Nereu de Oliveira Ramos (; 3 September 1888 – 16 June 1958) was a Brazilian

political figure A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

. He briefly served as interim

president of Brazil The president of Brazil ( pt, Presidente do Brasil), officially the president of the Federative Republic of Brazil ( pt, Presidente da República Federativa do Brasil) or simply the ''President of the Republic'', is the head of state and head o ...

in the aftermath of the political crisis which culminated in the suicide of President

Getúlio Vargas Getúlio Dornelles Vargas (; 19 April 1882 – 24 August 1954) was a Brazilian lawyer and politician who served as the 14th and 17th president of Brazil, from 1930 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1954. Due to his long and controversial tenure as Brazi ...

and the

impeachment Impeachment is the process by which a legislative body or other legally constituted tribunal initiates charges against a public official for misconduct. It may be understood as a unique process involving both political and legal elements. In ...

of Deputy

Carlos Luz Carlos Coimbra da Luz (; 4 August 1894 – 9 February 1961) was a Brazilian people, Brazilian Political figure, politician, lawyer, teacher and journalist who served as acting president of Brazil from November 8 to November 11, 1955. After the ...

and President

Café Filho João Fernandes Campos Café Filho (; 3 February 1899 – 20 February 1970) was a Brazilian politician who served as the 18th president of Brazil, taking office upon the suicide of president Getúlio Vargas. He was the first Protestant to occupy ...

Biography

Political career

Ramos was Vice President of the Republic between 1946 and 1951. The 1945 Presidential elections were held for the office of President only, but the Constitution adopted on 18 September 1946 created the office of Vice President, and established that the Constituent Assembly would choose the first Vice President and swear him in, in the day following the promulgation of the Constitution. Nereu Ramos, until then a Senator for Santa Catarina and a member of the Constituent Assembly, was elected Vice President in that special election. In his capacity as Vice President of the Republic, Ramos served as

President of the Senate President of the Senate is a title often given to the presiding officer of a senate. It corresponds to the speaker in some other assemblies. The senate president often ranks high in a jurisdiction's succession for its top executive office: for e ...

. He served as the

President of the Chamber of Deputies President of the Chamber of Deputies may refer to: * List of presidents of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies * List of presidents of the Chamber of Deputies of Bolivia * President of the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil) * President of the Chamber of Dep ...

from 1951 to 1955. Ramos was re–elected in 1954 to the Federal Senate as a representative from Santa Catarina. He became the Senate's President ''pro tempore'' in the following year. By this stage President

had taken his own life. There followed a series of brief presidential reigns: Vargas's Vice President and successor,

, took a leave of absence, declaring himself unable to discharge the powers of the presidency due to poor health. By the time President Café Filho took his leave of absence, presidential elections for the next five–year term had been held, and

Juscelino Kubitschek Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira (; 12 September 1902 – 22 August 1976), also known by his initials JK, was a prominent Brazilian politician who served as the 21st president of Brazil from 1956 to 1961. His term was marked by economic prosp ...

had been elected. Many people suspected that there would be a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

to prevent the inauguration of the President–elect. Army Minister Henrique Teixeira Lott subscribed to that view, and he considered that President Café Filho had taken his leave of absence because he was in agreement with the supposed coup forces but unwilling to lead the coup himself. His leave of absence allowed the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies,

, to assume the presidency as Acting President, and Luz was seen as hostile to the inauguration of the President–elect and likely to lead a coup to prevent it. Thus, only 48 hours after Café Filho's declaration of incapacity and the assumption of the powers of the presidency by Carlos Luz, Army Minister Lott led what he called a ''preventive counter-coup'' aimed at securing the inauguration of the President–elect chosen by the people, by avoiding the supposed coup that Luz would allegedly lead. In that preventive counter-coup, Luz was deposed, Café Filho was prohibited from resuming the powers and duties of the presidency (although he was not deposed, he was kept under house arrest for the remaining three months of his presidential term, and was barred from declaring his incapacity terminated), and the next man in the line of presidential succession, Senator Nereu Ramos, the Senate's President ''pro tempore'' assumed the powers of the presidency in the place of Carlos Luz. Ramos assumed the presidency on 11 November 1955, to complete Vargas's term. He served until January 31, 1956, whereupon President–elect Kubitschek was inaugurated. Ramos was the last President to have been born in the

Empire of Brazil The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and (until 1828) Uruguay. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom Pe ...

Death

Nereu Ramos died in a Cruzeiro airline crash on 16 June 1958, near

Curitiba Curitiba () is the capital and largest city in the state of Paraná (state), Paraná in Brazil. The city's population was 1,948,626 , making it the List of cities in Brazil by population, eighth most populous city in Brazil and the largest in ...

Afonso Pena International Airport Afonso Pena International Airport is the main airport serving Curitiba, Brazil, located in the adjoining municipality of São José dos Pinhais. It is named after Afonso Pena (1847–1909), the 6th President of Brazil. It is operated by CCR. ...

Gallery

File:Nereu Ramos.jpg, President Ramos in 1955 File:Posse de Juscelino Kubitschek como Presidente da República e de João Goulart como Vice.tif, Outgoing president Nereu Ramos (center) at the inauguration of

on January 31, 1956 File:Estátua Nereu Ramos.jpg, Statue in

Lages Lages is a Brazilian municipality located in the central part of the state of Santa Catarina, in the region known in Portuguese as "Planalto Serrano". It is located in the mountain region of the state and is the largest municipality of it. It ...

, Santa Catarina

References

External links

Presidents and Provisional Governments of the Republic
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramos, Nereu De Oliveira 1888 births 1958 deaths People from Lages Social Democratic Party (Brazil, 1945–65) politicians Presidents of Brazil Vice presidents of Brazil Ministers of Justice of Brazil Presidents of the Federal Senate (Brazil) Presidents of the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil) Governors of Santa Catarina (state) Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Brazil) from Santa Catarina Leaders who took power by coup University of São Paulo alumni Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Brazil Candidates for Vice President of Brazil