Background
Leonel Brizola was born on 22 January 1922 in Rio Grande do Sul.
Leonel Brizola was born on 22 January 1922 in Rio Grande do Sul.
He attended a variety of schools, finally graduating from the Engineering School of the University of Rio Grande do Sul in 1949.
Brizola joined the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB) in 1945 and was elected to the state assembly in 1947.
In October 1954 Brizola won a seat in the federal Congress to represent the PTB. Elected mayor of the city of Porto Alegre in 1955, he developed neighborhood school programs and improved public transportation.
Brizóla won an easy victory in the 1958 gubernatorial election. As governor, his most controversial action was expropriation of the Rio Grandense Light and Power Company, a subsidiary of American and Foreign Power. He followed this move with the 1962 takeover of the state’s telephone company, owned by International Telephone and Telegraph Company.
The resignation of President Jánio Quadras in August 1961 brought Governor Brizóla into national prominence. When military authorities attempted to block the accession of Vice President Goulart, Governor Brizóla organized a radio network that gave unconditional support to Goulart. When Third Army Commander General Machado Lopes sided with the governor, a civil war appeared imminent, as Brizóla disributed weapons to a citizens militia. The situation was defused when the constitution was changed to a parliamentary form of govern¬ment and Goulart was sworn in as president.
In 1962 Brizóla ran for a congressional seat from the state of Guanabara on the PTB ticket. He was overwhelmingly elected. The radicalization of Brazilian politics accelerated when Brizóla organized clandestine “Groups of 11,” which he hoped would get support from the National Sergeants Command and the Sailors Enlisted Men’s Organization. However, when the March 31, 1964, revolution occurred, the Groups of 11 never materialized, and Brizóla, along with Goulart, fled into exile.
Brizóla remained in Uruguay until 1977, when he went to the United States and then to Portugal. Various European Socialist parties took a great interest in him, and when political amnesty was decreed in Brazil in August 1979, he returned to Brazil. He quickly organized the PDT (Democratic Labor Party) and was elected governor of the state of Rio de Janeiro in November 1982.
In March 1950 he married Neusa Goulart, the sister of Joao Belchior Marques Goulart.