Gomes, Eduardo (1896–1981)

Eduardo Gomes (b. 20 September 1896; d. 13 June 1981), Brazilian Air Force officer and political leader. Born in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Gomes enlisted in the army in 1916. He was commissioned in 1919, and three years later he became a national hero as one of the tenente defenders and survivors of the Revolt of Fort Copacabana. Imprisoned for his role as an air observer during the revolt of 1924, he returned to active duty in 1927. His assignment to the army air corps included the task, in 1930, of establishing the Brazilian military air mail systems. With the creation of the Brazilian air force in 1941, Gomes served as commander of the First and Second Air Zones in the northeastern section of the country during World War II.

In 1945, Gomes helped to organize the anti-Vargas National Democratic Union (União Democrática Nacional—UDN) and ran unsuccessfully against General Eurico Dutra as its presidential candidate that year, and in 1950 against Getúlio Vargas. He was an official and elder statesman of the party until its dissolution in 1965. Appointed minister of the air force by President João Café Filho in 1954, Gomes retired from active service in 1961 with the rank of air marshal. President Humberto Castelo Branco recalled him to serve as air minister after the revolution of 1964. He died in Rio de Janeiro.

See alsoBrazil, Political Parties: National Democratic Union of Brazil (UDN), Copacabana Fort, Revolt of.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ronald M. Schneider, Order and Progress: A Political History of Brazil (1991).

E. Bradford Burns, A History of Brazil (1993).

Additional Bibliography

Bellintani, Adriana Iop. Conspiração contra o Estado Novo. Porto Alegre: EDIPUCRS, 2002.

                                          Michael L. James