On This Day: Brazilian president commits suicide

AUGUST 24, 1954: Brazilian president Getulio Vargas committed suicide on this day in 1954 in a bid to avoid being ousted after a record 18 years in office.

The quasi-fascist who took power after military coup but later served as a freely elected leader, shot himself in the heart after the country’s generals urged him to quit.

The famous last lines of 72-year-old’s suicide note read: “Serenely, I take my first step on the road to eternity and I leave life to enter history.”

A British Pathé newsreel shows crowds mourning for the man who made ordinary Brazilians wealthier by industrialising the economy via widescale state intervention.

Yet his time in power remains highly controversial since he also courted the Nazis and adopted a fascist police state to crush opposition and further his quest.

The country’s longest serving leader was handed power by the army following the Brazilian Revolution of 1930 after losing that year’s presidential election.

Vargas, who was nicknamed the Father of the Poor, went on to legalise trade unions, introduce a minimum wage and give workers the right to holiday and maternity pay.

He also gave women the vote and used public funds to subsidise manufacturing and import tariffs to encourage consumers to buy ever more Brazilian-made goods.

But his administration took a more sinister step after introducing a new constitution in 1934 that resembled measures taken by Benito Mussolini’s fascist regime in Italy.

He centralised power and gave the parliament authority over the private firms while also co-opting unions through state-run syndicates to mediate workplace disputes.

Vargas also mirrored Mussolini by using nationalism to raise output and industrialise in a bid to fuel growth, reduce foreign dependency and suppress communism.

The same year Vargas, whose policies led to massive economic growth as the Great Depression hurt other countries, rigged the presidential election so he would win.

Vargas moved further to the right and consolidated his power by banning a host of left-wing opposition parties while supporting fascist Green Shirt paramilitaries.

In 1937 - a year before his self-imposed constitutional one-term limit as president was due to expire - he took dictatorial control after forging plans for a communist revolt.

In the aftermath, Brazil increasingly resembled a police state with the regime banning political parties, imposing censorship and filling prisons with dissidents.

And despite, prohibiting the German-funded Green Shirts since he no longer needed them to suppress communism, he flirted more and more with Nazis.

[On This Day: Battle of Stalingrad begins]

In 1938, he deported Olga Benario Prestes, the Jewish wife of a communist leader, to her native Germany, where she died at Ravensbrück concentration camp in 1942.

In response, the Nazi’s gave arms and aid while Germany became the number one importer of Brazilian cotton and the second biggest market for its cocoa and coffee.

Yet Vargas turned down an invitation to join the Axis military alliance along with the Nazi state, Italy and Japan.

He also angered the Germany by banning its substantial ethnic minority in southern Brazil from publicly using any language other than Portuguese.

And by 1942, with the Second World War raging, Vargas had turned his back on Hitler and Mussolini and declared war on Germany and Italy.

[On This Day: Hawaii becomes most recent U.S. state]

But the fact that Brazil was fighting fascist regimes abroad while supporting one at home didn’t go unnoticed and Vargas swung left again and promised democracy.

He relinquished power in 1945 when the war ended and called the first fare elections, which were won by pro-American Gaspar Dutra.

But, six years later, as economy stalled amid over rising U.S. control of Brazilians firms grew, voters freely backed Vargas when he stood for president again.

He nationalised industries - including oil – and his interventionist policies became the bedrock of Brazilian politics for years and also inspired other Latin American leaders.

[On This Day: World's first nuclear-powered passenger ship sets sail]

Yet, in spite of his renewed public popularity, the army was increasingly unhappy after accusing his administration of attempting to assassinate a rival.

But, rather than resign, he preferred to remain in office until death – with his suicide preserving his legacy as the most influential politician in Brazilian history.

His policies were largely scrapped between 1964 and 1985 when Brazil’s wealth gap between rich and poor widened dramatically during military rule.