Joaquim Francisco de Assis do Brasil

Joaquim Francisco de Assis Brasil was a republican politician, lawyer, and landowner from Rio Grande do Sul. He helped organize the state’s republican movement, wrote on political institutions, and entered its provincial assembly. His public career combined electoral reform, opposition to authoritarian state politics, and repeated diplomatic appointments in Argentina and the United States. ¹

In Washington from 1898, he dealt with the disputed Acre territory and the Bolivian Syndicate, an international enterprise holding a Bolivian concession. He argued Brazil’s position to Secretary of State John Hay and negotiated the syndicate’s withdrawal in 1903. Recalled to Brazil, he joined Rio Branco in the negotiations with Bolivia. ¹

Assis Brasil signed the Treaty of Petrópolis on 17 November 1903 alongside Rio Branco and the Bolivian plenipotentiaries Fernando Guachalla and Claudio Pinilla. The settlement transferred Acre to Brazil, provided territorial adjustments and a payment of £2 million to Bolivia, and committed Brazil to construct the Madeira–Mamoré railway. In 1906 he was secretary-general of the Third International American Conference in Rio, working with its president, Joaquim Nabuco. ^{2, 3}

He later led opposition to Borges de Medeiros in Rio Grande do Sul, participated in the political struggles of the 1920s, and supported the 1930 movement that brought Getúlio Vargas to power. He held the agriculture portfolio and another Argentine embassy appointment, but pressed for constitutional government and eventually withdrew from public life. He died at Pedras Altas in 1938. ¹