Liberdade e democracia em disputa: Odilon Braga e o Manifesto dos Mineiros (1937-1945)

Abstract

The research aims to analyze the political activities of Odilon Duarte Braga in the period from 1937 to 1945, during the dictatorship of the New State when Vargas government became more authoritarian. Braga, in disagreement with the ongoing political transformations, decided to resign from his position as Minister of Agriculture, which he held during the constitutional government from 1934 to 1937. Initially, he remained distant from any political position against the regime. However, in a second moment of the New State, mainly after Brazil's increasing involvement in the Second World War, the former minister became actively involved in politics once again and played a key role in the drafting of the Manifesto dos Mineiros of 1943, considered the first major manifestation to directly confront the regime. The research aims to understand the concepts of democracy in dispute within this context, the political culture that surrounded Braga, the reasons behind his resignation from the Ministry, his role in the elaboration of the Manifesto dos Mineiros, as well as to analyze the proposals and roles of the other signatories of the document and the reprisals imposed by the New State on those involved in the manifesto.