Alfeo Brum

Alfeo Brum (1898–1972) was an Uruguayan politician and lawyer. He was Vice-President of Uruguay from 1947 to 1951 and 1951 to 1955, noted for being the longest consecutively serving Vice-President in Uruguay's history.

Background

Alfeo Brum was born in Salto on March 22, 1898. He was a younger brother of President Baltasar Brum. He studied law, and became a lawyer. From his youth, he was a member of the Colorado Party.

Early political career

Alfeo Brum was elected as Representative from the department of Artigas, and represented Artigas for three terms: 1923-1926, 1926–1929, and 1929-1932.

On March 1, 1933, he became a Senator. On March 31, President Gabriel Terra dissolved the parliament. Former President Baltasar Brum resisted Terra's coup, but when he noticed the indifference of the Uruguayan populace to the coup, he committed suicide on that very same day. His brother Alfeo was with him at the time he committed suicide, and from that moment on he was considered an opponent and an outlaw to Terra's regime. The Brum brothers were followers of the orthodox "Batllismo" faction within the Colorado Party (at the time, the followers of the ideals of President José Batlle y Ordoñez). He was imprisoned at Isla de las Ratas, and later was exiled.

He was once again elected a Senator in the November 1946 elections, for the 1947-1951 period.

Vice President of Uruguay

The death of President Tomás Berreta, and the succession to the presidency of Luis Batlle Berres, determined that Alfeo Brum, the first Senator of the Batllismo faction's Senate list, took over the Vice-Presidency for the rest of the period, until March 1951. In the November 1950 elections, he was the Vice-Presidential candidate of Andrés Martínez Trueba, one of the two presidential candidates of the Batllismo faction.

Martínez Trueba and the Colorado Party won the elections, and Alfeo Brum went on to serve as Vice President from 1951 to 1955.

Historical notes

i) Brum was the fifth person to hold the office of Vice President of Uruguay. The office dates from 1934, when César Charlone became Uruguay's first Vice President.

ii) Brum was the only person who served two successive terms as Vice President of Uruguay.

Post- Vice Presidency

In 1955 Brum stepped down from the Vice Presidency and the office of Vice President of Uruguay went into abeyance, to be revived again in 1967, within Brum's lifetime.

Alfeo Brum died in Montevideo on February 25, 1972.