Carlos Lacerda (1914-1977) was a Brazilian writer, businessman and politician.
Brilliant orator and staunch opponent of Getúlio Vargas, he suffered an attack that precipitated the president's suicide.
He founded the newspaper "Tribuna da Imprensa" and the Editora Nova Fronteira.
Biography of Carlos Lacerda
Carlos Lacerda was born in Rio de Janeiro, but ended up being registered in the city of Vassouras, in the same state.
His family was involved in politics. His father, Maurício de Lacerda, was mayor of Vassouras on two occasions and leader of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB).
The paternal grandfather, Sebastião Lacerda, had been minister of the Supreme Federal Court and Minister of Transport in the government of Prudente de Moraes.
Carlos Lacerda studied Law at UFRJ, but became involved in politics at academic centers and did not complete the course.
At that time, he defended communist ideas and in 1934 he read the founding manifesto of the National Liberation Alliance (ALN).
This organization brought together PCB militants and people dissatisfied with the way the
Revolution of 30 was being conducted.Later, he would break with communist ideas and the party. He then became one of the voices against new state and attacked Getulio Vargas with his savage oratory.
With the resignation of Vargas in 1945 and the call for elections, he was elected a councilor. He later became a state deputy for the National Democratic Union (UDN).
In 1949, he founded the newspaper Tribuna da Imprensa, in Rio de Janeiro, dedicated to opposing Getúlio Vargas, who had announced his candidacy for the presidency.
With Vargas' victory, attacks on the government continued with more vigor and Lacerda began to receive death threats.
Tonelero Street attack
On August 5, 1954, Carlos Lacerda was attacked on Rua Tonelero, in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro.
Lacerda was accompanied by the Air Force major, Rubens Vaz, who was part of the group of voluntary security guards protecting the politician. The major died and Lacerda was grazed in the foot.
Dissatisfied with the Vargas regime, the Air Force carried out its own investigation into what was known as the República do Galeão.
Police, in turn, arrested suspects who confessed to acting on the orders of Gregório Fortunato, head of Vargas' personal guard.
Taking advantage of popular indignation, Lacerda continually wrote editorials in the Tribuna da Imprensa that demanded Vargas' resignation. With the ultimatum of the Armed Forces, Vargas prefers to commit suicide than to leave the Palácio do Catete.
However, Vargas' suicide causes a huge national commotion. Lacerda did not expect the population to turn against him and his newspaper is attacked.
He decides to leave the country and would only return during the inauguration of JK, who tried to prevent him from assuming the presidency with a failed coup d'état.
Lacerda then becomes one of the main critics of Brasilia construction.
Governor of the State of Guanabara
In 1960, with the transfer of the federal capital to Brasília, two states were created:
- the state of Guanabara, which corresponded to the former capital or the current city of Rio de Janeiro;
- the state of Rio de Janeiro, whose capital was the city of Niterói.
Carlos Lacerda is running for and winning elections for governor of the State of Guanabara. During his tenure, he carries out important urban remodeling works in the South Zone, such as the Rebouças tunnel, the Catacumba park and the Aterro do Flamengo.
Likewise, he built the State University of Guanabara (UEG), which would later become the UERJ, and the Guandu water and sewage treatment plant.
However, his government was marked by controversial actions such as the removal of favelas and the displacement of their inhabitants to remote areas without infrastructure in the city. These housing projects gave rise to Cidade de Deus and Vila Kennedy.
The military police were also accused of murdering beggars and throwing the bodies into the Guarda river, with the consent of the governor and the then secretary of Social Services, Sandra Cavalcanti.
Faced with the controversy, Lacerda fired the Secretary of Public Security, but the involvement of the corporation's directors was never proven.
Military dictatorship
A historical anti-communist, Carlos Lacerda was one of the civil articulators of the 1964 coup. He even gave a series of interviews in the United States defending the Armed Forces.
He declared that the Revolution of 64 had returned Brazil to normality and order. However, he would change his opinion two years later, when General Castelo Branco's mandate was extended and the Military Dictatorship in Brazil.
Thus, it brings together its former enemies, Juscelino Kubitschek and João Goulart, in the Frente Amplio that would bring together those discontented with the military.
Death
Due to the deaths of its main members, the Frente Amplio does not carry out its actions. Lacerda dies in 1977, in Rio de Janeiro, victim of a heart attack.
Curiosities
- Due to his opposition to the presidents who were in power, Lacerda became known as "The President's Daredevil."
- The owner of the newspaper A Última Hora, Samuel Weiner, Lacerda's opponent and competitor, asked cartoonist Lan to draw him as a crow. The design and nickname were used widely by Lacerda's opponents.
- Carlos Lacerda had his decorations restored, post-mortem, in 1987. It also gives its name to avenues, schools and streets because of its political and literary activities.
Sentences by Carlos Lacerda
- "Mr. Getúlio Vargas, senator, should not be a presidential candidate. Candidate, must not be elected. Elected must not take office. Inaugurated, we must resort to revolution to prevent him from governing."
- "The future is not what it fears. The future is what dares."
- “Impunity breeds the audacity of the bad.”
- "Anyone who wasn't a communist at the age of eighteen did not have a youth, whoever is after thirty has no sense."
- “The culmination of my public life was coming to power. Power is very good. It's no use wanting to cheat”.
- "I don't like politics... taste is the power. Politics for me is a means to power.”
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