Líbero Badaró

Giovanni Battista Libero Badaró (1798 – November 21, 1830) was an Italian Brazilian physician, botanist, journalist and politician.

Born at Laigueglia, Liguria, he studied medicine at the University of Torino and at the University of Pavia. In 1826 he emigrated to Brazil, coming from Genova, shortly after the independence from Portugal, during the reign of Emperor Dom Pedro I (1822).

He went to live in the city of São Paulo, where he soon founded a liberal newspaper, O Observador Constitutional (The Constitutional Observer), in 1829; and taught courses in what was to become the Law School of São Paulo. Badaró had republican tendencies and used the newspaper to strongly criticise the political situation and the authoritarism of the Emperor. During a public manifestation of liberal students who were commemorating the liberal revolution in France which had deposed King Charles X, he was assassinated. The suspicions fell on Cândido Japiaçu, a member of the law courts, who felt he was being slandered by Badaró's paper. He was tried but no accusations could be proved against him. Some historians think that the assassination order came directly from the Emperor, but there is no proof for that, either.

Defender of liberalism , he founded and wrote the newspaper The Constitutional Observer , which appeared in 1829, printed in the typography of The Paulistano Lighthouse , at first under the direction of Badarò and Luís Monteiro d'Ornelas and, after the mid-1830s, under the exclusive direction. of the first one. The liberal newspaper had a moderate feature, like the one that Evaristo da Veiga printed in Rio de Janeiro to Aurora Fluminense . Like this one, it had soon gained wide publicity, which guaranteed the malevolence of absolutists.

He commented on the events of the 1830 revolution in Paris, news that arrived in Rio de Janeiro on September 14; the Three Day Revolution - in which Carlos X was dethroned last July - urging Brazilians to follow the example of the French. In his work, Armitage says: The shock was electric. Many individuals in Rio, Bahia, Pernambuco, and Sao Paulo have illuminated their homes for this reason. The hopes of the liberals and the fear of the humps were excited, and these sensations spread throughout the Empire through the periodicals.

In São Paulo, the students of the Legal Course took the initiative. "Luminaires, bands and more demonstrations of joy practiced by the inhabitants of Sao Paulo for the overthrow of the tyrant and anti-constitutional government of France ", as the Chamber of Constitutional Commission (as it appears in its Annals , 1830, tome II), assumed to the ombudsman Candido Ladislau Japiaçu criminal acts and led him to sue some protesters, preferably young students. The Constitutional Observer campaigned in favor of the accused and attacked Japiaçu, calling him Caligulazinho. The language was lively and energetic, but it would not justify the violent outcome.

Pedro I lost prestige with facts like this, which demonstrated his authoritarian stance, since the bourgeoisie that supported him in the process of independence wanted to get rid of control of Portugal.

On 20 November 1830, at 10 o'clock at night, when he returned to his house in the street of St. Joseph (later street Libero Badaro ), without realizing that it was a trap, the journalist was questioned by four Germans on the pretext of he was handed a letter against the Japiaçu hearer, but treacherously received from them a charge of gurnard, falling mortally wounded.

It is supposed that when dying pronounced a phrase that was celebrated like symbol of the defense of the freedom of the press:

"I die defending freedom, "or" A liberal dies, but freedom does not die ." The Constitutional Observer dedicated his November 26 issue to the death of its creator: I die defending freedom, he said in his closing minutes. The repercussion in São Paulo was immediate. At his funeral 5,000 people attended and over 800 torches were lit, his last words were engraved on his tomb.

The main culprit in the attack was Henry (or Simon) Stock, a German who hid in the ombudsman's house. The people, who wanted summary justice, demanded the arrest of both. The German Stock was arrested, Japiaçu remained threatened and sought asylum from a colonel, authorities came in to make arrangements. The exaltation of the people continued and the Governing Council of the Province sent to Rio the ombudsman who was denounced under escort. Father Diogo Antônio Feijó , as a member of the Council, took an active part in the deliberations and his initiative were the main measures to seek punishment for the culprits. The German Stock was convicted of the murder, but Japiaçu the Caligulazinho was acquit

His death was received with a great public revolt and outcry, and the Emperor was blamed. More than 5,000 people went to his funeral. This episode accelerated the end of his reign, leading a few months later to his abdication in favor of his son, Pedro II, who was only 5 years old, and the establishment of a regent's junta to govern the country until he became of age.

Líbero Badaró is considered a martyr of press freedom. A few days after the proclamation of the republic by General Deodoro da Fonseca, on November 15, 1889, he was honoured by a public ceremony and his body was transferred to another cemetery.

A journalism prize is named after him, as well as a street in São Paulo downtown (the old São José Street, where he lived until his death).

The following year 1831, with his power already weakened, Dom Pedro I abdicated the crown, leaving it on the bed of his son and legitimate heir, Dom Pedro II, and returned to Portugal with the stepmother of the future emperor, who took over. the crown and became the second emperor of Brazil, only 14 years old.

The offices were unpopular, though with men of valor sometimes; The prince, since the dissolution of the Ministry on December 4, 1829, when he had dismissed the Marquis of Barbacena, seemed incompatible with the constitutional system. The assassination of Libero Badarò made the environment more conducive to the most exalted liberals. He is honored in Sao Paulo with a street that bears his name, Líbero Badaró Street.

• SILVA, Joaquim. PENNA, J. B. Damasco, 1967, "História do Brasil", Cia. Editora Nacional, São Paulo.
• AMARAL, Tancredo do, 1895, A História de São Paulo ensinada pela biographia dos seus vultos mais notáveis, Alves & Cia. Editores, 353 pp.
• GAETA, Augusto, 1944, "Libero Badaró", Estabelecimento Grafico E. Cupolo ,São Paulo.
• PREVE, Giulio Cesare, 1983, " Laigueglia, storia e cronache di um paese lígure" Ed. Associazione Vecchi Laigueglia