Pascoal Ranieri Mazzilli

Pascoal Ranieri Mazzilli, LS (Portuguese pronunciation: [pasˈkwaw ʁaniˈɛri maˈzili]; Caconde, April 27, 1910 – April 21, 1975) was a Brazilian politician who was President of Brazil in 1961 and 1964. Mazzilli's father was Domingo Mazzilli (born Domenico Mazzilli), an Italian from Montemurro, Basilicata, who immigrated to Brazil in 1892, at the age of 15. The mother, Angela Luizzi, was also from Montemurro and immigrated to Brazil in 1889, at the age of 2. As the son of poor immigrants, Mazzilli had a modest childhood and began to work at an early age.^[1]

Mazzilli entered the Faculty of Law of São Paulo in 1930 but did not complete his studies, working briefly as a tax collector in Taubaté. In 1932 he began working as a journalist, specialising in financial matters. In 1940 he decided to continue his education, graduating in 1940 from the School of Law of Niterói (Fluminense Federal University). Mazzilli was the president of the Chamber of Deputies of Brazil between 1958 and 1965. He assumed the Presidency for two weeks in August 1961 after the resignation of Jânio Quadros, because the vice-president João Goulart was on an official visit in China. Goulart was also prevented by the military from assuming the presidency, being later allowed to take over under parliamentary regime.

The 1964 Brazilian coup d'état removed Goulart from power permanently. On April 1, 1964, after the deposition of Goulart, Mazzilli assumed the presidency again. Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco then took power through indirect elections.

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