Filinto Müller

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Filinto Müller (July 11, 1900 - July 11, 1973) was a military-associated Brazilian politician, and President of the Senate for the state of Mato Grosso and Chief of Distrito Federal police during the government of Getúlio Vargas (1933-1942).

Filinto Strübing Müller was born in Cuiabá, Brazil in 1900. At the age of 19, he joined the Army. He later participated in the tenente movement. He was a close collaborator of Vargas since his rise to power in 1930.

Before and during World War II, he was sympathetic to Nazi Germany, which he visited in 1937 at the invitation of Heinrich Himmler. Also he was one of the architects of the vast repressive system of Estado Novo characterized by the usage of large-scale torture (it is reported that sometimes he personally participated in torture sessions) and summary executions against political opponents (mostly communists) He was dismissed from his post when Vargas switched sides, approaching Brazil to the Allies against Adolf Hitler.

In 1945 he was one of the founders of the pro-Vargas Social Democracy Party. In 1947 he was elected Senator for the state of Mato Grosso. In 1950 he stood for the post of governor of the same state, but was defeated. He was reelected as senator in 1955 and 1962. In the Senate, he was a supporter of the Kubitschek government. After the military coup of 1964, he joined the pro-regime party ARENA, shortly after becoming its leader. He was reelected Senator in 1970. In 1973 he became Head of the Senate.

He died in an airplane crash while in office in 1973, on his 73rd birthday. After his death he was honored as a national hero. Filinto has since been honored publicly by several officials and intellectuals, among them Juscelino Kubitschek and Ulysses Guimarães.