Carlos Lacerda and his machinery of hate

Carlos Lacerda’s life arrives in bookstores in a new biography titled “Lacerda: Heart of the Storm,” by journalist Mário Magalhães. The first volume runs from 1914 to 1955, ending with the military intervention by General Henrique Lott that sent Lacerda into a brief exile.

The book, the product of years of research, takes on questions that have long surrounded a figure who stood at the center of Brazilian politics for decades. Was Lacerda once a communist? Yes. Did he belong to the Communist Party? No. Who wounded his foot in the 1954 attack that helped drive Getúlio Vargas to suicide? The article identifies one of the gunmen from the president’s personal guard, which had been financed through the System S’s off-the-books funds.

Lacerda moved from the left to the right during Brazil’s turbulent years. Dom Hélder Câmara and Alceu Amoroso Lima made the opposite journey. Cecil Borer, a feared Estado Novo jailer, remained an enforcer for the palace. He arrested Lacerda when Lacerda was 19, three days before Adolf Hitler came to power.

The article describes Lacerda as a gifted journalist with quick reasoning, clear writing and fast fingers. General Charles de Gaulle called him a “destroyer of presidents.” Lacerda attacked almost everything around him, including his own father, whom he called a “damned demagogue.” His fierce opposition to Vargas turned him into a political mobilizer, while cartoonist Lan immortalized him as the Crow.

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destroyer of presidents

The book reconstructs the assassination attempt on Lacerda in Copacabana on Aug. 5, 1954. Major Rubens Vaz, who was escorting him home, was killed by two gunmen. Nineteen days later, with his removal looming, Vargas killed himself. Magalhães recounts the episodes with the detail and clarity of a crime reporter.

The volume ends, apart from a short epilogue, with the departure of the “man who killed Getúlio” into exile in the United States. Lacerda had backed exceptional rule to prevent Vargas from winning office in 1950, taking office in 1951 and governing afterward. He ultimately lost that battle. In 1955, the dead president helped Juscelino Kubitschek win the presidency. Lott, then war minister, overthrew two presidents on the night of Nov. 11 and secured Kubitschek’s inauguration. Lacerda, the victor of 1954, had to leave the country.

The article’s final judgment is harsh: after Lacerda’s legacy is compressed, little remains beyond an intelligent and combative man. He attempted suicide in 1934, prevailed in 1954 and failed in 1955. More triumphs and failures followed until his death in 1977, at 63.

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damned demagogue