Jânio Quadros (1917 - 1992)
Jânio Quadros was a Brazilian politician whose career stood out for its moralistic speeches and promises to fight corruption. He was born in Campo Grande, then in the state of Mato Grosso and today the capital of Mato Grosso do Sul, on January 25, 1917, the son of Gabriel Quadros and Leonor da Silva Quadros. In 1935, he entered law school. After graduating, he set up a small law office in downtown São Paulo and began teaching at two schools.
Jânio Quadros
He ran for city councilor in the 1947 elections on the ticket of the Partido Democrata Cristão (PDC) [Christian Democratic Party], but did not obtain enough votes to be elected. However, with the suspension of the registration of the Partido Comunista Brasileiro (PCB) [Brazilian Communist Party] and the subsequent revocation of its legislators' mandates, many seats were left vacant in the São Paulo City Council, where the PCB had the largest caucus. Jânio was one of the alternates called to fill these seats in 1948. His work as a councilor was decisive in projecting him into São Paulo's political life.
His prestige grew so much that in October 1950 he was elected state representative. During his term, he traveled throughout the interior of the state, always championing the cause of moralizing the public service and asking the people for suggestions to solve each region's problems. In early 1953, the city of São Paulo witnessed its first mayoral election campaign in 23 years, since the Revolution of 1930. Jânio was launched as the PDC candidate in a coalition with the Partido Socialista Brasileiro (PSB) [Brazilian Socialist Party], winning by a wide margin over the main local party machines.
He took office as mayor at the age of 36, and one of his first acts was to carry out mass dismissals of civil servants, launching a moralizing crusade that marked his administration. In 1954, he stepped down from the post to run for governor of the state of São Paulo. Having won the election, he was sworn in as governor on January 31, 1955. From the start of his government, he sought to expand his political space at the national level, establishing contacts with President João Café Filho. The rapprochement between the two created more favorable conditions for the São Paulo government to carry out the financial recovery of the state.
With Kubitschek's inauguration in January 1956, the implementation of the Plano de Metas [Targets Plan] began. São Paulo was the state that benefited most from the establishment of new industries and the concentration of credit but, despite this, Jânio remained aligned with the UDN opposition on important aspects of the economic policy then in force. São Paulo's economic expansion in this period was reflected in the increase in the state's tax revenue and in the creation of favorable conditions for reducing the financial deficit inherited from previous governments.
The campaign for the 1960 presidential succession took place in a context altered by the economic and social transformations that occurred during the Kubitschek government, whose developmentalist policy led to great urban growth.
On April 20, 1959, a group met at the Associação Brasileira de Imprensa (ABI) [Brazilian Press Association] in Rio de Janeiro and founded the Movimento Popular Jânio Quadros (MPJQ) [Jânio Quadros Popular Movement], launching on that occasion the former São Paulo governor's candidacy for the Presidency of the Republic. Jânio won the election of October 3, 1960. In the same election, João Goulart was elected vice president. Shortly after being elected, Jânio traveled to Europe, returning shortly before his inauguration.
Jânio Quadros and João Goulart were sworn in on January 31, 1961. Contrary to general expectations, the president's inaugural speech was discreet and courteous, even praising the previous government. However, that same night, Jânio violently attacked the Kubitschek government in a nationwide radio broadcast, accusing the former president of nepotism and administrative inefficiency and holding him responsible for the high inflation rates and the foreign debt of two billion dollars.
At the beginning of his government, Jânio took a series of small measures that became famous, intended to create an image of renewal of customs and moral cleansing. He also moved forcefully against some of the rights and privileges of civil servants. He reduced the benefits previously guaranteed to military personnel and Ministry of Finance staff on missions abroad, and abolished the posts of air attachés at Brazilian diplomatic missions.
On the administrative front, he sought greater centralization of power by adopting a decision-making mechanism that would reduce the weight of the National Congress and expand the sphere of competence of the Presidency. With the strengthening of the labor movement and the peasant leagues, and the growth of social conflicts, a political movement in favor of the so-called basic reforms and an institutional reorganization began to take shape. The labor movement itself established an ambiguous relationship with the government, supporting its foreign policy, opposing its economic policy and, for the most part, disagreeing with the proposal to abolish the union tax, defended by Minister Castro Neves.
On March 13, 1961, Jânio announced the course of his economic policy in a speech broadcast on national radio and television. He also announced an exchange-rate reform that served the interests of the export sector and of international creditors, severely penalizing the domestic groups that had taken out foreign financing while the previous rate was in effect. Despite the improvement achieved in the budgetary situation, the exchange-rate reform was opposed by the opposition parties. Nevertheless, this set of measures by the Jânio government was very well received by foreign creditors and resulted in new financial agreements.
On July 7, 1961, Jânio gathered his entire cabinet to study reforms of the income tax and of the penal, civil and accounting codes. While pursuing a domestic policy considered conservative and fully accepted by the United States, he sought to assert abroad the principles of an independent foreign policy open to relations with every country in the world. This orientation provoked protests from numerous sectors and groups that supported him.
He also pressed ahead with his plan to establish relations with the nations of the socialist bloc. In May, he received at the Palácio do Planalto the first trade mission sent to Brazil by the People's Republic of China. The same happened in July with the Soviet goodwill mission, which sought to increase trade and cultural exchange between Brazil and the Soviet Union. The first steps toward restoring diplomatic relations between the two countries were taken on July 25, but the process would only be completed during the Goulart government.
Relations between the countries of the Americas and the United States were discussed in August at the special meeting of the Inter-American Economic and Social Council, known as the Punta del Este Conference. At the end of the meeting, Ernesto Che Guevara, Cuba's Minister of the Economy, traveled to Argentina and then to Brazil to express his thanks for the position these two countries had taken in preventing any political issue from being discussed at the conference. Jânio took advantage of his meeting with Guevara to successfully request the release of 20 Spanish priests imprisoned in Cuba and to discuss the possibilities of trade through the countries of Eastern Europe. Finally, on August 18, he awarded the Cuban minister the National Order of the Southern Cross, which provoked the indignation of the more conservative civilian and military sectors.
A serious political crisis had been unleashed. The inauguration of João Goulart, then on an official visit to China, would be the legal consequence of Jânio Quadros's resignation. The first popular demonstrations took place on August 25 itself. On the 27th, the outgoing president boarded a ship bound for London, leading the military chiefs to consider sending a warship to force him to disembark in Salvador, where he would take a military plane back to Brasília, a plan that was never carried out. Congress approved the Additional Act promulgated on September 3, guaranteeing Goulart's term until January 31, 1966, under a parliamentary system. Goulart was finally sworn in on September 7.
Jânio returned from Europe in time to run for governor of São Paulo and was launched by the Partido Trabalhista Nacional (PTN) [National Labor Party] and the Movimento Trabalhista Renovador (MTR) [Renewal Labor Movement]. However, he failed to reunite the forces that had supported him in the previous election, suffering his first electoral defeat and remaining in a relatively marginal position in national political life until the outbreak of the political-military movement that overthrew the Goulart government on March 31, 1964.
His political rights were revoked on April 10, 1964, by decision of the Supreme Command of the Revolution, and he then devoted himself to private activities. During this period, he took part in political life in a moderate and indirect way, following candidates and issuing statements to the press signed by his wife, Eloá Quadros.
With the policy of political easing introduced by President Ernesto Geisel from 1974 onward, Jânio began to appear with some frequency in the political news again. Throughout 1977 and 1978, he advocated the convening of a national constituent assembly that would institutionalize the 1964 movement and establish a "strong democracy".
When new political parties began to be organized in the second half of 1979, he expressed sympathy for the Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro (PTB) [Brazilian Labor Party], which he officially joined on November 15, 1980, and was launched as the party's candidate for governor of São Paulo at its convention in April 1981. When it became known that the government would prohibit party coalitions in the 1982 elections, he published a manifesto on June 26, 1981, announcing his departure from the PTB and advocating the merger of all opposition parties.
After declining invitations from the Partido Democrático Trabalhista (PDT) [Democratic Labor Party], led by Leonel Brizola, and the Partido Democrático Republicano (PDR) [Democratic Republican Party], which never obtained final registration with the Electoral Court, Jânio rejoined the PTB on November 3 and, at the end of that month, announced that he would run for the Chamber of Deputies rather than for governor of São Paulo. However, he reversed this decision and agreed to resume his candidacy as originally planned. In the November 1982 election, he ran for governor of São Paulo on the PTB ticket, suffering the second electoral defeat of his entire political career.
In 1985, he returned to the center of politics as the PTB candidate for mayor of São Paulo in the election of November 15 of that year. Elected, he took office in January 1986.
He completed his term as mayor in December 1988. In April 1989, he went on a tourist trip through Europe and the Middle East. After returning to Brazil in May, he joined the Partido Social Democrata (PSD) [Social Democratic Party].
In November 1990, already suffering from health problems, Jânio was shaken by the death of his wife, Eloá do Vale, with whom he had two children. Over the next two years, his health worsened, and he died on February 16, 1992, in São Paulo.
Source: Dicionário Histórico Biográfico Brasileiro pós 1930 [Brazilian Historical-Biographical Dictionary after 1930]. 2nd ed. Rio de Janeiro: Ed. FGV, 2001
Summary of the Life of Jânio Quadros
1917 - At 11 a.m. on Thursday, January 25, Jânio da Silva Quadros is born on Rua 14 de Julho, in Campo Grande (Mato Grosso do Sul). His parents are the physician and agronomist Gabriel Nogueira Quadros and Leonor da Silva Quadros.
1924 - The Quadros family moves from Mato Grosso to Paraná, first passing through several towns in the interior of São Paulo. In Lorena, the last of them, young Jânio is enrolled in primary school at the Colégio dos Salesianos. He completes his first year of studies - and later all of primary school - at the Grupo Escolar Conselheiro Zacarias in Curitiba.
1928 - Jânio begins secondary school at the Instituto Santa Maria, also in Curitiba.
1930 - Gabriel Quadros fights against the Aliança Liberal [Liberal Alliance] in the Revolution. In retaliation, he loses his public posts in Paraná and moves again, with the whole family, to São Paulo. As a result, Jânio loses the school year.
1931 - Jânio Quadros enrolls at the Colégio Arquidiocesano to finish secondary school.
1933 - In November, he completes secondary school. The Quadros family provides a modest life for their children, Jânio, then 16, and Dirce, 14. (Dirce died at the age of 15.)
1934 - At the end of the year, Jânio completes the preparatory course for the São Paulo Law School, which he will attend from 1935.
1936 - The Quadros family's financial problems worsen. Jânio, still a student, cannot pay the second installment of the annual tuition and asks the dean of the law school, Francisco Morato, for a deferral.
1938 - A teacher of Geography and Portuguese at the Dante Alighieri and Vera Cruz secondary schools in São Paulo, Jânio runs in his first election, for the Partido Acadêmico Conservador [Conservative Academic Party]. He stands for first secretary of the Centro Acadêmico XI de Agosto at the Largo São Francisco Law School and is elected after a campaign in which he asked for every vote in person. That same year, he joined the Associação Acadêmica Álvares de Azevedo and took the Castro Alves chair at the law school's Academy of Letters. He writes verse for student publications.
1940 - On January 16, Jânio receives his bachelor's degree in Legal and Social Sciences. Registered with the Brazilian Bar Association under No. 3,805 on October 14, he begins a career in criminal law that would last seven years.
1942 - He marries Eloá, the daughter of a pharmacist from the São Paulo neighborhood of Bom Retiro.
1943 - His only daughter, Dirce Maria, known as Tutu, is born; he will maintain a love-hate relationship with her throughout his life.
1947 - A member of the Partido Democrata Cristão (PDC) [Christian Democratic Party], Jânio fails to be elected city councilor on November 9, becoming an alternate with 1,707 votes (with the banning of the Communist Party, he would later take a seat). The record holder for bills and motions filed in the City Council, his tenure is marked by controversies on the floor that, at least once, ended in physical aggression against him.
1950 - On October 3, chosen by 17,840 voters, he becomes the most voted representative in the São Paulo Legislative Assembly, again for the PDC.
1952 - Supported by the tiny PDC and the Partido Socialista Brasileiro [Brazilian Socialist Party], he faces a coalition of seven parties (PSP, PTB, PSD, UDN, PRP, PR and PRP) and wins the mayoralty of the state capital with 284,922 votes - more than double the votes of all the other candidates combined. He calls his undertaking a "white revolution through the vote" and runs an administration that puts the municipal finances in order.
1954 - He takes a three-month leave from the mayoralty and sets off on his first trip abroad, taking his wife Eloá and his daughter Tutu. He visits Paris and Rome at the invitation of the local city governments. Jânio had been launched in January as a candidate for state governor and would win the election of October 3 with 660,264 votes.
1955 - He leaves the mayoralty on January 31 to take office as state governor. Once again he runs a moralizing government, controlling public spending and turning the state deficit into a surplus.
1956 - Jânio makes his second trip abroad. He takes his mother, wife and daughter to the United States, France and England over a period of sixty days. He cites medical treatment as the reason and makes statements in favor of restoring relations with the communist countries.
1957 - On May 18, his father, Gabriel Quadros, then a federal representative, is murdered. Jânio declares his political career over. He defies censorship orders issued to radio and television by the Federal Department of Public Security. In December, he registers his candidacy for federal representative for the Paraná branch of the Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro (PTB) [Brazilian Labor Party].
1959 - He leaves the São Paulo government on January 31 to take up the seat of representative for Paraná, which he had won on October 3 of the previous year with a state record of 78,810 votes. In April, the Partido Trabalhista Nacional [National Labor Party] launches him as a candidate to succeed Juscelino Kubitschek. Backed by the PDC, he begins his campaign, but withdraws on November 25, in a maneuver that leads Carlos Lacerda to mount a successful campaign for him to resume his candidacy. He also wins the support of the UDN and the PL.
1960 - He visits Havana at the invitation of Fidel Castro. He spends more than five hundred hours in the air during the presidential campaign. On October 3, he defeats Marshal Henrique Teixeira Lott by a margin of 1.8 million votes. He obtains 5,636,623 votes for the Presidency of the Republic, or 48.57% of the total. After the election, he undergoes eye surgery in London. He wins the "revelation of the year" award from the board of the Clube dos Comentaristas de Discos for the rock ballad Convite de Amor [Invitation to Love], co-written with Rossini Pinto and recorded by Copacabana. The lyrics say that the world is "an immense sphere of harmony and light / and life is always an eternal spring / that enchants and seduces".
1961 - He takes office as president in January. He awards Che Guevara the Grand Cross of the Southern Cross and, without a majority in Congress, faces fierce opposition to his government. He resigns on August 25 and two days later sails to London aboard the freighter Uruguai Star.
1962 - He returns to Brazil in March, runs for governor of São Paulo and suffers his first defeat at the polls, to Adhemar de Barros. He receives 1,125,941 votes, against his opponent's 1,249,414.
1964 - He complains about the military regime in a letter to Marshal-President Castelo Branco and has his political rights revoked for ten years.
1966 - He publishes his Curso Prático de Língua Portuguesa e sua Literatura [Practical Course in the Portuguese Language and Its Literature], in six volumes.
1967 - With the collaboration of Afonso Arinos, he publishes História do Povo Brasileiro [History of the Brazilian People], also in six volumes.
1968 - He is punished for political statements with four months of confinement in Corumbá (MT).
1974 - He regains his voter registration but stays away from running for public office.
1976 - The painter Jânio Quadros is born, touring the country with an exhibition of a series of oil paintings he calls "Minhas Bonecas" [My Dolls].
1979 - He considers returning to public life as a candidate to succeed São Paulo governor Paulo Maluf.
1980 - He joins the PTB of Representative Ivete Vargas, but leaves the party the following year.
1981 - He signs up with the PMDB in June, but is barred in October by a challenge from the party's National Executive. Only Orestes Quércia, Alencar Furtado and José Storópoli vote in his favor in that decision. He returns to the PTB in November.
1982 - He runs as the PTB candidate for governor of São Paulo in the first direct election since the 1964 coup. Before the election, he visits the president of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, and leaves the meeting praising "his efforts for world peace". He finishes third, with 1,447,328 votes, against 5,209,952 for the winner, Franco Montoro of the PMDB.
1983 - He publishes Quinze Contos [Fifteen Short Stories], a book harshly panned by the critics (prefaced by José Sarney and Mário Palmério - both members of the Academia Brasileira de Letras).
1984 - Battling breast cancer, Eloá undergoes surgery in São Paulo. Jânio launches his candidacy for mayor of São Paulo on April 30.
1985 - Again for the PTB, he is elected mayor of São Paulo with 1,572,454 votes.
1986 - He takes office as mayor and hangs a pair of football boots in his office, retiring from electoral contests.
1987 - It is discovered that Jânio holds a numbered account in Geneva, Switzerland.
1989 - He fails to attend the handover of office to the PT mayor Luiza Erundina. He leaves for the US and Europe, from where he feeds the press with speculation about his candidacy for the Presidency of the Republic. He suffers a stroke during the trip - the first of a series that would eventually confine him to a wheelchair.
1990 - In February, he declares himself available to run for state governor once again. In July, he suffers another stroke. He is admitted to InCor in October in serious condition. He returns home disabled, in a wheelchair. In November, he loses his wife Eloá and begins receiving only a few friends, first at his mansion in Morumbi and later in an apart-hotel room.
1992 - On February 16, former president Jânio Quadros dies.
Notes: (*) He is a university professor, journalist and writer
Text: Nelson Valente, website SaoPauloMinhaCidade.com.br
