Born Apr. 19, 1883, in Säo Borja; died Aug. 24, 1954, in Rio de Janeiro. Governmental and political figure of Brazil.

Vargas was chief executive and president from 1930 to 1945. Using anti-imperialist and nationalist slogans he succeeded in enlisting the support of part of the laboring masses and laid the foundation for social legislation; at the same time he cruelly suppressed revolutionary liberation, workers’, and communist movements. In 1937 he established the regime of the New State, which was modeled after the Italian corporate state, and outlawed all political parties. His main objective was to promote the development of Brazilian capitalism, especially of the state sector of industry. In foreign policy he maneuvered between the USA and Germany. In 1945 he founded the bourgeois reformist Brazilian Labor Party, allowed the activity of other parties, and established diplomatic relations with the USSR. In the same year he was swept from power by a coup d’etat. In 1950 he was again elected president, assuming the post in 1951. Vargas opened Brazil to private capital investments from the USA. At the same time he established several state national companies, such as Petrobras (state petroleum monopoly), which was founded in 1953. In May 1954, under the pressure of the popular masses, he doubled the minimum wages for workers and employees as compared to 1951. During the coup d’etat of August 1954, not being able to rely on the popular masses, Vargas committed suicide.