Bush’s Trip: BRAZIL



|Parallel Timelines of Brazilian Political History* and Lula da Silva** |

|(*) - Political history of Brazil timeline modified from timeline provided by the BBC. |

|(**) - Lula’s timeline build up based in Alves, Brito. A História de Lula: O operário presidente. Espaço e Tempo: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, |

|2003; Dantas, Jr., Altino. Lula sem Censura:e aí a peãozada partiu pro pau. Editora Vozes: Petrópolis, Brazil, 1981; Morel, Mário. Lula o |

|Metalúrgico: Anatomia de uma Liderança. Editoria Nova Fronteira: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1981; Paraná, Denise. Lula, o Filho do Brasil. |

|Editora Fundação Perseu Abramo: São Paulo, Brazil, 2002. |

| | | |

|Revolt places Getúlio Vargas at head of provisional |1930 | |

|revolutionary government. | | |

| | | |

|Vargas leads coup, rules as dictator with military backing. |1937 | |

|Economy placed under authoritarian state control, start of | | |

|social welfare revolution and reform of laws governing | | |

|industry. | | |

| | | |

|Brazil initially declares itself neutral but in 1943 joins |1939 | |

|Allies in World War II. | | |

| | | |

|Vargas ousted in military coup. Elections held under |1945 |September: Lula's father leaves his family to move to the |

|caretaker government. New constitution returns power to | |state of Sao Paulo. |

|states. | | |

| | |October 27: Lula is born in Garanhuns, in the countryside of|

| | |Pernambuco, the seventh son of poor peasants. |

| | | |

| |1950 |Lula finally meets his father. |

| | | |

|Vargas elected president, but faces stiff opposition. |1951 | |

| | | |

| |1952 |Lula's family immigrates to the town of Santos in Sao Paulo |

| | |state in a 13-day truck ride. |

| | | |

| | |Lula gets his first job selling peanuts and oranges as a |

| | |street vendor and enters primary school. |

| | | |

|Vargas commits suicide after military gives him the options |1954 | |

|of resigning or being overthrown. | | |

| | | |

| |1955-56 |Lula's mother leaves his father and moves the family to Sao |

| | |Paulo (city). |

| | | |

|Juscelino Kubitschek is president, helping Brazil achieve |1956-61 | |

|rapid economic growth. | | |

| | | |

|Kubitschek moves capital to Brasilia. |1960 |Lula enters the SENAI and starts his training as a |

| | |metallurgist. |

| | | |

| | |Lula participates in his first strike. |

| | | |

|Janio Quadros elected president, but resigns after several | | |

|months, plunging country into constitutional crisis. | | |

|Succeeded by left-wing vice-president Joao Goulart. | | |

| | | |

|Goulart ousted in bloodless coup, flees into exile. Military|1964 | |

|rule associated with repression but also with rapid economic| | |

|growth based on state-ownership of key sectors. | | |

| | | |

| | |Lula joins the metallurgist labor union. |

| | | |

| |1969 |Lula is nominated by his brother 'Friar Chico' to join the |

| | |board of directors of the metallurgist labor union of Sao |

| | |Bernardo do Campo e Diadema. |

| | | |

| | |Lula is married to Maria de Lourdes. |

| | | |

| |1971 |Lula's wife dies of hepatitis in the eighth month of |

| | |pregnancy. This sends Lula into a three-year stage of |

| | |depression. |

| | | |

| |1972 |Lula is re-elected to the board of directors of the union |

| | |and becomes the First Secretary, the number two leadership |

| | |position. |

| | | |

|General Ernesto Geisel becomes president, introduces reforms|1974 |Lula marries his second wife, Marisa Leticia. |

|which allow limited political activity and elections. | | |

| | | |

| | |Lula loses a finger in a work accident. |

| | | |

| |1975 |Lula is elected president of the labor union and creates the|

| | |'New Syndicalism'. |

| | | |

| | |Lula is invited by Toyota to visit some factories in Japan. |

| | |The militaries suspect him of espionage and arrest and |

| | |torture his Communist brother 'Friar Chico', inspiring the |

| | |beginning of Lula's political activism on the large scale. |

| | | |

| |1978 |Lula is re-elected president of the union with 98% of the |

| | |votes. |

| | | |

| | |Lula leads his first strike. One hour after the strike |

| | |begins, he learns of his father's death. |

| | | |

| |1979 |First unified strike of the metallurgic labor unions under |

| | |Lula. The Labor Ministry considers the strike illegal and |

| | |removes Lula from the directorship for two months. |

| | | |

| |1980 |February: Lula and others found the Brazilian Labor party, |

| | |PT (Partida dos Trabalhadores) |

| | | |

| | |April: Lula leads the longest general strike of the |

| | |metallurgists, 41 days. Lula is arrested for 31 days for |

| | |threatening national security. |

| | | |

| |1981 |Lula is condemned to 3 1/2 years of prison by the military |

| | |justice. He appeals the decision and his imprisonment is |

| | |postponed. |

| | | |

| | |First election in which the PT participates; PT elects 8 |

| | |federal representatives, 12 state representatives and 78 |

| | |county representatives in the state of Sao Paulo. Lula runs |

| | |for governor and loses. |

| | | |

|Brazil halts payment of its main foreign debt, which is |1982 |April: Lula's sentence is repealed by the Superior military |

|among the world's biggest. | |court. |

| | | |

| |1983 |With other union directors, Lula founds the Central Union of|

| | |Workers (CUT), a national federation of unions. |

| | | |

|The 'Diretas Já' campaign pushed for the return of direct | | |

|presidential elections, bringing together many of the major | | |

|players of the post-dictatorship era. | | |

| | | |

|Tancredo Neves elected first civilian president in 21 years |1985 |Lula is elected as congressman to the Brazilian lower house,|

|under the electoral college system set up by the military, | |garnering the most votes of any candidate. |

|but falls ill before he can be inaugurated and dies shortly | | |

|afterwards. His vice president Jose Sarney becomes president| | |

|at time of economic crisis, with inflation at 300%. | | |

| | | |

|Sarney introduces Cruzado Plan, freezing prices and wages in|1986 | |

|effort to control inflation. But inflation explodes when | | |

|freeze is lifted. | | |

| | | |

|New constitution reduces presidential powers. |1988 | |

| | | |

|Fernando Collor de Mello elected president. Introduces |1989 |Lula runs for president for the first time in the first |

|radical economic reform including opening up of economy to | |direct election since the dictatorship and loses to Collor |

|imports, privatisation and a controversial freeze on savings| |in the second round. |

|and bank accounts. His promised economic improvements fail | | |

|to materialise, and by 1991 inflation reaches 1,500%. | | |

|Foreign debt payments suspended. | | |

| | | |

|Earth Summit in Rio. Collor resigns after being accused of |1992 | |

|corruption. He is later cleared. Replaced by vice president | | |

|Itamar Franco. | | |

| | | |

| |1993 |Lula begins his 'Citizenship Convoy' to the northeast to |

| | |publicize the poverty of the countryside. |

| | | |

|Fernando Henrique Cardoso elected president after helping to|1994 |Lula runs for president again and loses in the first round |

|bring inflation under control. He also makes controversial | |to Cardoso. |

|moves on land issue, such as seizing land for distribution | | |

|among poor, and allowing indigenous land claims to be | | |

|challenged in court. | | |

| | | |

|Police kill 19 Amazon peasants in town of Eldorado dos |1996 | |

|Carajás. | | |

| | | |

|Constitution changed to allow president to run for |1997 | |

|re-election. | | |

| | | |

|Cardoso re-elected. IMF provides rescue package after |1998 |Lula runs for president again and again loses in the first |

|economy hit by collapse of Asian stock markets. | |round to Cardoso. |

| | | |

|Celebrations to mark Brazil's 500th anniversary marred by |2000 | |

|protests by indigenous Indians, who say that racial | | |

|genocide, forced labour and disease have dramatically cut | | |

|their population from an estimated 5 million before the | | |

|Portuguese arrived in 1500 to the current 350,000. | | |

| | | |

|Government says it is prepared to make changes to a |2001 | |

|development programme which critics say would have a | | |

|catastrophic impact on the Amazon. Under the scheme, the | | |

|Brazilian government expects to spend $40bn over seven years| | |

|on highways, railways, hydroelectric projects and housing in| | |

|the Amazon basin. | | |

| | | |

|President Cardoso abolishes two government development | | |

|agencies for the Amazon and the north-east of the country. | | |

|The authorities say the agencies set up bogus projects in | | |

|order to steal development funds estimated at more than $1 | | |

|billion. | | |

| | | |

|Members of the Landless Workers Movement, demanding land |Mar. 2002 | |

|reform, occupy President Cardoso's family ranch. | | |

| | | |

|Fans jubilant as Brazil triumphs in World Cup - the |Jun. 2002 | |

|football-mad country's fifth such victory. | | |

| | | |

|Currency hits all-time low and financial markets panic over |Jul. 2002 | |

|the prospect of left-winger Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva | | |

|winning October's presidential elections. | | |

| | | |

|Lula wins presidential election |Oct. 2002 |Lula runs for the fourth time and wins the presidential |

| | |election in the second round with the largest amount of |

| | |votes for a presidential candidate in Brazilian history. |

| | | |

|Space rocket explodes on the ground at the Alcantara launch |Aug. 2003 | |

|base, killing 21 people. | | |

| | | |

|Wave of land invasions, dubbed "Red April" by activists. |Apr. 2004 | |

| | | |

|U.N. Security Council launches the United Nations | | |

|Stabilization Mission In Haiti (MINUSTAH) with Brazil being | | |

|designated mission coordinator. | | |

| | | |

| |Aug. 2004 |Lula arrange with the FIFA a match between the Brazilian and|

| | |the Haitian soccer teams in Haitian Capital, Port-au-Prince |

| | | |

|Brazil, along with Germany, India and Japan, launches an |Sept. 2004 | |

|application for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security | | |

|Council. | | |

| | | |

|Brazil launches its first space rocket. |Oct. 2004 | |

| | | |

|Murder of U.S.-born missionary and campaigner for Amazon |Feb. 2005 | |

|peasant farmers Dorothy Stang throws conflict over land and | | |

|resources in Amazon into spotlight. Government unveils plan | | |

|to protect part of region from encroachment. | | |

| | | |

|Death squad kills at least 30 people on the outskirts of Rio|Mar. 2005 | |

|de Janeiro, the city's worst massacre in over a decade. It | | |

|is suggested that rogue police are responsible. | | |

| | | |

|Corruption allegations rock the governing Workers' Party. A |Jun. 2005 |Lula makes a televised apology on behalf of his party. |

|wave of resignations ensues. | | |

| | | |

|Voters in a referendum reject a proposal to ban the sale of |Oct. 2005 | |

|firearms. | | |

| | | |

|The military commander of MINUSTAH, the Brazilian Gal. Urano|Sept. 2005 | |

|Texeira da Matta Bacellar, commits suicide in | | |

|Port-au-Prince. | | |

| | | |

|Scores of people are killed in gang attacks and a police |May 2006 | |

|backlash in Sao Paulo state. The violence is sparked by a | | |

|series of prison uprisings. | | |

| | | |

| |Oct. 2006 |Lula is re-elected in the second round. |

| | | |

| |Dec. 2006 |Lula authorizes the use women on the military in Haiti. That|

| | |was the first time that Brazil sent women soldiers to a |

| | |peacemaking mission. |

| | | |

|U.N. Security Council Extend the MINUSTAH for eight months. |Feb. 2007 | |

| | | |

|Brazil, U.S., E.U., China, India and South Africa launched |Mar. 2007 |Lula gathers with U.S. President George W. Bush in Sao Paulo|

|the International Biofuels Forum at the U.N. headquarter in | |and set the terms for an international agreement aimed at |

|New York. | |the promotion of the ethanol market. The agreement becomes a|

| | |memorandum that was ultimately signed by the ministries of |

| | |foreign affairs of both countries several days later. |

| | | |

| | |Just 23 days after their meeting in Brazil, Lula meets with |

| | |President Bush in Washington, DC. |

| | | |

| |

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