Delfim Moreira

Delfim Moreira da Costa Ribeiro (Brazilian Portuguese: [dewˈfĩ moˈɾejɾɐ da ˈkɔstɐ ʁiˈbejɾu]; 7 November 1868 – 1 July 1920) was a Brazilian politician who served as the tenth president of Brazil.

Biography

He was born in the Minas Gerais state to a Portuguese father and to a Portuguese Brazilian mother who traced her ancestry back to the early settlers of Brazil.¹

Delfim Moreira, elected vice president under Rodrigues Alves in 1918, provisionally ruled the country as the Brazilian Constitution provided for new elections in case of disability of the president before completing two years in office. Rodrigues Alves never even entered office, for he was stricken by the "Spanish flu" and died on 16 January 1919. Delfim Moreira himself also did not have good health, suffering from some psychological conditions; therefore, his short tenure was known as "the republican regency" since the government Minister of Transportation and Public Works, Afrânio de Melo Franco, stood out in the president's decision-making.

Three days after the new government took over the country, a general strike hit the capital and the city of Niterói. The president ordered the closure of unions in Rio de Janeiro on 22 November.

On 21 June 1919, a dissident faction of the anarchists founded the Brazilian Communist Party. Four months later, the government expelled from the country about a hundred of them, mostly foreigners, who worked in the workers movement of the cities of São Paulo, Santos, Rio de Janeiro and Niterói, due to the discovery of an alleged plot aimed at overthrowing the government.