a stamped notation, David H.

Blee signed for Colby. Drafted by Phillips, [names not declassified] on April 9. The line for the concurrence of the Deputy Director for Operations is blank. ↩ Financial Places 199,321,413 people History From 1889 to 1930, the government was a constitutional democracy, with the presidency alternating between the dominant states of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais. This period ended with a military coup that placed Getulio Vargas, a civilian, in the presidency; Vargas remained as dictator until 1945. From 1945 to 1961, Eurico Dutra, Vargas, Juscelino Kubitschek, and Janio Quadros were elected presidents. When Quadros resigned in 1961, he was succeeded by Vice President Joao Goulart. Goulart's years in office were marked by high inflation, economic stagnation, and the increasing influence of radical political elements. The armed forces, alarmed by these developments, staged a coup on March 31, 1964.

The coup leaders chose as president Humberto Castello Branco, followed by Arthur da Costa e Silva (1967-69), Emilio Garrastazu Medici (1968-74), and Ernesto Geisel (1974-79) all of whom were senior army officers. Geisel began a liberalization which was carried further by his successor, Gen. JoÆo Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo (1979-85). Figueiredo not only permitted the return of politicians exiled or banned from political activity during the 1960s and 1970s but also allowed them to run for state and federal offices in 1982. Brazil's history prior to becoming an independent country in 1822 is intertwined mainly with that of Portugal. Unlike the other viceroyalties of Latin America, which divided into twenty countries upon attaining independence, the Viceroyalty of Brazil became a single nation, with a single language transcending all diversities and regionalisms. Brazil is the only Portuguese-speaking Latin American country, and its Luso-Brazilian culture differs in subtle ways from the Hispanic heritage of most of its neighbors.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, millions of Italians, Germans, Arabs, Japanese, and other immigrants entered Brazil and in various ways altered the dominant social system. Their descendants, however, are nearly all Portuguese-speaking Brazilians. Except for a small indigenous Indian population, Brazilians are one people, with a single culture. Local Business & Service Providers

Question: Ernesto Geisel became President of which South American country in 1974?
Answer: Brazil