João Punaro Bley

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João Punaro Bley
President (governor) of Espirito Santo (member of a governing junta)
In office
November 19, 1930 – November 22, 1930
Preceded by José Armando Ribeiro de Paula
Succeeded by himself
In office
November 22, 1930 – 1935
Preceded by himself
Succeeded by himself
Governor of Espirito Santo (elected by the State's Chamber of Representatives)
In office
1935 – 1937
Preceded by himself
Succeeded by himself
Governor of Espirito Santo (Federal Interventor)
In office
1937 – January 21st, 1943
Preceded by himself
Succeeded by Jones dos Santos Neves
Born 1900
Died 1983

João Punaro Bley (Montes Claros MG, November 14, 1900 - 1983) was a Brazilian militar and public administrator.

He graduated (as a lieutennant of the Brazilian Army) at the Militar School of Minas Gerais in 1921. Although he was sympathetic to the rebellion of young officials called Movimento Tenentista (or, Lieutennantist Movement) that happened in 1922, he didn't take part on that. In 1930 he joined the national rebellion against the Constitutional Brazilian government, that began when the candidate who lost the 1930's election for president, Getulio Vargas, allegued fraud and decided to take the power by force. João Punaro Bley joined the lines of the rebel Colonel Otávio Campos do Amaral and took part on the capture of Vitória (capital city of the state of Espírito Santo). As Octávio Campos do Amaral marched ahead towards Rio de Janeiro, João Punaro Bley occupied the office of that state as part of a governing junta formed also by João Manuel de Carvalho and Afonso Correia Lírio.

This governing Junta lasted for few days, then, on November 22nd, 1930 João Punaro Bley was appointed by the new-installed de facto president of Brazil, Getulio Vargas, as Federal Interventor on Espirito Santo for an undetermined time.

In 1934, following the re-constitutionalization of Brazil, João Punaro Bley was elected legal governor for the 1935-1939 term (he was also the first chief of the executive power of Espirito Santo to take the title of governor instead of president). However, he was given powers of Federal Interventor once again in 1937 and remained on office til 1943.

When Bley took the office, the state of Espirito Santo was in a bad economical situation because the fall of Wall Street in 1929 has directly affected the monoculture of coffee, the main export good by those days. In order to lower the prices of coffee in the consumer markets, and, also, to force the farmers to diversify the state's agriculture, Bley sent troops to invade the farms and to yank out and burn as much coffee threes as possible. Against all odds, the bad economical situation of the state was quickly overcome and all the debts of the state were paid.

João Punaro Bley wanted to eliminate the political influence of the big landowner farmers (like the family Monteiro) over the state. First, he encouraged the internal migration of the peasants towards the underpopulated regions in the north of the state, which depleted the plantations of caffe of workers; then Bley boosted the industrialization of the state and the developing of urban business activities. Both decisions demanded a large investiment on the improvement of the state's infra-structure (power, potable water, sewage, and roads railroads to link the south and the north of the state, as well to connect the state to the rest of the country). Also, against the vindictive landowner's mobs of gunmen ("jagunços" as they are called in Brazil a century ago), Bley invested also in creating a regular professional state police and build the state's headquarters of Maruipe and new, and more secure, state jails.

Bley created the first university of Espirito Santo, which initially offered courses of Odontology, Law and Pharmacy.

It was also on Bley's time on the office that the miner company Vale do Rio Doce (still belonging to the Brazilian government by that days) started the building of the "Iron Railroad", that linked the iron mining fields in Minas Gerais to the port of Vitória, from where the iron was distributed to other states or exported to overseas.

João Punaro Bley resign the office on January 21st, 1943. The powers as Interventor were transferred to his substitute, Jones dos Santos Neves. João Punaro Bley worked as commerce director at the Vale do Rio Doce until 1947, then he re-took his career as militar, from which he retired in 1962.