Hamilton Mourão

Antônio Hamilton Martins Mourão (born 15 August 1953) is a Brazilian politician who sits as the 25th and current Vice President of Brazil under President Jair Bolsonaro since 1 January 2019. Mourão is a retired Brazilian Army General, the highest rank a Brazilian soldier can reach during peace time. He is a member of the Brazilian Labour Renewal Party. Despite the Bolsonaro government being highly criticized for its actions towards native communities, Mourão is the first ethnically indigenous person to ever hold the office of vice president of Brazil.

Personal life
Mourão was born in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, the son of General Antônio Hamilton Mourão and Wanda Coronel Martins. He retired on 28 February 2018. He is of Indigenous Brazilian descent, and declares himself Indigenous Brazilian. Hamilton is a practising Roman Catholic and a Freemason.

Mourão became a widower in December 2016. He married Paula Mourão in October 2018. Paula is a first lieutenant of the Brazilian Army, where the couple met. They made their relationship public in 2017. The Mourãos own residences in Brasília and Rio de Janeiro.

Military career
Mourão joined the Army in February 1972, in the Academia Militar das Agulhas Negras (AMAN), in Resende, Rio de Janeiro, where he became on officer on December 12, 1975. As lieutenant, he was instructor at Military Academy and as Captain, he worked with Jair Bolsonaro in the 8th Paratrooper Field Artillery Group, placed in Rio de Janeiro.

He later had classes at the Escola de Comando e Estado-Maior do Exército (ECEME) where he graduated as Staff Officer and attended classes of Politics, Strategy and Army High Administration. He also trained in Basic Parachuting, Jump Master and Free Jump.

During his military career he was an instructor at AMAN, was part of a peace mission in Angola and was the Military Attache for Brazil's Embassy to Venezuela. He commanded the 27th Field Artillery Group in Ijuí, Rio Grande do Sul; the 2nd Jungle Infantry Brigade in São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Amazonas; the 6th Army Division and Military Command of the South in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul.

Politics
Mourão gained fame in 2015 during the political crisis in the second term of president Dilma Rousseff, when he was transferred from the Military Command of the South (CMS) to the Secretary of Economy and Finance, in the Federal District, due to statements made in a speech about the current state of politics.

In a public announcement of the Masonic Lodge Grande Oriente in September 2017, in the Federal District, Mourão stated that, "among the duties of the Brazilian Army, there was the guarantee of the operation of the institutions and of the law and order", and that, if the judiciary "couldn't be able to heal the existing politics in the country, this would be imposed by the army through a military intervention", which, in his vision, "is provided by the Federal Constitution of 1988".

However, in May 2018, following the truck drivers' strike, Mourão spoke against calls for military intervention in the government, stating that "if the government lacks conditions to govern, leave, resign. Call elections earlier, do whatever, but end its immobilism", and that "the country cannot descend to chaos". He also called the Unified Federation of Oil Workers' strike, "shameful", and said "there are people taking advantage [of the situation] on both sides".

Leaving the active service in 2018, Mourão considered running for president of the Military Club.

On 8 May 2018, Mourão announced his membership in the Brazilian Labor Renewal Party (PRTB) and his intention to run for President of Brazil, along with Levy Fidelix. However, in August 2018, Mourão became Vice Presidential running mate of right-wing Presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro.