Leonel Brizola

Leonel Brizola
Governor of Rio de Janeiro
In office 15 March 1991 – 1 April 1994
Vice Governor	Nilo Batista
Preceded by	Moreira Franco
Succeeded by	Nilo Batista
In office 15 March 1983 – 15 March 1987
Vice Governor	Darcy Ribeiro
Preceded by	Chagas Freiras
Succeeded by	Moreira Franco
Federal Deputy for Guanabara
In office 14 May 1963 – 9 April 1964
Governor of Rio Grande do Sul
In office 29 March 1959 – 25 March 1963
Preceded by	Ildo Meneghetti
Succeeded by	Ildo Meneghetti
26th Mayor of Porto Alegre
In office 1 January 1956 – 29 December 1958
Vice Mayor	Tristão Sucupira Viana
Preceded by	Martim Aranha
Succeeded by	Tristão Sucupira Viana
Federal Deputy for Rio Grande do Sul
In office 1 February 1955 – 1 January 1956
State Deputy of Rio Grande do Sul
In office 10 March 1947 – 31 January 1955
Personal details
Born	Leonel de Moura Brizola (1922-01-22)22 January 1922 Carazinho, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Died	21 June 2004(2004-06-21) (aged 82) Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Political party	PDT (1979–2004) Independent (1964–1979) PTB (1945–1964)
Spouse	Neusa Goulart ​ ​ (m. 1953; died 1993)​
Relations	João Goulart (brother-in-law) Juliana Brizola (granddaughter) Brizola Neto (grandson)
Children	3 (José Vicente, João Otávio and Neusinha)
Alma mater	Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Profession	Civil engineer

Leonel de Moura Brizola (22 January 1922 – 21 June 2004) was a Brazilian politician. Launched into politics by Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas in the 1930–1950s, Brizola was the only politician to serve as elected governor of two Brazilian states. An engineer by training, Brizola organized the youth wing of the Brazilian Labour Party and served as state representative for Rio Grande do Sul and mayor of its capital, Porto Alegre. In 1958 he was elected governor and subsequently played a major role in thwarting a first coup attempt by sectors of the armed forces in 1961, who wished to stop João Goulart from assuming the presidency, under allegations of communist ties. Three years later, facing the 1964 Brazilian coup d'état that went on to install the Brazilian military dictatorship, Brizola again wanted the democratic forces to resist, but Goulart did not want to risk the possibility of civil war, and Brizola was exiled in Uruguay.

One of the few Brazilian major political figures able to overcome the dictatorship's twenty-years ban on his political activity, Brizola returned to Brazil in 1979, but failed in his bid to take control of the reemerging Brazilian Labour Party as the military government instead conceded it to Ivete Vargas. Brizola founded the Democratic Labour Party on a democratic socialist, nationalist and populist platform descended from Getúlio Vargas' own trabalhismo legacy, promoted as an ideology he called socialismo moreno ("tanned socialism"), a non-Marxist, Christian and markedly Brazilian left-wing political agenda for a post-Cold War setting. In 1982 and 1990 he was elected governor of Rio de Janeiro, after a failed 1989 bid for the presidency, in which he narrowly finished third, after Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In the 1990s, Brizola disputed for preeminence in the Brazilian left with future president Lula Workers' Party, later briefly integrating his government in the early 2000s. He was also vice-president of the Socialist International and served as Honorary President of that organization from October 2003 until his death in June 2004. Known for his sharp, energetic rhetoric and frank, direct style, Brizola is considered one of the most important historic figures of the Brazilian left.