Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa

Pereira de Sousa resulted in this article. For other people, see Pereira de Souza .

Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa

Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa and his cabinet 1926

Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa , Portuguese pronunciation [ ˈwɔʃĩtõ luˈiz peˈɾejɾɐ dʒi ˈsowzɐ ], (born October 26, 1869 in Macaé , RJ ; † August 4, 1957 in São Paulo ) was a Brazilian politician. He was Governor of the State of São Paulo from 1920 to 1924 and the 13th President of the United States of Brazil from 1926 to 1930 .

Life

Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa, known for short as Washington Luís, was the son of Joaquim Luís Pereira de Sousa and Florinda Sá Pinto Pereira de Sousa. He came from an influential family of the Empire , including Pedro Luís Pereira de Sousa and Francisco Belisário Soares de Sousa . Washington Luís studied law at the Law Faculty in São Paulo . He began his political career in 1897 as the mayor of Batatais . As a result, Pereira de Sousa served in several offices in the state of São Paulo, including as Minister of Justice of the State of São Paulo, Mayor of the City of São Paulo and then President of the State of São Paulo. In 1925 he was elected to the Brazilian Senate.

In 1926, Washington Luís ran for president of Brazil against a disorganized opposition. After his election victory, he lifted the state of emergency imposed by his predecessor. However, he restricted the freedom of the press through censorship; freedom of assembly was also limited. In the term of office Luís' fell global economic crisis and the associated Brazilian coffee crisis. The dramatically reduced demand for coffee abroad led to high levels of debt in Brazil.

When Washington Luís' term of office drew to a close in 1930, he and the government he led tried to establish a successor to the president from among the ranks of the coffee oligarchy of São Paulo state. On March 1, 1930, the launched election of Júlio Prestes de Albuquerque took place . The opposition refused to recognize this election and with it the defeat of its candidate Getúlio Dornelles Vargas . She allied herself with the military, also marginalized by the coffee oligarchy . A military coup broke out from the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul on the capital Rio de Janeiro . On October 24, 1930, Washington refused to resign Luís at a government meeting, whereupon the military encircled him in the Palácio Laranjeiras , arrested him and finally forced him into exile.

Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa lived in the USA and Europe after his loss of power . He did not return to Brazil until 1947. However, he turned down an offer from his supporters to return to politics.

Political career

• Batatais Town Council - 1897–1898
• Intendente (equivalent to mayor) of Batatais - 1898–1900
• Member of the state parliament - 1904–1905
• State Secretary for Security of São Paulo - 1906–1912
• Member of the State Parliament - 1912–1913
• Mayor of São Paulo - 1914-1919
• Governor of the State of São Paulo - 1920–1924
• Senator of the Republic - 1925–1926
• President of Brazil - 1926–1930

literature

• Jorge Miguel Mayer: Luís, Washington. In: www.fgv.br. Fundação Getulio Vargas, CPDOC - Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil (Brazilian Portuguese, detailed biography). 

Web links

• Biography on www.biblioteca.presidencia.gov.br (Portuguese),
• Newspaper article about Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

predecessor	Office	successor
Artur da Silva Bernardes	President of Brazil 1926–1930	Júlio Prestes