O second Vargas government was marked by a serious political crisis, and the Tonelero Street attack it ended up being one of the reasons that caused the suicide of Getúlio Vargas, in August 1954. After being removed from the post of president in 1945, Getúlio Vargas returned victorious to the presidency, after winning the 1950 elections by PTB, with 48.7% of the votes against the candidates of the opposing parties: Eduardo Gomes, from UDN, and Cristiano Machado, from PSD. The UDN tried to block Vargas's inauguration after the election results, but was unsuccessful.
Vargas government crisis
After assuming the role of president in 1951, Vargas found strong opposition in all the projects he proposed. In addition, there was also strong popular pressure, mainly due to rising inflation, which eroded workers' wages. A third group of relevance in this period was the Army, which often acted with the UDN in opposition to Vargas. The president, in turn, tried to reconcile the interests of all groups in order to remain in office and prevent a possible political coup.
Getúlio Vargas defended the industrialization Brazil and the distancing of foreign investments, mainly in essential areas, such as steel, electric energy production and oil exploration. It proposed the creation of national companies in the areas of electricity and oil production - Eletrobras and Petrobras – and was widely criticized for this by the opposition, which accused him of wanting to take Brazil on the path of communism.
He appointed João Goulart as Minister of Labor, who proposed an increase in the minimum wage by 100% - decreed by Vargas on May 1st – and infuriated the opposition and the army, who did not agree with the salary increase of the worker. The dissatisfaction of the elites was evident because "many employers refused to comply with the wage decree, even though it was legitimized by the Federal Supreme Court"|1|.
Tonelero Street attack
The crisis in the government of Getúlio Vargas became unsustainable when a attemptinmurder against Carloslacerda, the main opposition name and owner of the newspaper Tribuna da Imprensa, which Lacerda used to publish denunciations – many of them false – against Vargas. O outrage took place on August 5, 1954, in Tonelero Street, where Carlos Lacerda was wounded and his bodyguard was gunned down. The investigations concluded that the attack was organized by Gregory Fortunato, head of security at the Palácio do Catete and Getúlio Vargas.
The opposition used the failed attack to accuse Vargas of an assassination attempt, although it did not there was proof of Vargas' direct participation, and he started to request the immediate resignation of the president. Politically isolated, Getúlio Vargas committed suicide in his room at the Palácio do Catete, on August 24, 1954.
|1| SKIDMORE, Thomas E. A History of Brazil. Rio de Janeiro: Paz e Terra, 1998, p. 192.
* Image credits: commons
By Daniel Neves
Graduated in History
