List of presidents of Brazil

Below is a list of presidents of Brazil.

The Old Republic (1889–1930)

In 1889 the Empire of Brazil was abolished and replaced with a republic in a coup d'état led by Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, who deposed Brazilian Emperor Dom Pedro II, proclaimed Brazil a Republic and formed a Provisional Government. The 15 November 1889 military coup actually began as an attempt to overthrow the Empire's Prime Minister, Afonso Celso, Viscount of Ouro Preto, but the unprecedented coup against a Prime Minister appointed by the Emperor and who enjoyed the confidence of the elected Chamber of Deputies quickly escalated to the abolition of the monarchy. With the proclamation of the Brazilian Republic, the Empire's Constitution ceased to operate, the Imperial Parliament (the General Assembly) ceased to exist, and not only was the Viscount of Ouro Preto removed from office, but the position of Prime Minister itself ceased to exist. As head of the provisional government, Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca ruled by decree, discharging both the functions of head of state and of head of government. The former provinces of the Empire were reorganized as states and the newly proclaimed republic was declared a federation, formed by the perpetual union of those states.

In 1890, elections for a Constituent Congress were summoned and held, but the decree of the Provisional Government that created the Congress required it to adopt a Constitution that conformed to the recently proclaimed republican system of Government, and that organized the recently declared Federal State. In February 1891, a new Brazilian Constitution was adopted, based on the federal republic of the United States of America. The country itself was named the Republic of the United States of Brazil. In accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, the presidents of the Republic were to be elected by direct popular ballot, but, for the first presidential term, the President and Vice President would be chosen by the Constituent Congress; the Constituent Congress was to elect the first President and Vice President immediately after the promulgation of the Constitution. In accordance with those transitional provisions, Congress elected the then Head of the Provisional Government, Deodoro da Fonseca, as the first President of the Republic. Marshal Floriano Peixoto, was elected by Congress to be the first Vice President. The inauguration of the first President and of the first Vice President was held on 26 February 1891, only two days after the promulgation of the Constitution. Deodoro resigned the presidency ten months later after a coup d'état in which he dissolved Congress was reversed. Then, Floriano Peixoto, Deodoro's Vice President, was inaugurated as President. In 1894, Peixoto was succeeded by Prudente de Morais, the first President of Brazil to be elected by direct popular ballot. De Morais, who was the first president to be elected under the permanent provisions of the Constitution adopted in 1891, was also the first civilian to assume the presidency.

Although it was theoretically a constitutional democracy, the Old Republic was characterized by the power of regional oligarchies and the seldom broken alternation of power in the federal sphere between the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais. The vote in the countryside was often controlled by the local land owner, and less than 6% of the population had the right to vote due to literacy requirements.

In 1930, when Brazil was suffering the effects of the Wall Street Crash of 1929, a revolution broke out in the country and the old republic ended. President Washington Luís, who was supported by São Paulo oligarchies, broke the expected alternation between São Paulo and Minas and supported a candidate who was also from São Paulo, Júlio Prestes. Prestes won the rigged election, but Washington Luís was deposed three weeks before the end of his term and Prestes was never inaugurated.

Parties

None (military) Federal Republican Party São Paulo Republican Party Republican Party of Minas Gerais Rio de Janeiro Republican Party Conservative Republican Party Barreiros' Republican Party Republican Party of Bahia

No.	President (birth–death)	Elected	Took office	Left office	Political party	Vice President(s)		Previous public office	Birthplace
1	Deodoro da Fonseca (1827–1892)	1891	Head of the Provisional Government from 15 November 1889 26 February 1891[lower-alpha 1]	23 November 1891[lower-alpha 2]	None (military)		Floriano Peixoto	President of the São Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul Province	Cidade das Alagoas, Alagoas
2	Floriano Peixoto (1839–1895)	—	23 November 1891	14 November 1894[lower-alpha 3]	None (military)	Vacant		Vice President	Maceió, Alagoas
3	Prudente de Morais (1841–1902)	1894	15 November 1894	14 November 1898	Federal Republican Party (PR Fed)		Manuel Vitorino (PR Fed)	President of the Federal Senate Senator for São Paulo Formerly, President of the Constituent Congress	Itu, São Paulo
4	Campos Sales (1841–1913)	1898	15 November 1898	14 November 1902	São Paulo Republican Party (PRP)		Rosa e Silva (PR Fed)	Governor of São Paulo	Campinas, São Paulo
5	Rodrigues Alves (1848–1919)	1902	15 November 1902	14 November 1906	São Paulo Republican Party (PRP)		Silviano Brandão[lower-alpha 4] (PRM)	Governor of São Paulo	Guaratinguetá, São Paulo
5	Rodrigues Alves (1848–1919)	1902	15 November 1902	14 November 1906	São Paulo Republican Party (PRP)		Afonso Pena[lower-alpha 5] (PRM)	Governor of São Paulo	Guaratinguetá, São Paulo
6	Afonso Pena (1847–1909)	1906	15 November 1906	14 June 1909[lower-alpha 6]	Mineiro Republican Party (PRM)		Nilo Peçanha (PRF)	Vice President	Santa Bárbara, Minas Gerais
7	Nilo Peçanha (1867–1924)	—	14 June 1909	14 November 1910	Rio Republican Party (PRF)	Vacant		Vice President	Campos, Rio de Janeiro
8	Hermes da Fonseca (1855–1923)	1910	15 November 1910	14 November 1914	Conservative Republican Party (PRC)		Venceslau Brás (PRM)	Minister of the Superior Military Court	São Gabriel, Rio Grande do Sul
9	Venceslau Brás (1868–1966)	1914	15 November 1914	14 November 1918	Mineiro Republican Party (PRM)		Urbano Santos (PRM)	Vice President	Brasópolis, Minas Gerais
—	Rodrigues Alves (1848–1919)	1918	Never took office.[lower-alpha 7]		São Paulo Republican Party (PRP)		Delfim Moreira (PRM)	Senator for São Paulo and former President of the Republic	Guaratinguetá, São Paulo
10	Delfim Moreira (1868–1920)	—	Acting President from 15 November 1918 16 January 1919	28 July 1919[lower-alpha 8]	Mineiro Republican Party (PRM)	Vacant		Vice President	Cristina, Minas Gerais
11	Epitácio Pessoa (1865–1942)	1919	28 July 1919[lower-alpha 9]	14 November 1922	Mineiro Republican Party (PRM)		Delfim Moreira (PRM)	Senator for Paraíba	Umbuzeiro, Paraíba
11	Epitácio Pessoa (1865–1942)	1919	28 July 1919[lower-alpha 9]	14 November 1922	Mineiro Republican Party (PRM)		Bueno de Paiva[lower-alpha 10] (PRM)	Senator for Paraíba	Umbuzeiro, Paraíba
12	Arthur Bernardes (1875–1955)	1922	15 November 1922	14 November 1926	Mineiro Republican Party (PRM)		Estácio Coimbra (PRB)	Governor of Minas Gerais	Viçosa, Minas Gerais
13	Washington Luís (1869–1957)	1926	15 November 1926	24 October 1930[lower-alpha 11]	São Paulo Republican Party (PRP)		Fernando de Melo Viana (PRM)	Senator for São Paulo	Macaé, Rio de Janeiro
—	Júlio Prestes (1882–1946)	1930	Never took office.[lower-alpha 12]		São Paulo Republican Party (PRP)		Vital Soares (PRB)	Governor of São Paulo	Itapetininga, São Paulo

The Vargas Era (1930–1946)

The Vargas Era consists of two different republics: the Second Republic from 1930 to 1937 and the Third Republic from 1937 to 1946.

Party

Liberal Alliance (until 1937)

No.	President (birth–death)	Elected	Took office	Left office	Political party	Vice President(s)	Previous public office	Birthplace
—	1) Tasso Fragoso 2) Isaías de Noronha 3) Mena Barreto	—	24 October 1930	3 November 1930	None (provisional military junta)	Vacant	1) General of the Brazilian Army 2) Admiral of the Brazilian Navy 3) Divisional General of the Brazilian Army	1) São Luís, Maranhão 2) Rio de Janeiro 3) Porto Alegre
14	Getúlio Vargas (1882–1954)	1934	Head of the Provisional Government from 3 November 1930 20 July 1934[lower-alpha 13]	29 October 1945[lower-alpha 14]	None	Vacant[lower-alpha 15]	Governor of Rio Grande do Sul	São Borja, Rio Grande do Sul
15	José Linhares (1886–1957)	—	29 October 1945	30 January 1946	None[lower-alpha 16]	Vacant	President of the Supreme Federal Court	Baturité, Ceará

The Republic of 46 (1946–1964)

In 1945, Vargas was deposed by a military coup led by ex-supporters. Nevertheless, he would be elected president once again and his influence in Brazilian politics would remain until the end of the Fourth republic. In this period, three parties dominated the national politics. Two were pro-Vargas – in the left, PTB and in the center-right, PSD – and another anti-Vargas, the rightist UDN.

This period was very unstable. In 1954, Vargas committed suicide during a crisis that threatened his government andminor party allied to UDN. Quadros, who, before his election, rose meteorically in politics with an anti-corruption stance, unexpectedly resigned the presidency seven months later. Some historians suggest that Quadros was heavily drunk when he signed his resignation letter, while others suggest that Quadros felt that Congress would not accept his vice-president as president, and would ask for his return. Those historians, therefore, see Quadros' resignation as an attempt to return to office with increased powers and more political support. It is possible that bath od: Quadros was drunk when he resigned, and in that state, he devised the plan to return to power by Congressional request. The plot failed: Congress simply received Quadros' letter, and amid the shock of politicians and of the Nation, the letter was entered into the records of Congress and the presidency was declared vacant. The president of Congess, Senator Auro de Moura Andrade, took the view that the deed of resignation as the province of the elected president, that it was not subject to a congressional vote, needing no confirmation, and that the predent's declaration of resignation was final.

In that time, the President and Vice President of Brazil were voted in office separately. The Vice President was a political enemy of Jânio Quadros, the leftist João Goulart. Goulart was out of the country, and Congress was controlled by right wing politicians. During Goulart's absence, the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Ranieri Mazzilli, took office as Acting President of Brazil. The was then a plot to block the inauguration of the Vice President as President, but Congressional resistance to the inauguration of Goulart led to a reaction by the Governor of Rio Grande do Sul, who led a "legaly campaign",to a split in the military (that, during the fourth Republic, intervened heavily in politics). Amid the political crisis, the solution was the adoption by Congress of a Constitutional Amendment abolishing the preial executive and replacing it with a parlitary system of government. Under that negotiated solution, Goulart's inauguration was allowed to proceed, but Goulart would be Head of State only, and a prime ministpproved by Congress would lead the government. The new system of government's continued existence was subject to popular approval in a referendum scheduled for 1963. The result of this referendum restored the presidential executive and a military coup deposed Goulart in 1964, starting the military dictatorship.

Parties

Social Democratic Party Brazilian Labour Party Social Progressive Party National Labor Party

No.	President (birth–death)	Elected	Took office	Left office	Political party	Vice President(s)		Previous public office	Birthplace
16	Eurico Gaspar Dutra (1883–1974)	1945	31 January 1946	30 January 1951	Social Democratic Party (PSD)	Vacant		Minister of War	Cuiabá, Mato Grosso
16	Eurico Gaspar Dutra (1883–1974)	1945	31 January 1946	30 January 1951	Social Democratic Party (PSD)		Nereu Ramos[lower-alpha 17] (PSD)	Minister of War	Cuiabá, Mato Grosso
17	Getúlio Vargas (1882–1954)	1950	31 January 1951	24 August 1954[lower-alpha 18]	Brazilian Labour Party (PTB)		Café Filho (PSP)	Senator for Rio Grande do Sul and former President of the Republic	São Borja, Rio Grande do Sul
18	João Café Filho (1899–1970)	—	Acting President from 24 August 1954 3 September 1954[lower-alpha 19]	Under self-declared incapacity from 8 November 1955 and barred from resuming the powers of the presidency from 22 November 1955[lower-alpha 20] 30 January 1956	Social Progressive Party (PSP)	Vacant		Vice President	Natal, Rio Grande do Norte
19	Carlos Luz (1894–1961) Acting President for Café Filho	—	8 November 1955	11 November 1955	Social Democratic Party (PSD)	Vacant		President of the Chamber of Deputies Federal Deputy for Minas Gerais	Três Corações, Minas Gerais
20	Nereu Ramos (1888–1958) Acting President[lower-alpha 21]	—	11 November 1955	30 January 1956	Social Democratic Party (PSD)	Vacant		Vice President of the Federal Senate Senator for Santa Catarina	Lages, Santa Catarina
21	Juscelino Kubitschek (1902–1976)	1955	31 January 1956	30 January 1961	Social Democratic Party (PSD)		João Goulart (PTB)	Governor of Minas Gerais	Diamantina, Minas Gerais
22	Jânio Quadros (1917–1992)	1960	31 January 1961	25 August 1961[lower-alpha 22]	National Labor Party (PTN)		João Goulart (PTB)	Governor of São Paulo	Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul[lower-alpha 23]
23	Ranieri Mazzilli (1910–1975) Acting President[lower-alpha 24]	—	25 August 1961	7 September 1961	Social Democratic Party (PSD)	Vacant		President of the Chamber of Deputies Federal Deputy for São Paulo	Caconde, São Paulo
24	João Goulart (1918–1976)	—	7 September 1961[lower-alpha 25]	1 April 1964[lower-alpha 26]	Brazilian Labour Party (PTB)	Vacant		Vice President	São Borja, Rio Grande do Sul

Military Regime (1964–1985)

Social Democratic Party (abolished in 1965)

Parties abolished, except for two parties:

National Renewal Alliance (later Democratic Social Party) Brazilian Democratic Movement

No.	President (birth–death)	Elected	Took office	Left office	Political party	Vice President(s)		Previous public office	Birthplace
25	Ranieri Mazzilli (1910–1975) Acting President[lower-alpha 27]	—	2 April 1964	14 April 1964	Social Democratic Party (PSD)	Vacant		President of the Chamber of Deputies Federal Deputy for São Paulo	Caconde, São Paulo
26	Humberto Castelo Branco (1897–1967)	1964	15 April 1964	14 March 1967	National Renewal Alliance (ARENA) (military)		José Maria Alkmin (PSD • ARENA)[lower-alpha 28]	Chief of the General Staff of the Brazilian Army	Fortaleza, Ceará
27	Artur da Costa e Silva (1899–1969)	1966	15 March 1967	31 August 1969 Suspended due to ill health 14 October 1969 Removed[lower-alpha 29]	National Renewal Alliance (ARENA) (military)		Pedro Aleixo (ARENA)	Minister of War	Taquari, Rio Grande do Sul
—	Pedro Aleixo[1] (1901–1975)	—	Never took office.[lower-alpha 30]		National Renewal Alliance (ARENA)	Vacant		Vice President	Mariana, Minas Gerais
—	1) Augusto Rademaker 2) Aurélio de Lira Tavares 3) Márcio Melo	—	31 August 1969	30 October 1969	None (military junta)	Vacant		1) Admiral of the Fleet, Minister of the Brazilian Navy 2) General of the Army, Minister of the Brazilian Army 3) Air Brigadier, Minister of the Brazilian Air Force	1) Rio de Janeiro 2) João Pessoa 3) Florianópolis
28	Emílio Garrastazu Médici (1905–1985)	1969	30 October 1969	14 March 1974	National Renewal Alliance (ARENA) (military)		Augusto Rademaker (ARENA) (military)	Commander of the Third Army[lower-alpha 31]	Bagé, Rio Grande do Sul
29	Ernesto Geisel (1907–1996)	1974	15 March 1974	14 March 1979	National Renewal Alliance (ARENA) (military)		Adalberto Pereira dos Santos (ARENA) (military)	President of Petrobras	Bento Gonçalves, Rio Grande do Sul
30	João Figueiredo (1918–1999)	1978	15 March 1979	14 March 1985	Democratic Social Party (PDS) (military)		Aureliano Chaves (PDS)	Head of the National Intelligence Service	Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro

The New Republic (1985–present)

Brazilian Presidential Standard

In the early 1980s the military government started a process of gradual political opening, called abertura, the final goal of which was democracy. When the term of the last military president was to end, however, no direct elections for President of Brazil took place. For the election of the country's first civilian president since the military coup of 1964, the military maintained the rule that prevailed during the dictatorial regime, according to which an Electoral College made up of the entire National Congress and Representatives from State Assemblies was to elect the President. This time, however, the military placed the Electoral College under no coercion, so that its members would be free to select the President of their choice. The Chamber of Deputies and the State Assemblies had been elected, already under the abertura process in the 1982 parliamentary election, but the Senators were chosen indirectly, by the State Assemblies, under rules that had been passed by the Military Regime in 1977 to counter the growing support of the opposition: one third of the Senators was chosen in 1982, and two thirds had been chosen in 1978. After the 1982 elections, the ruling party, PDS (the successor of the ARENA), still controlled a majority of the seats in the National Congress.

Tancredo Neves, who had been Prime Minister during the presidency of João Goulart, was chosen to be the candidate of PMDB, the major opposition party (and the successor of the MDB Party, that had opposed the Military Regime since its inception), but Tancredo was also supported by a large political spectrum, even including a significant part of former members of ARENA, the party that supported the military presidents. In the last months of the military regime, a large section of ARENA members defected from the Party, and now professed to be men of democratic inclinations. They formed the Liberal Front, and the Liberal Front Party allied itself to PMDB, forming a coalition known as the Democratic Alliance. PMDB needed the Liberal Front's support in order to secure victory in the Electoral College. In the formation of this broad coalition former members of ARENA also switched parties and joined PMDB. So, to seal this arrangement, the spot of vice-president in Tancredo Neves' ticket was given to José Sarney, who represented the former supporters of the regime that had now joined the Democratic Alliance. On the other hand, those who remained loyal to the military regime and its legacy renamed ARENA as the PDS. In the PDS's National Convention, two right-wing supporters of the military administrations fought for the Party's nomination: Colonel Mário Andreazza, then Minister of the Interior in General Figueiredo's administration, was the preferred candidate of the incumbent President and of the military elite, but he was defeated by Paulo Maluf, a civilian and former Governor of São Paulo State during the military regime. Tancredo's coalition defeated Maluf, and his election was hailed as the dawn of a New Republic. Andreazza's defeat (by 493 votes to 350) and the selection of Maluf as the PDS's presidential candidate greatly contributed to the split in the Party that led to the formation of the Liberal Front. The Liberal Front refused to support Maluf and joined forces with the PMDB in supporting Tancredo Neves, thus forging the Democratic Alliance. Without that split in the PDS, the election of the opposition candidate would not have been possible.

Although elected President of Brazil, Tancredo Neves became gravely ill on the eve of his inauguration and died without ever taking office. Therefore, the first civilian president since 1964 was Tancredo's running mate, José Sarney, himself an ex-member of ARENA. José Sarney's administration fulfilled Tancredo's campaign promise of passing a constitutional amendment to the Constitution inherited from the military regime, so as to summon elections for a National Constituent Assembly with full powers to draft and adopt a new Constitution for the country, to replace the authoritarian legislation that still remained in place. In October 1988, a new democratic Constitution was passed and democracy was consolidated. In 1989, the first elections for President under the new Constitution were held and the young Fernando Collor de Mello was elected for a five-year term, the first President to be elected by direct popular ballot since the military coup. He was inaugurated in 1990 and in 1992 he became the first President in Brazil to be impeached due to corruption. He however resigned before the final verdict.

A referendum held in 1993 (ahead of the 1993 and 1994 Constitutional Revision) allowed the people to decide the form of government of the state (monarchy or republic) for the first time since the proclamation of the Republic in 1889; the republican form of government prevailed. In the same referendum, the Brazilian people was able to choose again, for the first time since 1963, the system of Government (parliamentary or presidential) and the model of a presidential executive was retained. The revision was a unique opportunity to amend the Constitution with a reduced majority. Had a different form or system of government been chosen in the 1993 referendum, the new institutional structure would have been implemented during the Constitutional Revision. Both the Revision and the referendum on the form and system of government were summoned in the original text of the Constitution. The federal model of the state, retained in the 1988 Constitution, is declared by the Constitution as not subject to abolition, even by Constitutional Amendment. According to those tenets and to the results of the popular vote, only minor changes were made to the institutional framework of the State in the Constitutional Revision, including the adoption of a Constitutional Amendment that reduced the presidential term of office from five to four years.

In 1995, Fernando Henrique Cardoso was inaugurated for a four-year term. In 1997 a Constitutional Amendment was passed allowing presidents of Brazil to be reelected to one consecutive term. In 1998, then President Fernando Henrique Cardoso became first president of Brazil to be reelected for an immediately consecutive term. In 2003 Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was inaugurated. He was reelected in 2006. In 2011 Dilma Rousseff became Brazil's first woman president. In 2015, she took office, but in 2016 the Senate of Brazil convicted her on impeachment charges, and she was removed from office, being succeeded by Michel Temer.

Parties

Brazilian Democratic Movement Party of the National Reconstruction
Brazilian Social Democracy Party Liberal Front Party Workers' Party Brazilian Republican Party Social Liberal Party Brazilian Labour Renewal Party

No.	President (birth–death)	Elected	Took office	Left office	Political party	Vice President(s)		Previous public office	Birthplace
—	Tancredo Neves (1910–1985)	1985	Never took office.[lower-alpha 32]		Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB)		José Sarney (PMDB)	Governor of Minas Gerais	São João del Rey, Minas Gerais
31	José Sarney (1930–)	—	Acting President from 15 March 1985 21 April 1985	14 March 1990	Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB)	Vacant		Vice President	Pinheiro, Maranhão
32	Fernando Collor de Mello (1949–)	1989	15 March 1990	Powers and duties suspended from 2 October 1992 29 December 1992[lower-alpha 33]	Party of the National Reconstruction (PRN)		Itamar Franco (PRN • PMDB)[lower-alpha 34]	Governor of Alagoas	Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro
33	Itamar Franco (1930–2011)	—	Acting President from 2 October 1992 29 December 1992	31 December 1994	Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB)[lower-alpha 34]	Vacant		Vice President	Brazilian territorial waters, Atlantic Ocean[lower-alpha 35]
34	Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1931–)	1994 1998	1 January 1995	31 December 2002	Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB)		Marco Maciel (PFL)	Minister of Finance	Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro
35	Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (1945–)	2002 2006	1 January 2003	31 December 2010	Workers' Party (PT)		José Alencar (PRB)	Federal Deputy from São Paulo (1987–1991)	Caetés, Pernambuco
36	Dilma Rousseff (1947–)	2010 2014	1 January 2011	Powers and duties suspended from 12 May 2016 31 August 2016[lower-alpha 36]	Workers' Party (PT)		Michel Temer (PMDB)	Minister Chief of Staff of the Presidency of the Republic	Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais
37	Michel Temer (1940–)	—	Acting President from 12 May 2016 31 August 2016	31 December 2018	Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB)[lower-alpha 37]	Vacant		Vice President	Tietê, São Paulo
38	Jair Bolsonaro (1955–)	2018	1 January 2019	Incumbent	Social Liberal Party (PSL) (until 2019) Independent[lower-alpha 38] (from 2019)		Hamilton Mourão (PRTB)	Federal Deputy from Rio de Janeiro	Glicério, São Paulo

Living former presidents

As of 21 June 2020, there are six living former presidents and one incumbent president. The most recent death of a former president was that of Itamar Franco (1992–95), on 2 July 2011.

Living former presidents
José Sarney,
served 1985–1990
(1930-04-24) 24 April 1930
Fernando Collor de Mello,
served 1990–1992
(1949-08-12) 12 August 1949
Fernando Henrique Cardoso,
served 1995–2002
(1931-06-18) 18 June 1931
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva,
served 2003–2010
(1945-10-27) 27 October 1945
Dilma Rousseff,
served 2011–2016
(1947-12-14) 14 December 1947
Michel Temer,
served 2016–2018
(1940-09-23) 23 September 1940

Timeline

Notes

In a military coup d'état on 15 November 1889, Marshal of the Army Deodoro da Fonseca overthrew the government of the Empire of Brazil, led by Prime Minister the Viscount of Ouro Preto. The unprecedented military coup against a prime minister appointed by the emperor and who enjoyed the confidence of the Chamber of Deputies quickly escalated to the proclamation of the republic on that same date; thus, Emperor Pedro II of Brazil was deposed by Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca and the monarchy was declared abolished. The constitution then in force ceased to operate, and the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state, was replaced with a federal republic, each province of the empire becoming a state. Until the organization of the republic's constitutional order, however, the central Government appointed the governments of the several States. The imperial Parliament (the General Assembly) was dissolved, and Deodoro formed a provisional government. Deodoro as head of the provisional government could appoint and dismiss the other members of that government, and discharged by decree absolute legislative and executive powers. The provisional government was in effect a dictatorship, and remaining monarchist sentiment in society was repressed, as the government and the army were committed to the consolidation of the recently declared republic. The imperial family and their descendants were banished from the country by decree of the provisional government, and the dynasty's exile was only revoked in 1920. On 15 January 1890 Deodoro, as head of the Provisional Government, assumed for himself the unique military rank of Generalissimo of Land and Sea. In 1890 elections for a constituent congress were held, but the congress (made up of a senate with equal representation of the newly declared states and of a Chamber of Deputies with delegations proportional to the size of the population of each State) was required to adopt a constitution that conformed to the republican system of government and to the federal model of state. Congress assembled in November 1890 and a draft constitution, prepared by a committee of republican jurists and politicians appointed by the Provisional Government, was submitted to Congress by the head of the provisional government, and formed the basis for the congressional deliberations. The Constitution was promulgated by Congress on 24 February 1891. It confirmed the abolition of the parliamentary system of government and created a presidential Executive, widely based on the model of the United States of America. Presidents and vice-presidents were to be elected for 4 years, without the possibility of re-election, by direct popular ballot, but for the first presidential term, Congress was to conduct the election immediately after the adoption of the constitution. Subsequent presidents were to be elected on 1 March and inaugurated on 15 November, starting in the year 1894. Accordingly, under those transitional rules, on 25 February 1891, the day after the adoption of the constitution, Congress voted for president and vice-president, and the then head of the provisional government, Generalissimo Deodoro da Fonseca, was elected to become the nation's first President. The voting for vice-president took place immediately after the counting of the votes for President, and Marshal Floriano Peixoto was chosen by Congress to be the first vice-president. The swearing in of Deodoro da Fonseca and Floriano Peixoto as president and vice-president, respectively, took place on the following day, 26 February 1891, and that inauguration marked the termination of the Provisional Government.
In a coup d'état on 3 November 1891, President Deodoro da Fonseca shut down the National Congress and ruled by decree for a few weeks, attempting to suspend the Constitution and to establish a dictatorial regime in the fashion of the Spanish American caudillos. There was a reaction by the Brazilian Navy against Deodoro's coup (the First Revolt of the Armada) and Deodoro was forced to resign the presidency. Deodoro was effectively deposed by the forces loyal to the Constitution in a counter-coup d'état, but because he yielded to the demands of the Navy and agreed to resign the presidency, neither the constitutional impeachment process nor a formal overthrow without impeachment (that would also have been a violation of the Constitution, this time by the counter-coup forces) took place, and instead Deodoro's removal from office was formalized as a simple resignation. Many officers in the Brazilian Navy were still monarchists, opposed Deodoro, and only reluctantly accepted the newly created Republic, but were unwilling to see it be transformed from a constitutional state into a dictatorship. Upon Deodoro's resignation on 23 November 1891, Vice-President Floriano Peixoto succeeded to the presidency and reversed Deodoro's coup. The constitutional legal order was restored, Deodoro's dissolution of Congress was deemed null and void, and Deodoro's other acts since the coup were similarly declared invalid.
Marshal of the Army Floriano Peixoto, Deodoro's Vice-President, succeeded to the Presidency upon President Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca's resignation. The Constitution then in force stipulated that, whenever the Presidency became vacant during the first half of presidential term, new elections should be summoned at once, and the Vice-President should serve as President only until the inauguration of a new elected President. Deodoro had resigned during the first half of his presidential term (he had been sworn-in as President on 26 February 1891 to serve until 15 November 1894 and had resigned the office on 23 November 1891), but the new President, Floriano Peixoto, refused to summon new elections, arguing that the constitutional provision requiring new elections should only apply if the Presidency had been vacated during the first half of the presidential term by a President elected by direct popular ballot under the permanent provisions of the Constitution. Floriano held that, because Deodoro and himself had been respectively elected President and Vice-President by the Constituent Congress under the transitional provisions of the Constitution, and because the Constitution directed that the first elections by direct popular ballot should be held on 1 March 1894 to choose the President that would be inaugurated on 15 November 1894 for the first regular four year term, no elections needed to take place in the wake of Deodoro's resignation, neither by Congress, nor by direct popular ballot. Accordingly, Floriano Peixoto continued to serve as president for the remainder of the first presidential term, that is, until 15 November 1894. Because his interpretation of the Constitution was disputed by several political forces and his manner was regarded as also dictatorial, Floriano faced many revolts (including the Second Revolt of the Armada, that the Administration managed to defeat), and Floriano governed under state of siege, with the right of habeas corpus and several other constitutional rights suspended (in accordance with the emergency provisions of the Constitution), for most of his time in office. Floriano also took advantage of the emergency powers of the state of siege to further suppress remaining pockets of Monarchist sentiment in society and in Brazil's political life, and for this reason he has been dubbed the "consolidator of the Republic". In 1894 he was succeeded by Prudente de Morais, the first President to be elected by direct popular ballot under the permanent provisions of the Constitution and also the first civilian to hold office as President of Brazil.
Vice-President elect Silviano Brandão died on 25 September 1902, before his inauguration. Accordingly, on inauguration day, 15 November 1902, President Rodrigues Alves took office alone, and the Vice-Presidency was declared vacant. As per the constitutional norms then in force, a special election was then summoned to choose a new Vice-President to serve the remainder of the four-year term.
The special election for Vice-President, summoned to fill the vacancy provoked by the death of Vice-President elect Silviano Brandão, was held on 18 March 1903. Afonso Pena was elected to the Vice-Presidency, and took office on 23 June 1903.
President Afonso Pena, elected to serve the 1906–1910 presidential term, died in office on 14 June 1909. Upon Afonso Pena's death, Vice-President Nilo Peçanha became President and served during the remainder of the presidential term.
Rodrigues Alves, who had been the 5th President of Brazil (1902–1906), was elected to serve as the 10th President in 1918 but fell ill with the Spanish Flu before his inauguration, so that he was not able to attend it. His running-mate, Delfim Moreira took office as vice-president and became acting president. Rodrigues Alves never took the oath of office before Congress to become the 10th President, as he did not recover from his illness and died. Delfim Moreira succeeded to the Presidency upon the President-elect's death in January 1919.
Vice-President Delfim Moreira succeeded to the Presidency upon the death of President-elect Rodrigues Alves, but, in accordance with the constitutional provisions then in force, since the vacancy of the presidency occurred in the first half of the four-year presidential term, new elections were summoned and Delfim Moreira served only until an elected President was chosen and inaugurated to finish the 1918–1922 presidential term.
Rodrigues Alves died on 16 January 1919. The extraordinary election summoned in accordance with the Constitution was held on 13 April 1919. Elected to finish the remainder of the 1918–1922 presidential term, Epitácio Pessoa took office on 28 July 1919. Upon the inauguration of President Epitácio Pessoa, Delfim Moreira ceased to be President, and returned to the office of Vice-President.
Vice-President Delfim Moreira died on 1 July 1920. After his death, the Vice-Presidency remained vacant until a new Vice-President was elected and inaugurated. Bueno de Paiva took office as Vice-President on 11 November 1920 to complete the remainder of the 1918–1922 term of office.
President Washington Luís was deposed by the 1930 Revolution, marking the end of the Old Republic era. The Revolution broke out on 3 October 1930, and, after battles between revolutionary and government forces far from the Capital, a military faction in the Capital sided with the revolutionaries and deposed the President on 24 October 1930. Upon Washington Luís' overthrow, a provisional military junta seized power; days later, on 3 November 1930, that military triumvirate would cede full authority to Getúlio Vargas, the leader of the revolutionary movement, who declared the 1891 Constitution abolished, dissolved Congress and formed a Provisional Government, promising the creation of a new constitutional order.
Júlio Prestes, elected on 1 March 1930, never took office due to the 1930 coup that deposed his predecessor Washington Luís.
Getúlio Vargas governed by decree from 3 November 1930 to 20 July 1934, as Head of the Provisional Government, with absolute powers. On 9 July 1932 a revolution broke out in the State of São Paulo, demanding the restoration of Constitutional Government. The revolution was defeated by the Government, but it led to Vargas finally making good on his promise to summon a Constituent Assembly. The 1933-1934 Constituent Assembly promulgated Brazil's new Constitution on 16 July 1934, and, under the Constitution's transitional provisions, the first President was to be elected by the Assembly, and subsequent presidents were to be elected by direct popular ballot. In accordance with those rules, on 17 July 1934 the Constituent Assembly voted for President and Vargas won the election. Accordingly, Vargas, who until then was Head of the Provisional Government, was sworn-in as President of the Republic on 20 July 1934, for a term of office that would last until the inauguration of a successor on 3 May 1938. However, on 10 November 1937, Vargas led a coup d'état and proclaimed the Estado Novo dictatorship, imposing a new Constitution that allowed him to rule by decree. Both the referendum provided in the 1937 Constitution that would have confirmed the adoption of the new constitutional legislation, and the elections provided in the 1937 Constitution were never held, under the pretext of a state of emergency. Accordingly, Vargas effectively extended his term of office indefinitely. State Governors were replaced by Federal Interventors appointed by the President of the Republic, and the Legislative chambers in both Federal and State level were dissolved. The new Legislative bodies created by the 1937 Constitution were never elected, due to the state of emergency that lasted until the end of the regime, and accordingly, during that whole period (1937-1945) the President of the Republic and the Interventors appointed to the several States discharged both Executive and Legislative powers, on a theoretically provisional, but effectively permanent, basis. Political parties were abolished, and opposition to the regime was suppressed. Thus, under the Estado Novo, President Vargas ruled Brazil as a dictator, until he was deposed by the military, in an insurrection led by Vargas's own Minister of War, on 29 October 1945.
By 1945, Vargas was under strong pressure from his own supporters to reform his authoritarian Estado Novo regime and to allow for the restoration of democratic freedoms in Brazil. On 28 February 1945, the dictator yielded to those mounting demands and signed a statute granting amnesty to his opponents, amending the 1937 Constitution and finally summoning elections for the Parliament it had established, that had never assembled. The elections were to be held on 2 December 1945. The Legislature would have the power to reform the Constitution; a further statute issued on 28 May 1945 also scheduled presidential elections for 2 December. On 2 October, the Superior Electoral Court ruled that the Parliament's powers to reform the Constitution would be unlimited. Political parties had been allowed to organize for the first time since 1937, and there was rising opposition to Vargas, in spite of the constraints still placed by the regime on freedom of expression. However, the political atmosphere was one of suspicion and insecurity, given Vargas' authoritarian record. There were fears that the elections could be cancelled, or that they would be manipulated by Vargas. In those circumstances, a group of Vargas' own Generals, led by the Minister of War, General Pedro Aurélio de Góes Monteiro, turned against the dictator and deposed him from office in a sudden palace coup on 29 October 1945. The military then handed over power to the President of the Supreme Court, and safeguarded the freedom of the December 1945 elections, in which all parties were allowed to take part, from Communists to right-wing landowners; from Vargas's staunch opponents to his most loyal defenders. The deposed dictator himself (who still mustered strong popular support on account of the many social reforms implemented during his government, that created the Brazilian welfare state) was elected a Senator by the State of Rio Grande do Sul. He would go on to be elected President in 1950.
The office of Vice-President was abolished during Vargas' tenure, as neither the 1934 Constitution nor the 1937 Constitution provided for a Vice-President.
José Linhares, President of the Supreme Court, took office as President of the Republic after he was summoned by the Minister of War, General Góes Monteiro, in the wake of the overthrow of President Getúlio Vargas. At the time of the dictator's toppling, the President of the Supreme Court was the first and only person in the presidential line of succession, given that the other officers in that line, who would have outranked him, had never been elected, so that Linhares was Vargas' legal deputy. The Linhares Administration was a transitional government, that established the rules and procedures for the termination of the Estado Novo regime and the restoration of democratic institutions in Brazil. The parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for 2 December 1945 were maintained, but on 12 November 1945 Linhares issued a statute establishing that the Parliament to be elected would be a fully fledged Constituent Assembly, charged with adopting a new, democratic Constitution to replace the one that had been imposed by Vargas in 1937 and create a new political system in its place. Once elections were held and the elected President took office on 31 January 1946, José Linhares returned to his position as President of the Supreme Court.
In accordance with the rules decreed during the Linhares Administration to govern the transition to democracy, the 1945 elections were held to choose a President and the members of the Constituent Assembly (made up of Senators and Deputies) only. The office of Vice President had been abolished since 1934, and so no Vice President was chosen. However, the Constituent Assembly decided to recreate the office of Vice President. The Constitution adopted on 18 September 1946 specified that the first Vice President would be elected by the Constituent Assembly itself on the day following the promulgation of the Constitution, and would take office on the same date, to serve until the inauguration of the President and Vice President that would take office in 1951. Under those transitional provisions, Nereu Ramos was elected and inaugurated as Vice President on 19 September 1946.
Vargas committed suicide on 24 August 1954. The political climate at the time of President Vargas' suicide was one of turmoil and instability. Vargas was a former dictator, who had been democratically elected President of Brazil in 1950 by direct popular ballot under the 1946 Constitution. In 1953, a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry accused the Government of illegally aiding newspaper owner Samuel Wainer to obtain loans from the State-owned bank Banco do Brasil in exchange for political support by his Última Hora newspaper. This accusation resulted in an impeachment petition against Vargas that reached the floor of the Chamber of Deputies, but the impeachment attempt failed, and the charges were accordingly never presented to the Senate, because the Chamber of Deputies rejected the impeachment petition in June 1954. The political atmosphere, however, remained very tense. Shortly afterwards, a criminal attempt against the life of leading Opposition politician Carlos Lacerda on 5 August 1954 (an episode in Rio de Janeiro known as the Tonelero Street shooting), that resulted in the death of his bodyguard, Air Force Major Rubens Vaz, led to accusations by the Opposition that the criminal act had been orchestrated by Vargas himself or by his aides, and in late August 1954 it was widely expected that a section of the military would soon intervene in politics once again, to depose President Vargas due to that incident. Indeed, investigations conducted by the Air Force Police found that Gregório Fortunato, a member of President Vargas' bodyguard, had orchestrated the criminal act against Carlos Lacerda that resulted in the death of Major Rubens Vaz. A Military Inquiry on the death of Major Rubens Vaz, conducted at Rio's Galeão Air Force Base, also uncovered evidence of corruption involving both Fortunato and Manuel Vargas, the President's son. Although some claimed that the President's supporters had acted alone, without his knowledge, opponents of the President claimed that he had ordered Lacerda's assassination and that he was the mastermind behind the shooting. Those circumstances resulted in agitation in the military against the President, and, on the eve of his suicide, troops were already on the move to depose him, without the constitutional impeachment process, in what, therefore, would have been a military coup d'état. Having perceived that he had little support in the military to avoid a coup, and that his overthrow was imminent, Vargas, in a depressed state, committed suicide. He had presided over an emergency cabinet meeting in the early hours of 24 August 1954, and then retired to his bedroom and, a few hours later, shot himself in the chest, leaving behind a suicide note and a political testament. An ambulance was called to the Palace, but when it arrived Vargas was already dead. After his death, the military mobilization for a coup ceased, and there was an outpouring of popular feeling for the deceased President. In 1956 Fortunato was found guilty of the Tonelero Street crime, and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was murdered by a fellow prison inmate in 1962. The involvement of President Vargas in the criminal act is still debated by historians.
Upon the suicide of President Getúlio Vargas on 24 August 1954 Vice President Café Filho immediately assumed the powers and duties of the Presidency as Acting President, but the joint session of Congress required by the Federal Constitution for his swearing-in as President was only held on 3 September 1954, after the burial of the deceased President and a period of mourning. Accordingly, from 24 August 1954 until 3 September 1954, Café Filho was Acting President of the Republic, and on 3 September 1954 he took the constitutional oath in the presence of Congress and became President.
On 8 November 1955 President Café Filho declared himself temporarily unable to govern for medical reasons. The President had gone to hospital on 3 November 1955, suffering from a heart condition. His self-declared incapacity led to the assumption of the powers of the presidency by Carlos Luz (who was President of the Chamber of Deputies) as Acting President. The President of the Chamber of Deputies was the constitutional successor of the President of the Republic because the Vice-Presidency was then vacant. However, Acting President Carlos Luz was seen as hostile to the inauguration of the then-president elect, Juscelino Kubitschek. Indeed, the results of the election were contested by the National Democratic Union (UDN), the party that had the second greatest share of the vote in the 1955 presidential election, and there was talk of a conspiracy to block the inauguration of the president-elect. Therefore, fearing that Carlos Luz would lead a coup to prevent the inauguration of the president-elect, a section of the military, led by the Army Minister himself (Marshal Henrique Teixeira Lott), in what they called a preventive counter-coup, deposed Carlos Luz from the post of acting president on 11 November, and installed Senator Nereu Ramos, the Vice President of the Senate, as Acting President of the Republic in his stead. Faced with the actions of the military, both Houses of Congress summarily voted, also on 11 November 1955, to back Marshal Lott's preventive counter coup, by recognizing an emergency, declaring Luz impeded from acting as President, and confirming Nereu Ramos as Acting President. Carlos Luz attempted to resist his toppling, by boarding the Navy ship Tamandaré in the company of leading UDN politicians, and heading to the port of Santos, in the hope of receiving the support of Jânio Quadros, the Governor of São Paulo State, and of the military stationed in that State. However, the Tamandaré received news from São Paulo that such support would not be forthcoming, and Luz therefore ordered the ship to sail back to Rio de Janeiro, where he surrendered on 13 November. Also on 13 November 1955, Acting President Nereu Ramos visited President Café Filho in hospital, and assured him that he would only continue serving as Acting President until the President recovered. However, Marshal Lott and the other leaders of the 11 of November movement decided to block the resumption of the powers of the presidency by Café Filho, because they suspected that the President, too, was involved in the conspiracy to prevent the inauguration of the president-elect. Upon being released from hospital, on 21 November, Café Filho sent a message to the Acting President and to both Houses of Congress informing them that he had recovered from his illness, and therefore was resuming the powers and duties of the Presidency of the Republic. His resumption of those powers and duties, however, was swiftly blocked by the military: army tanks surrounded the Catete Palace (the seat of the presidency), to prevent Café Filho from reaching the Presidential Palace, where Nereu Ramos remained. Several other points in the capital were also surrounded by military forces. Café Filho therefore returned to his private residence, that was soon also surrounded by tanks, and the President was prevented from leaving his home. Given that situation, both Houses of Congress summarily voted, on 21 and 22 November 1955, to declare that the President's impediment persisted, that he therefore could not resume the powers and duties of the Presidency until the Congress resolved otherwise, and that acorrdingly, Senator Nereu Ramos should continue as Acting President, as per the congressional resolutions of 11 November. Because this "solution" was employed, of the Houses of Congress declaring, on 21 and 22 November, that they considered that Café Filho could not for the time being resume the powers and duties of the office, he was never formally removed from the office, and there was no impeachment process. Had there been an impeachment process, it would have required a formal accusation against the President, and he would have had the chance to defend himself and to stand trial before the Senate. However, impeachment proceedings were never initiated against Café Filho, and instead he was simply prevented from resuming his powers and duties on the basis of the congressional resolutions of 21 and 22 November 1955. Although for all practical purposes Café Filho had effectively been deposed, and it was universally understood that he would never be allowed to resume the powers of the presidency, neither Congress nor the military went as far as declaring the presidential office vacant, and therefore, formally, Café Filho was not overthrown, but simply barred from resuming the powers of the presidency. While technically Café Filho was never removed from office, he was thus prevented from resuming the powers and duties of the presidency until the end of his term and the inauguration of Kubitschek on 31 January 1956, and Nereu Ramos continued seving as Acting President until then. Café Filho's lawyers presented two petitions on his behalf to the Supreme Court also on 22 November 1955: one of habeas corpus, to restore his freedom of movement, and one of writ of mandamus, seeking an injunction from the Court to allow the President to resume his powers and duties. A statute was passed by Congress and signed into law by Acting President Ramos on 25 November declaring a state of siege (a form of martial law prescribed by the emergency provisions of the Constitution, that were then put in operation). On 14 December 1955, the Supreme Federal Court decided not to interfere in the political question, by ruling, regarding the writ of mandamus petition, that it could not decide the case while the state of siege declared by law persisted. As for the habeas corpus petition, it was declared moot on 21 December 1955, after Acting President Ramos informed the Court that Café Filho's freedom of movement had been restored, without prejudice to the continuation of his impediment. Only on 7 November 1956, long after Café Filho's term had ended, the Court would resume its deliberation on the writ of mandamus, to dispose of the case and close it, by recognizing that the petition had now been rendered moot, due to the termination of Café Filho's term in office.
Nereu Ramos was the Vice President of the Federal Senate (the office of President of the Senate, then vested in the Vice-Presidency of the Republic, was vacant, and thus Ramos, as Vice President of the Senate, acted as the Senate's presiding officer pro tempore). Summoned by the Minister of the Army, Henrique Teixeira Lott, who led the coup to overthrow Acting President Carlos Luz, Senator Nereu Ramos assumed the powers of the presidency of the Republic after Luz's deposition, on 11 November 1955 (as detailed above). After President Café Filho was impeded from resuming the powers and duties of the office on 21 and 22 November 1955, Ramos continued serving as Acting President until the end of the presidential term and the inauguration of President-elect Kubitschek. Although technically Carlos Luz and Nereu Ramos were only acting presidents, due to the critical circumstances surrounding their Administrations, they are usually included in the lists of presidents of Brazil, and are even included in the official gallery of presidents published by the Presidency of Brazil. Furthermore, Nereu Ramos had an official photograph of himself as president made, and he made use of the Presidential Sash, the insignia reserved for the President of the Republic alone. As for the actions of the military and of Congress that deposed Acting President Calos Luz, prevented President Café Filho from resuming the discharge of the powers of the presidency, installed and maintained Senator Nereu Ramos as Acting President until the inauguration of President-elect Kubitschek, those actions were in clear violation of the Constitution, although the backing of Congress helped to increase the appearance of legitimacy to the acts of the military. In spite of being unconstitutional, most historians today agree that those actions, led by Marshal Henrique Lott, had indeed the aim of securing the transfer of power according to the result of the 1955 presidential election; that there was indeed a conspiracy to prevent the inauguration of Kubitschek; and that the democratic result of the 1955 elections would not have been respected if not for the actions of Lott's preventive counter coup.
President Jânio Quadros resigned from office on 25 August 1961. There were no political reasons for President Quadros' sudden and abrupt resignation, that took the country and the political establishment by surprise. Some aides and close advisors of the former President have postulated that Quadros was heavily drunk when he wrote and ordered the delivery to Congress of his letter of resignation. Others suggest that Quadros imagined that Congress would not want his Vice-President, João Goulart, as president, and that the legislature would therefore ask him to reconsider his resignation, and would agree to grant him extraordinary powers. Several historians postulate that both things may be true: Quadros was drunk, and in that state he imagined that his resignation would not be accepted and would result in him being able to bargain for extraordinary powers. However, the Brazilian Constitution did not require that the President's resignation be accepted by Congress or by any authority; instead the resignation was deemed to be a unilateral act, that became effective as soon as Congress received the President's written instrument of resignation. Accordingly, once the President of Congress received the Quadros' letter of resignation, a joint session of Congress was convened, the resignation letter was simply read and entered into the records of Congress, and the resignation was deemed effective, and as a result the President of Congress immediately proceeded to declare that Quadros had vacated the Presidency. Afterwards, when asked why he had resigned from office, Quadros denied both the claims of authoritarian intentions and the accounts that he was drunk, but simply stated that he had done it because he wanted to, giving no further reasons for his action. His resignation letter mentioned that he felt he had been "crushed" by unspecified "terrible forces" organized against him.
By the time Jânio Quadros was born, Campo Grande was a city in Mato Grosso State. Nowadays, it is the capital city of the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, created in 1977.
Mazzilli, President of the Chamber of Deputies and second in line in the presidential order of succession, became Acting President of the Republic upon President Quadros's resignation, because the Vice President of the Republic, João Goulart, was then out of the country, on an official visit to China. Due to a serious political crisis (see below for further details), Vice President Goulart only took office as President on 7 September 1961, and Mazzilli remained as Acting President until then.
Goulart was on an official visit to China when Quadros resigned the presidency. While the Vice President was still abroad, there was an attempt on the part of the Vice President's opponents, who controlled Congress, to prevent him from being inaugurated, but that movement failed, due to resistance by the Governor of the State Rio Grande do Sul and a split in the military. However, Congress only allowed the inauguration of Goulart to proceed after a compromise was reached, whereby a Constitutional Amendment severely limiting the powers of the presidency was passed on 2 September 1961. Under that Constitutional Amendment, the presidential executive, that had existed since the proclamation of the Republic, was abolished and replaced with a parliamentary system, in which a Prime Minister was the head of government and the President of the Republic retained only the role of head of state. The Amendment however stipulated that the constitutional change would only become permanent if confirmed by the people in a referendum. On 6 January 1963 that referendum was held, and a majority of the voters rejected the Amendment, backing the restoration of the presidential Executive instead. According to the result of the referendum, on 23 January 1963 a new Constitutional Amendment was promulgated, repealing the 1961 Amendment and re-establishing the presidential Executive as it existed immediately prior to that Amendment. Thus, from 7 September 1961 until 23 January 1963 President Goulart served as head of State only, in a parliamentary system of Government, and, from 23 January 1963 onwards, he served as both head of state and head of government.
Goulart was deposed by the military coup of 1964, that marked the beginning of the 1964–1985 military regime.
Following the 1964 military coup, the President of Congress, Senator Auro de Moura Andrade convened a joint session of Congress on 2 April 1964 and summarily announced that President João Goulart was deposed and that the Presidency was vacant. Moura Andrade then declared Ranieri Mazzilli (who then was the President of the Chamber of Deputies and the first person in the presidential line of succession) to have become President of the Republic. Accordingly, Mazzilli took charge of the Presidency, but, in spite of Moura Andrade's bold statement declaring Mazzilli President, Mazzilli only took office as Acting President: he never took the presidential oath and, during his brief term in office, he issued his acts as "The President of the Chamber of Deputies, acting in the office of President of the Republic". The 1946 Constitution, then in force, authorized a Vice-President to succeed to the Presidency if the office of President became vacant, but it only authorized the President of the Chamber of Deputies and the other officers in the line of succession to serve as Acting President, and, in the case of a double vacancy of the Presidency and of the Vice-Presidency, it required new presidential elections to be summoned (direct elections by popular ballot if the second vacancy took place in the first half of the presidential term; indirect elections by Congress if the second vacancy occurred in the second half of the presidential term). Mindful of the fact that the elected President for the 1961-1966 term was Quadros (who had resigned), succeeded as President by Goulart, his Vice-President (who was deposed by the 1964 military coup), and that he was only the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Mazzilli limited his actions to that of a caretaker Acting President, pending the holding of elections. The norms that would have governed those elections, however, were altered by continuing acts of interference from the Armed Forces that had ejected Goulart from office: on 9 April 1964, a body known as the Supreme Command of the Revolution, composed of the leaders of the military coup (the commanders of the three branches of the Armed Forces), issued an Institutional Act summoning the National Congress to elect a new President in 48 hours. The military then put forward the name of Marshal Castelo Branco, and he was elected by Congress as planned. Ranieri Mazzilli, therefore, remained as Acting President only for two weeks, until the inauguration of Castelo Branco on 15 April 1964.
Alkmin was a PSD member; when the PSD was abolished in 1965, he joined ARENA.
A military junta composed of the Ministers in charge of the three branches of the Armed Forces assumed the powers of the presidency on 31 August 1969 after President Costa e Sliva suffered a cerebral thrombosis that left him completely incapacitated. The military junta seized power so as to prevent Vice President Pedro Aleixo, a civilian, from becoming acting president. The possibility of a civilian, even a conservative one, assuming the powers of the presidency was seen as detrimental to the continuity of the military regime. In the initial stage of the President's disease, the junta hoped that he would recover. Subsequently, realizing that the President's condition was irreversible, and that the prolonged continuity of a triumvirate was detrimental to the regime and to its image, the military junta issued an institutional act on 14 October 1969 removing the incapacitated President and the Vice President from office and summoning Congress to elect a new President and Vice President. The military elite that controlled the regime then selected General Emílio Garrastazu Médici to be ARENA's candidate, and his name was rubber-stamped by Congress. The junta remained in place until the new President was sworn-in. In 2011, Brazil enacted a Federal Law recognizing the illegality of the acts that prevented Vice President Pedro Aleixo from becoming Acting President and that removed him from office; the statute also directs that Pedro Aleixo be deemed a former President of the Republic. Costa e Silva died less than three months after his removal, and were it not for the military acts now declared illegal that removed him from the vice-presidency, Pedro Aleixo would have succeeded to the presidency.
Brazilian Federal Law number 12.486, promulgated on 12 September 2011 posthumously recognizes the illegality of the acts (see above) that prevented Vice-President Pedro Aleixo from becoming acting president and that removed him from office, and directs that he be deemed and taken as a former President of the Republic for all legal purposes.
The Third Army, a Regional Command of the Brazilian Army, has been renamed in 1985 and is currently titled as the Southern Military Command.
Tancredo Neves died before taking office, but more than one month after the start of his presidential term. The Constitution required the President and Vice President to be invested in their offices by taking the oath of office in the presence of a joint session of Congress. President-elect Tancredo Neves, suffering from the consequences of a tumor that was then misdiagnosed as acute diverticulitis, became gravely ill on 14 March 1985, on the eve of his inauguration, so that he could not attend the inaugural ceremonies in Congress, because his doctors concluded that he required emergency surgery. José Sarney, his running mate, accordingly appeared before Congress alone on the day of Neves's would-be inauguration, took office as Vice President and served as Acting President from start of the new presidential term, on 15 March 1985, until the day the President-elect died. Initially, there was hope that the President-elect would recover and take office, but he developed several complications and infections, and underwent several other operations, ultimately resulting in his death. Upon Neves's death on 21 April 1985, Acting President Sarney succeeded to the presidency. On the first anniversary of Neves's death a statute was signed into Law (federal law 7.465/1986), establishing that Tancredo Neves "elected but not sworn-in due to his death" should be included in the gallery of the presidents of Brazil "for all legal purposes".
President Collor was impeached on corruption charges. On 29 September 1992, the Chamber of Deputies voted, by the required two-thirds majority of its members, to allow the charges against the President to be presented to the Senate. On 1 October 1992 the Senate voted to receive the charges and proceed with the trial. On 2 October 1992, upon receiving the formal writ of summons notifying him that he was now a defendant in the impeachment trial that the Senate would conduct, President Collor was automatically suspended from office for 180 days as provided in the Constitution of Brazil and Vice President Itamar Franco became Acting President. On 29 December 1992, on the final day of his trial of impeachment before the Federal Senate, President Collor resigned the presidency, in an attempt to stop the process. The Senate's session as a Court of Impeachment was suspended and two successive joint sessions of Congress were held, one shortly after the other: in the first joint session, President Collor's resignation letter was formally read before Congress by its First Secretary and entered the congressional record, and the presidential resignation thereby took legal effect, resulting in the formal declaration by the President of Congress to the assembled joint session, that the presidency of the Republic was vacant, and that, as a result of that vacancy, Acting President Franco would be summoned at once, as Collor's legal successor, to take the constitutional oath and assume the Presidency; in the second joint session of Congress, Acting President Itamar Franco was accordingly sworn-in as President, as required by the Constitution. Later in the same day, the Senate resumed its sitting as a Court of Impeachment, and it decided that the President's resignation after the start of the trial could not stop the process, given that the determination of the former President's guilt or innocence was relevant for the purposes of imposing on him the penalty of disqualification from holding public office for eight years. Accordingly, the trial of impeachment continued in spite of Collor's resignation and, in the early hours of 30 December 1992 he was found guilty of the charges, by the required majority of more than two thirds of the members of the Senate. The penalty of removal from office was declared moot as Collor had already resigned, but as a result of his conviction by the Senate he was disqualified for holding public office for eight years. The Senate's sentence in the trial of impeachment, imposing upon Collor the said penalty, was pronounced on 30 December 1992 and published in the Official Journal on 31 December 1992. Accordingly, Collor remained disqualified from holding public office until 31 December 2000.
Itamar Franco joined the PRN for the 1989 election to run as Collor's running mate. In office, he broke with Collor, and left the PRN on 5 May 1992, returning to the PMDB.
Franco was born on board a ship off the eastern coast of Brazil, sailing between Salvador and Rio de Janeiro. His birth was registered at Salvador.
On 2 December 2015 the President of the Chamber of Deputies decided to accept, for the consideration of that assembly, a petition presenting charges of impeachment against President Dilma Rousseff, on the grounds of having violated the 2015 budgetary law and fiscal responsibility norms. On 17 April 2016, the Chamber of Deputies voted, by the required two-thirds majority of its members, to allow the charges against the President to be presented to the Senate. On 12 May 2016 the Senate voted to receive the charges and proceed with the trial. On the same date, upon receiving the formal writ of summons notifying her that she was now a defendant in the impeachment trial that the Senate would conduct, President Rousseff's powers and duties were suspended for 180 days as provided in the Constitution of Brazil, and Vice-President Michel Temer became Acting President. On 31 August 2016 the Brazilian Federal Senate, sitting as a judicial body, voted, by the required two-thirds majority of its members, to convict the President and to remove her from office. The penalty of disqualification from holding public office for eight years was not imposed on the former President, because the majority of two-thirds of the members of the Senate was not reached in the specific vote on that penalty. As a result of the vacancy of the Presidency, Acting President Michel Temer succeeded to the office, being sworn-in as President before a joint session of Congress also on 31 August 2016.
When Michel Temer became President, his Party was still named Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB). During his tenure in office, on 19 December 2017, the Party's National Convention altered the Party's Articles of Incorporation, changing its name back to Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), the same name that the Party had borne from 1965 to 1981.
Close to Alliance for Brazil.

References

http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_Ato2011-2014/2011/Lei/L12486.htm

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[1] In a military coup d'état on 15 November 1889, Marshal of the Army Deodoro da Fonseca overthrew the government of the Empire of Brazil, led by Prime Minister the Viscount of Ouro Preto. The unprecedented military coup against a prime minister appointed by the emperor and who enjoyed the confidence of the Chamber of Deputies quickly escalated to the proclamation of the republic on that same date; thus, Emperor Pedro II of Brazil was deposed by Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca and the monarchy was declared abolished. The constitution then in force ceased to operate, and the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state, was replaced with a federal republic, each province of the empire becoming a state. Until the organization of the republic's constitutional order, however, the central Government appointed the governments of the several States. The imperial Parliament (the General Assembly) was dissolved, and Deodoro formed a provisional government. Deodoro as head of the provisional government could appoint and dismiss the other members of that government, and discharged by decree absolute legislative and executive powers. The provisional government was in effect a dictatorship, and remaining monarchist sentiment in society was repressed, as the government and the army were committed to the consolidation of the recently declared republic. The imperial family and their descendants were banished from the country by decree of the provisional government, and the dynasty's exile was only revoked in 1920. On 15 January 1890 Deodoro, as head of the Provisional Government, assumed for himself the unique military rank of Generalissimo of Land and Sea. In 1890 elections for a constituent congress were held, but the congress (made up of a senate with equal representation of the newly declared states and of a Chamber of Deputies with delegations proportional to the size of the population of each State) was required to adopt a constitution that conformed to the republican system of government and to the federal model of state. Congress assembled in November 1890 and a draft constitution, prepared by a committee of republican jurists and politicians appointed by the Provisional Government, was submitted to Congress by the head of the provisional government, and formed the basis for the congressional deliberations. The Constitution was promulgated by Congress on 24 February 1891. It confirmed the abolition of the parliamentary system of government and created a presidential Executive, widely based on the model of the United States of America. Presidents and vice-presidents were to be elected for 4 years, without the possibility of re-election, by direct popular ballot, but for the first presidential term, Congress was to conduct the election immediately after the adoption of the constitution. Subsequent presidents were to be elected on 1 March and inaugurated on 15 November, starting in the year 1894. Accordingly, under those transitional rules, on 25 February 1891, the day after the adoption of the constitution, Congress voted for president and vice-president, and the then head of the provisional government, Generalissimo Deodoro da Fonseca, was elected to become the nation's first President. The voting for vice-president took place immediately after the counting of the votes for President, and Marshal Floriano Peixoto was chosen by Congress to be the first vice-president. The swearing in of Deodoro da Fonseca and Floriano Peixoto as president and vice-president, respectively, took place on the following day, 26 February 1891, and that inauguration marked the termination of the Provisional Government.

[2] In a coup d'état on 3 November 1891, President Deodoro da Fonseca shut down the National Congress and ruled by decree for a few weeks, attempting to suspend the Constitution and to establish a dictatorial regime in the fashion of the Spanish American caudillos. There was a reaction by the Brazilian Navy against Deodoro's coup (the First Revolt of the Armada) and Deodoro was forced to resign the presidency. Deodoro was effectively deposed by the forces loyal to the Constitution in a counter-coup d'état, but because he yielded to the demands of the Navy and agreed to resign the presidency, neither the constitutional impeachment process nor a formal overthrow without impeachment (that would also have been a violation of the Constitution, this time by the counter-coup forces) took place, and instead Deodoro's removal from office was formalized as a simple resignation. Many officers in the Brazilian Navy were still monarchists, opposed Deodoro, and only reluctantly accepted the newly created Republic, but were unwilling to see it be transformed from a constitutional state into a dictatorship. Upon Deodoro's resignation on 23 November 1891, Vice-President Floriano Peixoto succeeded to the presidency and reversed Deodoro's coup. The constitutional legal order was restored, Deodoro's dissolution of Congress was deemed null and void, and Deodoro's other acts since the coup were similarly declared invalid.

[3] Marshal of the Army Floriano Peixoto, Deodoro's Vice-President, succeeded to the Presidency upon President Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca's resignation. The Constitution then in force stipulated that, whenever the Presidency became vacant during the first half of presidential term, new elections should be summoned at once, and the Vice-President should serve as President only until the inauguration of a new elected President. Deodoro had resigned during the first half of his presidential term (he had been sworn-in as President on 26 February 1891 to serve until 15 November 1894 and had resigned the office on 23 November 1891), but the new President, Floriano Peixoto, refused to summon new elections, arguing that the constitutional provision requiring new elections should only apply if the Presidency had been vacated during the first half of the presidential term by a President elected by direct popular ballot under the permanent provisions of the Constitution. Floriano held that, because Deodoro and himself had been respectively elected President and Vice-President by the Constituent Congress under the transitional provisions of the Constitution, and because the Constitution directed that the first elections by direct popular ballot should be held on 1 March 1894 to choose the President that would be inaugurated on 15 November 1894 for the first regular four year term, no elections needed to take place in the wake of Deodoro's resignation, neither by Congress, nor by direct popular ballot. Accordingly, Floriano Peixoto continued to serve as president for the remainder of the first presidential term, that is, until 15 November 1894. Because his interpretation of the Constitution was disputed by several political forces and his manner was regarded as also dictatorial, Floriano faced many revolts (including the Second Revolt of the Armada, that the Administration managed to defeat), and Floriano governed under state of siege, with the right of habeas corpus and several other constitutional rights suspended (in accordance with the emergency provisions of the Constitution), for most of his time in office. Floriano also took advantage of the emergency powers of the state of siege to further suppress remaining pockets of Monarchist sentiment in society and in Brazil's political life, and for this reason he has been dubbed the "consolidator of the Republic". In 1894 he was succeeded by Prudente de Morais, the first President to be elected by direct popular ballot under the permanent provisions of the Constitution and also the first civilian to hold office as President of Brazil.

[4] Vice-President elect Silviano Brandão died on 25 September 1902, before his inauguration. Accordingly, on inauguration day, 15 November 1902, President Rodrigues Alves took office alone, and the Vice-Presidency was declared vacant. As per the constitutional norms then in force, a special election was then summoned to choose a new Vice-President to serve the remainder of the four-year term.

[5] The special election for Vice-President, summoned to fill the vacancy provoked by the death of Vice-President elect Silviano Brandão, was held on 18 March 1903. Afonso Pena was elected to the Vice-Presidency, and took office on 23 June 1903.

[6] President Afonso Pena, elected to serve the 1906–1910 presidential term, died in office on 14 June 1909. Upon Afonso Pena's death, Vice-President Nilo Peçanha became President and served during the remainder of the presidential term.

[7] Rodrigues Alves, who had been the 5th President of Brazil (1902–1906), was elected to serve as the 10th President in 1918 but fell ill with the Spanish Flu before his inauguration, so that he was not able to attend it. His running-mate, Delfim Moreira took office as vice-president and became acting president. Rodrigues Alves never took the oath of office before Congress to become the 10th President, as he did not recover from his illness and died. Delfim Moreira succeeded to the Presidency upon the President-elect's death in January 1919.

[8] Vice-President Delfim Moreira succeeded to the Presidency upon the death of President-elect Rodrigues Alves, but, in accordance with the constitutional provisions then in force, since the vacancy of the presidency occurred in the first half of the four-year presidential term, new elections were summoned and Delfim Moreira served only until an elected President was chosen and inaugurated to finish the 1918–1922 presidential term.

[9] Rodrigues Alves died on 16 January 1919. The extraordinary election summoned in accordance with the Constitution was held on 13 April 1919. Elected to finish the remainder of the 1918–1922 presidential term, Epitácio Pessoa took office on 28 July 1919. Upon the inauguration of President Epitácio Pessoa, Delfim Moreira ceased to be President, and returned to the office of Vice-President.

[10] Vice-President Delfim Moreira died on 1 July 1920. After his death, the Vice-Presidency remained vacant until a new Vice-President was elected and inaugurated. Bueno de Paiva took office as Vice-President on 11 November 1920 to complete the remainder of the 1918–1922 term of office.

[11] President Washington Luís was deposed by the 1930 Revolution, marking the end of the Old Republic era. The Revolution broke out on 3 October 1930, and, after battles between revolutionary and government forces far from the Capital, a military faction in the Capital sided with the revolutionaries and deposed the President on 24 October 1930. Upon Washington Luís' overthrow, a provisional military junta seized power; days later, on 3 November 1930, that military triumvirate would cede full authority to Getúlio Vargas, the leader of the revolutionary movement, who declared the 1891 Constitution abolished, dissolved Congress and formed a Provisional Government, promising the creation of a new constitutional order.

[12] Júlio Prestes, elected on 1 March 1930, never took office due to the 1930 coup that deposed his predecessor Washington Luís.

[13] Getúlio Vargas governed by decree from 3 November 1930 to 20 July 1934, as Head of the Provisional Government, with absolute powers. On 9 July 1932 a revolution broke out in the State of São Paulo, demanding the restoration of Constitutional Government. The revolution was defeated by the Government, but it led to Vargas finally making good on his promise to summon a Constituent Assembly. The 1933-1934 Constituent Assembly promulgated Brazil's new Constitution on 16 July 1934, and, under the Constitution's transitional provisions, the first President was to be elected by the Assembly, and subsequent presidents were to be elected by direct popular ballot. In accordance with those rules, on 17 July 1934 the Constituent Assembly voted for President and Vargas won the election. Accordingly, Vargas, who until then was Head of the Provisional Government, was sworn-in as President of the Republic on 20 July 1934, for a term of office that would last until the inauguration of a successor on 3 May 1938. However, on 10 November 1937, Vargas led a coup d'état and proclaimed the Estado Novo dictatorship, imposing a new Constitution that allowed him to rule by decree. Both the referendum provided in the 1937 Constitution that would have confirmed the adoption of the new constitutional legislation, and the elections provided in the 1937 Constitution were never held, under the pretext of a state of emergency. Accordingly, Vargas effectively extended his term of office indefinitely. State Governors were replaced by Federal Interventors appointed by the President of the Republic, and the Legislative chambers in both Federal and State level were dissolved. The new Legislative bodies created by the 1937 Constitution were never elected, due to the state of emergency that lasted until the end of the regime, and accordingly, during that whole period (1937-1945) the President of the Republic and the Interventors appointed to the several States discharged both Executive and Legislative powers, on a theoretically provisional, but effectively permanent, basis. Political parties were abolished, and opposition to the regime was suppressed. Thus, under the Estado Novo, President Vargas ruled Brazil as a dictator, until he was deposed by the military, in an insurrection led by Vargas's own Minister of War, on 29 October 1945.

[14] By 1945, Vargas was under strong pressure from his own supporters to reform his authoritarian Estado Novo regime and to allow for the restoration of democratic freedoms in Brazil. On 28 February 1945, the dictator yielded to those mounting demands and signed a statute granting amnesty to his opponents, amending the 1937 Constitution and finally summoning elections for the Parliament it had established, that had never assembled. The elections were to be held on 2 December 1945. The Legislature would have the power to reform the Constitution; a further statute issued on 28 May 1945 also scheduled presidential elections for 2 December. On 2 October, the Superior Electoral Court ruled that the Parliament's powers to reform the Constitution would be unlimited. Political parties had been allowed to organize for the first time since 1937, and there was rising opposition to Vargas, in spite of the constraints still placed by the regime on freedom of expression. However, the political atmosphere was one of suspicion and insecurity, given Vargas' authoritarian record. There were fears that the elections could be cancelled, or that they would be manipulated by Vargas. In those circumstances, a group of Vargas' own Generals, led by the Minister of War, General Pedro Aurélio de Góes Monteiro, turned against the dictator and deposed him from office in a sudden palace coup on 29 October 1945. The military then handed over power to the President of the Supreme Court, and safeguarded the freedom of the December 1945 elections, in which all parties were allowed to take part, from Communists to right-wing landowners; from Vargas's staunch opponents to his most loyal defenders. The deposed dictator himself (who still mustered strong popular support on account of the many social reforms implemented during his government, that created the Brazilian welfare state) was elected a Senator by the State of Rio Grande do Sul. He would go on to be elected President in 1950.

[15] The office of Vice-President was abolished during Vargas' tenure, as neither the 1934 Constitution nor the 1937 Constitution provided for a Vice-President.

[16] José Linhares, President of the Supreme Court, took office as President of the Republic after he was summoned by the Minister of War, General Góes Monteiro, in the wake of the overthrow of President Getúlio Vargas. At the time of the dictator's toppling, the President of the Supreme Court was the first and only person in the presidential line of succession, given that the other officers in that line, who would have outranked him, had never been elected, so that Linhares was Vargas' legal deputy. The Linhares Administration was a transitional government, that established the rules and procedures for the termination of the Estado Novo regime and the restoration of democratic institutions in Brazil. The parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for 2 December 1945 were maintained, but on 12 November 1945 Linhares issued a statute establishing that the Parliament to be elected would be a fully fledged Constituent Assembly, charged with adopting a new, democratic Constitution to replace the one that had been imposed by Vargas in 1937 and create a new political system in its place. Once elections were held and the elected President took office on 31 January 1946, José Linhares returned to his position as President of the Supreme Court.

[17] In accordance with the rules decreed during the Linhares Administration to govern the transition to democracy, the 1945 elections were held to choose a President and the members of the Constituent Assembly (made up of Senators and Deputies) only. The office of Vice President had been abolished since 1934, and so no Vice President was chosen. However, the Constituent Assembly decided to recreate the office of Vice President. The Constitution adopted on 18 September 1946 specified that the first Vice President would be elected by the Constituent Assembly itself on the day following the promulgation of the Constitution, and would take office on the same date, to serve until the inauguration of the President and Vice President that would take office in 1951. Under those transitional provisions, Nereu Ramos was elected and inaugurated as Vice President on 19 September 1946.

[18] Vargas committed suicide on 24 August 1954. The political climate at the time of President Vargas' suicide was one of turmoil and instability. Vargas was a former dictator, who had been democratically elected President of Brazil in 1950 by direct popular ballot under the 1946 Constitution. In 1953, a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry accused the Government of illegally aiding newspaper owner Samuel Wainer to obtain loans from the State-owned bank Banco do Brasil in exchange for political support by his Última Hora newspaper. This accusation resulted in an impeachment petition against Vargas that reached the floor of the Chamber of Deputies, but the impeachment attempt failed, and the charges were accordingly never presented to the Senate, because the Chamber of Deputies rejected the impeachment petition in June 1954. The political atmosphere, however, remained very tense. Shortly afterwards, a criminal attempt against the life of leading Opposition politician Carlos Lacerda on 5 August 1954 (an episode in Rio de Janeiro known as the Tonelero Street shooting), that resulted in the death of his bodyguard, Air Force Major Rubens Vaz, led to accusations by the Opposition that the criminal act had been orchestrated by Vargas himself or by his aides, and in late August 1954 it was widely expected that a section of the military would soon intervene in politics once again, to depose President Vargas due to that incident. Indeed, investigations conducted by the Air Force Police found that Gregório Fortunato, a member of President Vargas' bodyguard, had orchestrated the criminal act against Carlos Lacerda that resulted in the death of Major Rubens Vaz. A Military Inquiry on the death of Major Rubens Vaz, conducted at Rio's Galeão Air Force Base, also uncovered evidence of corruption involving both Fortunato and Manuel Vargas, the President's son. Although some claimed that the President's supporters had acted alone, without his knowledge, opponents of the President claimed that he had ordered Lacerda's assassination and that he was the mastermind behind the shooting. Those circumstances resulted in agitation in the military against the President, and, on the eve of his suicide, troops were already on the move to depose him, without the constitutional impeachment process, in what, therefore, would have been a military coup d'état. Having perceived that he had little support in the military to avoid a coup, and that his overthrow was imminent, Vargas, in a depressed state, committed suicide. He had presided over an emergency cabinet meeting in the early hours of 24 August 1954, and then retired to his bedroom and, a few hours later, shot himself in the chest, leaving behind a suicide note and a political testament. An ambulance was called to the Palace, but when it arrived Vargas was already dead. After his death, the military mobilization for a coup ceased, and there was an outpouring of popular feeling for the deceased President. In 1956 Fortunato was found guilty of the Tonelero Street crime, and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was murdered by a fellow prison inmate in 1962. The involvement of President Vargas in the criminal act is still debated by historians.

[filho-19] Upon the suicide of President Getúlio Vargas on 24 August 1954 Vice President Café Filho immediately assumed the powers and duties of the Presidency as Acting President, but the joint session of Congress required by the Federal Constitution for his swearing-in as President was only held on 3 September 1954, after the burial of the deceased President and a period of mourning. Accordingly, from 24 August 1954 until 3 September 1954, Café Filho was Acting President of the Republic, and on 3 September 1954 he took the constitutional oath in the presence of Congress and became President.

[20] On 8 November 1955 President Café Filho declared himself temporarily unable to govern for medical reasons. The President had gone to hospital on 3 November 1955, suffering from a heart condition. His self-declared incapacity led to the assumption of the powers of the presidency by Carlos Luz (who was President of the Chamber of Deputies) as Acting President. The President of the Chamber of Deputies was the constitutional successor of the President of the Republic because the Vice-Presidency was then vacant. However, Acting President Carlos Luz was seen as hostile to the inauguration of the then-president elect, Juscelino Kubitschek. Indeed, the results of the election were contested by the National Democratic Union (UDN), the party that had the second greatest share of the vote in the 1955 presidential election, and there was talk of a conspiracy to block the inauguration of the president-elect. Therefore, fearing that Carlos Luz would lead a coup to prevent the inauguration of the president-elect, a section of the military, led by the Army Minister himself (Marshal Henrique Teixeira Lott), in what they called a preventive counter-coup, deposed Carlos Luz from the post of acting president on 11 November, and installed Senator Nereu Ramos, the Vice President of the Senate, as Acting President of the Republic in his stead. Faced with the actions of the military, both Houses of Congress summarily voted, also on 11 November 1955, to back Marshal Lott's preventive counter coup, by recognizing an emergency, declaring Luz impeded from acting as President, and confirming Nereu Ramos as Acting President. Carlos Luz attempted to resist his toppling, by boarding the Navy ship Tamandaré in the company of leading UDN politicians, and heading to the port of Santos, in the hope of receiving the support of Jânio Quadros, the Governor of São Paulo State, and of the military stationed in that State. However, the Tamandaré received news from São Paulo that such support would not be forthcoming, and Luz therefore ordered the ship to sail back to Rio de Janeiro, where he surrendered on 13 November. Also on 13 November 1955, Acting President Nereu Ramos visited President Café Filho in hospital, and assured him that he would only continue serving as Acting President until the President recovered. However, Marshal Lott and the other leaders of the 11 of November movement decided to block the resumption of the powers of the presidency by Café Filho, because they suspected that the President, too, was involved in the conspiracy to prevent the inauguration of the president-elect. Upon being released from hospital, on 21 November, Café Filho sent a message to the Acting President and to both Houses of Congress informing them that he had recovered from his illness, and therefore was resuming the powers and duties of the Presidency of the Republic. His resumption of those powers and duties, however, was swiftly blocked by the military: army tanks surrounded the Catete Palace (the seat of the presidency), to prevent Café Filho from reaching the Presidential Palace, where Nereu Ramos remained. Several other points in the capital were also surrounded by military forces. Café Filho therefore returned to his private residence, that was soon also surrounded by tanks, and the President was prevented from leaving his home. Given that situation, both Houses of Congress summarily voted, on 21 and 22 November 1955, to declare that the President's impediment persisted, that he therefore could not resume the powers and duties of the Presidency until the Congress resolved otherwise, and that acorrdingly, Senator Nereu Ramos should continue as Acting President, as per the congressional resolutions of 11 November. Because this "solution" was employed, of the Houses of Congress declaring, on 21 and 22 November, that they considered that Café Filho could not for the time being resume the powers and duties of the office, he was never formally removed from the office, and there was no impeachment process. Had there been an impeachment process, it would have required a formal accusation against the President, and he would have had the chance to defend himself and to stand trial before the Senate. However, impeachment proceedings were never initiated against Café Filho, and instead he was simply prevented from resuming his powers and duties on the basis of the congressional resolutions of 21 and 22 November 1955. Although for all practical purposes Café Filho had effectively been deposed, and it was universally understood that he would never be allowed to resume the powers of the presidency, neither Congress nor the military went as far as declaring the presidential office vacant, and therefore, formally, Café Filho was not overthrown, but simply barred from resuming the powers of the presidency. While technically Café Filho was never removed from office, he was thus prevented from resuming the powers and duties of the presidency until the end of his term and the inauguration of Kubitschek on 31 January 1956, and Nereu Ramos continued seving as Acting President until then. Café Filho's lawyers presented two petitions on his behalf to the Supreme Court also on 22 November 1955: one of habeas corpus, to restore his freedom of movement, and one of writ of mandamus, seeking an injunction from the Court to allow the President to resume his powers and duties. A statute was passed by Congress and signed into law by Acting President Ramos on 25 November declaring a state of siege (a form of martial law prescribed by the emergency provisions of the Constitution, that were then put in operation). On 14 December 1955, the Supreme Federal Court decided not to interfere in the political question, by ruling, regarding the writ of mandamus petition, that it could not decide the case while the state of siege declared by law persisted. As for the habeas corpus petition, it was declared moot on 21 December 1955, after Acting President Ramos informed the Court that Café Filho's freedom of movement had been restored, without prejudice to the continuation of his impediment. Only on 7 November 1956, long after Café Filho's term had ended, the Court would resume its deliberation on the writ of mandamus, to dispose of the case and close it, by recognizing that the petition had now been rendered moot, due to the termination of Café Filho's term in office.

[21] Nereu Ramos was the Vice President of the Federal Senate (the office of President of the Senate, then vested in the Vice-Presidency of the Republic, was vacant, and thus Ramos, as Vice President of the Senate, acted as the Senate's presiding officer pro tempore). Summoned by the Minister of the Army, Henrique Teixeira Lott, who led the coup to overthrow Acting President Carlos Luz, Senator Nereu Ramos assumed the powers of the presidency of the Republic after Luz's deposition, on 11 November 1955 (as detailed above). After President Café Filho was impeded from resuming the powers and duties of the office on 21 and 22 November 1955, Ramos continued serving as Acting President until the end of the presidential term and the inauguration of President-elect Kubitschek. Although technically Carlos Luz and Nereu Ramos were only acting presidents, due to the critical circumstances surrounding their Administrations, they are usually included in the lists of presidents of Brazil, and are even included in the official gallery of presidents published by the Presidency of Brazil. Furthermore, Nereu Ramos had an official photograph of himself as president made, and he made use of the Presidential Sash, the insignia reserved for the President of the Republic alone. As for the actions of the military and of Congress that deposed Acting President Calos Luz, prevented President Café Filho from resuming the discharge of the powers of the presidency, installed and maintained Senator Nereu Ramos as Acting President until the inauguration of President-elect Kubitschek, those actions were in clear violation of the Constitution, although the backing of Congress helped to increase the appearance of legitimacy to the acts of the military. In spite of being unconstitutional, most historians today agree that those actions, led by Marshal Henrique Lott, had indeed the aim of securing the transfer of power according to the result of the 1955 presidential election; that there was indeed a conspiracy to prevent the inauguration of Kubitschek; and that the democratic result of the 1955 elections would not have been respected if not for the actions of Lott's preventive counter coup.

[22] President Jânio Quadros resigned from office on 25 August 1961. There were no political reasons for President Quadros' sudden and abrupt resignation, that took the country and the political establishment by surprise. Some aides and close advisors of the former President have postulated that Quadros was heavily drunk when he wrote and ordered the delivery to Congress of his letter of resignation. Others suggest that Quadros imagined that Congress would not want his Vice-President, João Goulart, as president, and that the legislature would therefore ask him to reconsider his resignation, and would agree to grant him extraordinary powers. Several historians postulate that both things may be true: Quadros was drunk, and in that state he imagined that his resignation would not be accepted and would result in him being able to bargain for extraordinary powers. However, the Brazilian Constitution did not require that the President's resignation be accepted by Congress or by any authority; instead the resignation was deemed to be a unilateral act, that became effective as soon as Congress received the President's written instrument of resignation. Accordingly, once the President of Congress received the Quadros' letter of resignation, a joint session of Congress was convened, the resignation letter was simply read and entered into the records of Congress, and the resignation was deemed effective, and as a result the President of Congress immediately proceeded to declare that Quadros had vacated the Presidency. Afterwards, when asked why he had resigned from office, Quadros denied both the claims of authoritarian intentions and the accounts that he was drunk, but simply stated that he had done it because he wanted to, giving no further reasons for his action. His resignation letter mentioned that he felt he had been "crushed" by unspecified "terrible forces" organized against him.

[23] By the time Jânio Quadros was born, Campo Grande was a city in Mato Grosso State. Nowadays, it is the capital city of the State of Mato Grosso do Sul, created in 1977.

[24] Mazzilli, President of the Chamber of Deputies and second in line in the presidential order of succession, became Acting President of the Republic upon President Quadros's resignation, because the Vice President of the Republic, João Goulart, was then out of the country, on an official visit to China. Due to a serious political crisis (see below for further details), Vice President Goulart only took office as President on 7 September 1961, and Mazzilli remained as Acting President until then.

[25] Goulart was on an official visit to China when Quadros resigned the presidency. While the Vice President was still abroad, there was an attempt on the part of the Vice President's opponents, who controlled Congress, to prevent him from being inaugurated, but that movement failed, due to resistance by the Governor of the State Rio Grande do Sul and a split in the military. However, Congress only allowed the inauguration of Goulart to proceed after a compromise was reached, whereby a Constitutional Amendment severely limiting the powers of the presidency was passed on 2 September 1961. Under that Constitutional Amendment, the presidential executive, that had existed since the proclamation of the Republic, was abolished and replaced with a parliamentary system, in which a Prime Minister was the head of government and the President of the Republic retained only the role of head of state. The Amendment however stipulated that the constitutional change would only become permanent if confirmed by the people in a referendum. On 6 January 1963 that referendum was held, and a majority of the voters rejected the Amendment, backing the restoration of the presidential Executive instead. According to the result of the referendum, on 23 January 1963 a new Constitutional Amendment was promulgated, repealing the 1961 Amendment and re-establishing the presidential Executive as it existed immediately prior to that Amendment. Thus, from 7 September 1961 until 23 January 1963 President Goulart served as head of State only, in a parliamentary system of Government, and, from 23 January 1963 onwards, he served as both head of state and head of government.

[26] Goulart was deposed by the military coup of 1964, that marked the beginning of the 1964–1985 military regime.

[27] Following the 1964 military coup, the President of Congress, Senator Auro de Moura Andrade convened a joint session of Congress on 2 April 1964 and summarily announced that President João Goulart was deposed and that the Presidency was vacant. Moura Andrade then declared Ranieri Mazzilli (who then was the President of the Chamber of Deputies and the first person in the presidential line of succession) to have become President of the Republic. Accordingly, Mazzilli took charge of the Presidency, but, in spite of Moura Andrade's bold statement declaring Mazzilli President, Mazzilli only took office as Acting President: he never took the presidential oath and, during his brief term in office, he issued his acts as "The President of the Chamber of Deputies, acting in the office of President of the Republic". The 1946 Constitution, then in force, authorized a Vice-President to succeed to the Presidency if the office of President became vacant, but it only authorized the President of the Chamber of Deputies and the other officers in the line of succession to serve as Acting President, and, in the case of a double vacancy of the Presidency and of the Vice-Presidency, it required new presidential elections to be summoned (direct elections by popular ballot if the second vacancy took place in the first half of the presidential term; indirect elections by Congress if the second vacancy occurred in the second half of the presidential term). Mindful of the fact that the elected President for the 1961-1966 term was Quadros (who had resigned), succeeded as President by Goulart, his Vice-President (who was deposed by the 1964 military coup), and that he was only the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Mazzilli limited his actions to that of a caretaker Acting President, pending the holding of elections. The norms that would have governed those elections, however, were altered by continuing acts of interference from the Armed Forces that had ejected Goulart from office: on 9 April 1964, a body known as the Supreme Command of the Revolution, composed of the leaders of the military coup (the commanders of the three branches of the Armed Forces), issued an Institutional Act summoning the National Congress to elect a new President in 48 hours. The military then put forward the name of Marshal Castelo Branco, and he was elected by Congress as planned. Ranieri Mazzilli, therefore, remained as Acting President only for two weeks, until the inauguration of Castelo Branco on 15 April 1964.

[28] Alkmin was a PSD member; when the PSD was abolished in 1965, he joined ARENA.

[29] A military junta composed of the Ministers in charge of the three branches of the Armed Forces assumed the powers of the presidency on 31 August 1969 after President Costa e Sliva suffered a cerebral thrombosis that left him completely incapacitated. The military junta seized power so as to prevent Vice President Pedro Aleixo, a civilian, from becoming acting president. The possibility of a civilian, even a conservative one, assuming the powers of the presidency was seen as detrimental to the continuity of the military regime. In the initial stage of the President's disease, the junta hoped that he would recover. Subsequently, realizing that the President's condition was irreversible, and that the prolonged continuity of a triumvirate was detrimental to the regime and to its image, the military junta issued an institutional act on 14 October 1969 removing the incapacitated President and the Vice President from office and summoning Congress to elect a new President and Vice President. The military elite that controlled the regime then selected General Emílio Garrastazu Médici to be ARENA's candidate, and his name was rubber-stamped by Congress. The junta remained in place until the new President was sworn-in. In 2011, Brazil enacted a Federal Law recognizing the illegality of the acts that prevented Vice President Pedro Aleixo from becoming Acting President and that removed him from office; the statute also directs that Pedro Aleixo be deemed a former President of the Republic. Costa e Silva died less than three months after his removal, and were it not for the military acts now declared illegal that removed him from the vice-presidency, Pedro Aleixo would have succeeded to the presidency.

[31] Brazilian Federal Law number 12.486, promulgated on 12 September 2011 posthumously recognizes the illegality of the acts (see above) that prevented Vice-President Pedro Aleixo from becoming acting president and that removed him from office, and directs that he be deemed and taken as a former President of the Republic for all legal purposes.

[32] The Third Army, a Regional Command of the Brazilian Army, has been renamed in 1985 and is currently titled as the Southern Military Command.

[33] Tancredo Neves died before taking office, but more than one month after the start of his presidential term. The Constitution required the President and Vice President to be invested in their offices by taking the oath of office in the presence of a joint session of Congress. President-elect Tancredo Neves, suffering from the consequences of a tumor that was then misdiagnosed as acute diverticulitis, became gravely ill on 14 March 1985, on the eve of his inauguration, so that he could not attend the inaugural ceremonies in Congress, because his doctors concluded that he required emergency surgery. José Sarney, his running mate, accordingly appeared before Congress alone on the day of Neves's would-be inauguration, took office as Vice President and served as Acting President from start of the new presidential term, on 15 March 1985, until the day the President-elect died. Initially, there was hope that the President-elect would recover and take office, but he developed several complications and infections, and underwent several other operations, ultimately resulting in his death. Upon Neves's death on 21 April 1985, Acting President Sarney succeeded to the presidency. On the first anniversary of Neves's death a statute was signed into Law (federal law 7.465/1986), establishing that Tancredo Neves "elected but not sworn-in due to his death" should be included in the gallery of the presidents of Brazil "for all legal purposes".

[34] President Collor was impeached on corruption charges. On 29 September 1992, the Chamber of Deputies voted, by the required two-thirds majority of its members, to allow the charges against the President to be presented to the Senate. On 1 October 1992 the Senate voted to receive the charges and proceed with the trial. On 2 October 1992, upon receiving the formal writ of summons notifying him that he was now a defendant in the impeachment trial that the Senate would conduct, President Collor was automatically suspended from office for 180 days as provided in the Constitution of Brazil and Vice President Itamar Franco became Acting President. On 29 December 1992, on the final day of his trial of impeachment before the Federal Senate, President Collor resigned the presidency, in an attempt to stop the process. The Senate's session as a Court of Impeachment was suspended and two successive joint sessions of Congress were held, one shortly after the other: in the first joint session, President Collor's resignation letter was formally read before Congress by its First Secretary and entered the congressional record, and the presidential resignation thereby took legal effect, resulting in the formal declaration by the President of Congress to the assembled joint session, that the presidency of the Republic was vacant, and that, as a result of that vacancy, Acting President Franco would be summoned at once, as Collor's legal successor, to take the constitutional oath and assume the Presidency; in the second joint session of Congress, Acting President Itamar Franco was accordingly sworn-in as President, as required by the Constitution. Later in the same day, the Senate resumed its sitting as a Court of Impeachment, and it decided that the President's resignation after the start of the trial could not stop the process, given that the determination of the former President's guilt or innocence was relevant for the purposes of imposing on him the penalty of disqualification from holding public office for eight years. Accordingly, the trial of impeachment continued in spite of Collor's resignation and, in the early hours of 30 December 1992 he was found guilty of the charges, by the required majority of more than two thirds of the members of the Senate. The penalty of removal from office was declared moot as Collor had already resigned, but as a result of his conviction by the Senate he was disqualified for holding public office for eight years. The Senate's sentence in the trial of impeachment, imposing upon Collor the said penalty, was pronounced on 30 December 1992 and published in the Official Journal on 31 December 1992. Accordingly, Collor remained disqualified from holding public office until 31 December 2000.

[franco-35] Itamar Franco joined the PRN for the 1989 election to run as Collor's running mate. In office, he broke with Collor, and left the PRN on 5 May 1992, returning to the PMDB.

[36] Franco was born on board a ship off the eastern coast of Brazil, sailing between Salvador and Rio de Janeiro. His birth was registered at Salvador.

[37] On 2 December 2015 the President of the Chamber of Deputies decided to accept, for the consideration of that assembly, a petition presenting charges of impeachment against President Dilma Rousseff, on the grounds of having violated the 2015 budgetary law and fiscal responsibility norms. On 17 April 2016, the Chamber of Deputies voted, by the required two-thirds majority of its members, to allow the charges against the President to be presented to the Senate. On 12 May 2016 the Senate voted to receive the charges and proceed with the trial. On the same date, upon receiving the formal writ of summons notifying her that she was now a defendant in the impeachment trial that the Senate would conduct, President Rousseff's powers and duties were suspended for 180 days as provided in the Constitution of Brazil, and Vice-President Michel Temer became Acting President. On 31 August 2016 the Brazilian Federal Senate, sitting as a judicial body, voted, by the required two-thirds majority of its members, to convict the President and to remove her from office. The penalty of disqualification from holding public office for eight years was not imposed on the former President, because the majority of two-thirds of the members of the Senate was not reached in the specific vote on that penalty. As a result of the vacancy of the Presidency, Acting President Michel Temer succeeded to the office, being sworn-in as President before a joint session of Congress also on 31 August 2016.

[38] When Michel Temer became President, his Party was still named Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB). During his tenure in office, on 19 December 2017, the Party's National Convention altered the Party's Articles of Incorporation, changing its name back to Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB), the same name that the Party had borne from 1965 to 1981.

[39] Close to Alliance for Brazil.

[30] ttp://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_Ato2011-2014/2011/Lei/L12486.htm

Presidents of Brazil
Old Republic (1889–1930)	Deodoro da Fonseca Floriano Peixoto Prudente de Morais Campos Sales Rodrigues Alves Afonso Pena Nilo Peçanha Hermes da Fonseca Venceslau Brás Delfim Moreira Epitácio Pessoa Artur Bernardes Washington Luís Júlio Prestes
Vargas Era (1930–45)	Military Junta (Augusto Tasso Fragoso • Isaías de Noronha • Mena Barreto) Getúlio Vargas José Linhares
Republic of '46 (1946–64)	Eurico Gaspar Dutra Getúlio Vargas Café Filho Carlos Luz Nereu Ramos Juscelino Kubitschek Jânio Quadros Ranieri Mazzilli João Goulart
Military dictatorship (1964–85)	Ranieri Mazzilli Humberto Castello Branco Artur da Costa e Silva Military Junta (Augusto Rademaker • Aurélio de Lira Tavares • Márcio Melo) Emílio Garrastazu Médici Ernesto Geisel João Figueiredo
New Republic (1985–present)	Tancredo Neves José Sarney Fernando Collor de Mello Itamar Franco Fernando Henrique Cardoso Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Dilma Rousseff Michel Temer Jair Bolsonaro