Ernesto Geisel

Ernesto Beckmann Geisel (August 3, 1907 – September 12, 1996) was a Brazilian Army officer and politician, who was President of Brazil from 1974 to 1979, during the Brazilian military dictatorship for 1964 until 1985, headed by the National Renewal Alliance.

Biography

Ernesto Geisel was born in Bento Gonçalves, Rio Grande do Sul province. His father was Guilherme Augusto Geisel (born Wilhelm August Geisel), a German Brazilian teacher from Herborn who immigrated to the Empire of Brazil in 1883 at age 16. His mother was the homemaker Lydia Beckmann, born in Brazil in Teutônia colony to German parents from Osnabrück.

In Bento Gonçalves, where Ernesto was raised, there were only two families of German origin (Geisels and Drehers), and most of the population was composed of Italian immigrants. Remembering the contact with the local Italian immigrants during his childhood Geisel described the cultural contrasts between the strict and rigorous education that his German parents imposed compared to the freedom and more relaxed way of life of his Italian friends had that he admired.

Geisel was raised in a Lutheran family, they belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil, and his grandfather was a priest. He claimed to come from a relatively poor family of lower middle class. At home, Geisel spoke German as well as Portuguese because his father, who spoke Portuguese so well that he became a teacher of that language, did not want his children to speak Portuguese with a foreign accent. As an adult, Geisel reported that he was able to understand German but could not write it and had some difficulty speaking it.

Geisel married Lucy Markus, the daughter of an army colonel, in 1940. They had a daughter, Amália Lucy (later a university professor), and a son, Orlando, from whose 1957 death in a train accident Geisel never completely recovered. His widow died in an automobile accident in March 2000.

Geisel joined the military coup led by Getúlio Vargas that overthrew the elected government and installed a dictatorship in 1930. Geisel supported Vargas for 15 years, serving in a variety of military and civil administrative posts, but in 1945 he played an important part in overthrowing Vargas’s government. Over the course of the next 15 years he held several important offices, including deputy chief of the military staff of the presidency and military representative to the National Petroleum Council, gaining a reputation for incisive leadership. He participated in the military coup of 1964 and became chief of President Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco’s military staff. In 1969 Geisel took charge of Petrobrás, the national oil corporation, expanding its scope and increasing production dramatically.

Placed in the presidency by the military oligarchy following the end of previous president Emílio Garrastazu Médici's term, Geisel risked their opposition by beginning a gradual liberalization and demilitarization of the government, permitting open legislative elections in 1974, meeting with opposition leaders, and relaxing censorship. He outlined a new economic policy, “pragmatic nationalism,” which called for shifting emphasis from exports to the development of domestic industry, such as mining, agriculture, and transportation networks. However, the torture of regime's left-wing and Communist opponents by DOI-CODI was still ongoing, as demonstrated by the 1975 murder of Vladimir Herzog.

In 2018, an unearthed CIA memorandum from April 11, 1974 sent by William Colby to U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger details the summary executions of over 100 "subversives" which were personally authorized by Ernesto Geisel himself.

In his 5 years of government, Geisel adopted a more pragmatic foreign policy. Despite being a conservative and deeply anti-communist, Geisel made significant overtures towards the communist bloc. Brazil established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China and socialist regimes of Angola and Mozambique, signaling a growing distance between Brasília and Washington. Although both countries remained allies, Geisel was keen to seek new alliances and, more importantly, new economic opportunities in other parts of the world, especially Africa and Asia.

Brazil shifted its foreign policy to meet its economic needs. "Responsible pragmatism" replaced strict alignment with the United States and a worldview based on ideological frontiers and blocs of nations. Because Brazil was 80% dependent on imported oil, Geisel shifted the country from a critical support of Israel to a more neutral stance on Middle Eastern affairs. Brazil moved closer to Latin America, Europe and Japan.

The 1975 agreement with West Germany to build nuclear reactors produced confrontation with the Carter administration, which also scolded the Geisel government for abusing human rights. Frustrated with what he saw as the highhandedness and lack of understanding of the Carter administration, Geisel renounced the military alliance with the United States in April 1977.

Although there had been some initial indications that he might be succeeded by an elected civilian president, Geisel and his supporters saw that they would encounter fierce resistance from more conservative military elements. Accordingly, Geisel opted to consolidate the “decompression” of the regime and keep the liberalization process from getting out of control. To this end he outmaneuvered opponents of democratization and secured the election of a loyal associate, João Figueiredo, as his successor in 1979. After Geisel left office, he continued to play a major role in Brazil’s petrochemical industry.