Afonso Pena

Afonso Augusto Moreira Pena (30 November 1847 – 14 June 1909), often referred to as Afonso Pena, was a Brazilian lawyer, professor and politician who served as the 6th president of Brazil from 1906 until his death in 1909. Pena was elected in 1906, the chosen successor of president Rodrigues Alves. Pena was the first politician from Minas Gerais to win the presidency, ending the series of São Paulo politicians who had held the presidency since 1894. Before his presidency, he served as the 4th Vice President of Brazil under Rodrigues Alves (1903–1906) after the death of Silviano Brandão. Pena was a monarchist. He was the only member of Emperor Pedro II's cabinet to become president of Brazil and the first Brazilian president to die in office.

Pena was born in Santa Bárbara, Minas Gerais in 1847. His father, Domingos José Teixeira Pena, was a Portuguese immigrant who owned slaves and a gold mine. After graduating with a Law degree from the Faculty of Law of São Paulo and becoming a doctor at the same institution, Pena returned to his hometown, where he began to work as an attorney, later moving to Barbacena and becoming known for defending slaves. His political career began in 1874 when he joined the Liberal Party and was elected to the Provincial Assembly of Minas Gerais. In 1878 he was elected general deputy for Minas Gerais. In the succeeding years he reconciled legislative work with some periods occupying ministries—Ministry of War (1882), Agriculture (1883–1884) and Justice (1885).

After the proclamation of the Republic, Pena withdrew from public life; however, he was soon called upon to join the Republican Party of Minas Gerais and run for the State Senate in order to help with the creation of the new state constitution. Pena was elected for the position in 1891 and presided over the commission that was tasked with drafting the constitution. After resigning his position in the Senate, Pena was elected president of Minas Gerais by consensus of the several political currents in the state, serving from 1892 to 1894. It was during his administration that Belo Horizonte was set for the future state capital (which at that time was Ouro Preto) and the Faculty of Law of Minas Gerais was founded. After presiding over the Bank of the Republic from 1895 to 1898, Pena became vice president to Rodrigues Alves in 1903. As vice president, he also served as president of the Senate.

Pena became president of Brazil in 1906 after an uncontested single-candidate election. He was the first Brazilian president to advocate intervening in the coffee economy, putting into practice the Taubaté Agreement, after which the federal government began to buy production surplus in order to maintain the high price of coffee in international markets. Pena's government promoted the expansion of railroads and immigration, the modernization and reorganization of the Brazilian Army with the introduction of the Sortition Law, and the rearmament of the Brazilian Navy, which was done by ministers Hermes da Fonseca and. Pena also supported Cândido Rondon's expeditions in the Amazon rainforest, which linked it to Rio de Janeiro by telegraph. In the international sphere, Brazil took part in the Hague Convention of 1907 with a delegation led by Ruy Barbosa and solved its border issues with Colombia and Peru. Tensions with Argentina reached a peak due to the acquisition of the Minas Geraes-class battleships, which kickstarted the South American dreadnought race, and both countries hovered on the brink of war. Pena died from a severe pneumonia in 1909, being succeeded by Nilo Peçanha.

Early life and education


Born on 30 November 1847 in Santa Bárbara do Mato Dentro, currently the municipality of Santa Bárbara, Minas Gerais, Afonso Pena was the seventh of twelve children of Domingos José Teixeira Penna and Anna Moreira Teixeira Penna; being his mother's firstborn, as she was his father's second wife. Domingos was a Portuguese immigrant from São Salvador da Ribeira de Pena (also spelled "da Penha" or "Peña") and in the new country he owned land, a gold mine and a large number of slaves. Domingos' father, Manuel José de Carvalho Penha (b. 1769), was supposedly the first to adopt the name "Pena".

While initially following a military career in the National Guard of Brazil, Domingos later abandoned it; his earnings were sufficient to provide the family with a standard of living described as "comfortable". Afonso's mother came from an influential family in Santa Bárbara politics. Thus, Afonso's family was part the Minas Gerais' elite. As a child, he was taken care of by the nursemaid Ambrosina, a slave. Pena would often accompany his father to the gold mines in Brumado and São Gonçalo do Rio Abaixo. According to José Anchieta da Silva, Pena was an early abolitionist who fought for better working conditions for his father's slaves; in one occasion, upon seeing a pregnant slave working in a mine, Pena spoke to the overseer, after which it was decided that pregnant slaves would no longer work in the mines from the sixth month of pregnancy onwards, and their only task would be "to cook or wash clothes".

After completing his first studies at his mother's house with private teachers, Pena went on to study at the at the age of ten in 1857. The school, isolated from major urban centers, was maintained by the Lazarist priests and Pena's father was one of its most prominent creditors. At the school, he had theology, ethics, philosophy, mathematics, geometry, history, rhetoric and foreign language classes. Pena finished his studies in the Caraça School on 16 January 1864 and later moved to the city of São Paulo to study at the Faculty of Law in 1866, which, together with the Faculty of Law of Recife, formed the country's intelligentsia at the time.

At the Faculty of Law


During his studies at the Faculty of Law, Pena was a colleague of Ruy Barbosa,, Joaquim Nabuco, Castro Alves and Rodrigues Alves. In 1870 Pena became, alongside Rodrigues Alves, the editor in chief of the faculty's journal Imprensa Acadêmica after a tight election. There was supposed to be only one editor in chief, but the election unexpectedly ended in a tie. It was then agreed to include both Pena and Alves as chief editors. The journal, focused on debating academic and political issues, was influenced by French authors such as Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac and Émile Zola.

Although not a freemason, in the Faculty of Law he joined the Paulista Burschenschaft, a secret student society of a liberal, abolitionist and republican nature, inspired by the German Burschenschaft associations and founded by professor Julius Frank, becoming chief of the Bucha "General Communion". This association helped students that could not afford to pay for their studies. Pena maintained contact with other Bucha members even after finishing his studies at the faculty.

Pena was an adept of natural law and an opponent of positivism, as he was a fervent catholic and sympathetic to the monarchy in Brazil. His ideas distanced him from the Brazilian positivists, who defended the separation of Church and State and the implantation of a military republic in the country. Two other movements divided Brazil during his years at the Faculty of Law: abolitionism and republicanism. Pena supported the former but not the latter, refusing to sign the, as he considered Brazil was not ready for a regime change.

Early law career
Pena graduated with a Law degree on 23 October 1870. He became a doctor at the same institution on 29 August 1871 – the only one in his class – after defending the thesis Letra de Câmbio on 19 June of that year. Upon receiving his doctorate, Pena gave a speech in which he expressed his abolitionist thoughts, concluding that "the entire country is agitated to solve, in accordance with the principles of justice, the great question of the centuries - the emancipation of an enslaved race" After turning down an invitation to teach at his alma mater, he returned to Minas Gerais, where he began to work as a lawyer, at first practicing law in his hometown and later in Barbacena.

There he became known for advocating in defense of slaves and even for helping them escape, for which he came close to being denounced on the court in Rio de Janeiro by a local military officer. Despite this, he was concerned with the economic effects the immediate abolition of slavery could cause; for this reason, he was in favor of compensating slave owners after abolition and also supported immigration as a way to replace slave labor. This brought him closer to other politicians of his time, especially the conservatives, who, according to Cláudia Viscardi, were "responsible for the progressive delay of the end of slavery in Brazil".

Marriage and family
Afonso Pena married Maria Guilhermina de Oliveira Pena on 23 January 1875. The couple went on their honeymoon to Rio de Janeiro, where they met emperor Pedro II. Guilhermina was the daughter of João Fernandes de Oliveira Pena, the Viscount of Carandaí, and the niece of Honório Hermeto Carneiro Leão, the Marquis of Paraná, one of the most prominent politicians of the Empire of Brazil. They had nine children, including Afonso Júnior, who was later Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs to president Artur Bernardes and a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters; and Octávio Moreira Pena, an engineer who carried out several public works in Rio de Janeiro, including the landfill that gave rise to the Urca neighborhood.

Pena inherited properties from his parents, including a gold mine, which he sold by the end of the 19th century as its gold production declined. He also had a textile factory, which he sold in the 1900s, and several investiments in Brazil and abroad. In order to better manage his investiments, Pena was helped by João Ribeiro de Oliveira Sousa, who became president of Crédito Real, then Minas Gerais' largest bank, on Pena's recommendation.

Parliamentarian (1874–1882)
Afonso Pena joined the Liberal Party in 1874, beginning his political career that same year after being elected provincial deputy to the 20th legislature in Minas Gerais. He remained in this office until 1878, after being successively reelected to the 21st (1876–1877) and 22nd (1878–1879) legislatures, when he was elected general deputy, beginning his term in the Chamber of Deputies in the 17th legislature (1878–1880). Pena's political career was initially sponsored by Martinho Campos and Afonso Celso, two prominent politicians who helped him in his rise in the Liberal Party.

The liberals' rise to power in 1878 came after a decade in ostracism (the so-called Conservative Decade), being tasked by the emperor with carrying out an electoral reform to establish direct vote. The party's rise to power had not occurred on its own merit, and Pena alerted his companions to its unstable position. The new liberal prime minister, João Lins Cansanção, was out of step with the party's main current, causing a pessimistic impression in Pena. The issue of direct voting, the main point of the liberal program, was the subject of debates about which path should be adopted: a constitutional reform or the approval of an ordinary law. Most liberals were in favor of a constitutional reform, which would imply deliberation of the issue by the Senate, of a conservative majority. Pena was against this path, joining a dissident wing within the party.

Cansanção fell on 28 March 1880, as desired by Pena. His successor, also liberal José Antônio Saraiva, then decided to carry out the electoral reform by means of an ordinary law. The Saraiva Law, as it became known, was finally approved on 9 January 1881, introducing direct vote in Brazil, as Pena had defended, the voter's license, and allowing non-Catholics to vote. The number of electors in the country was expected to grow considerably, granting more legitimacy to the elections. However, on 13 August 1881, shortly before the next elections, an executive decree was issued regulating the issuance of the voter's license by introducing a number of requirements, including literacy, and so the number of people eligible to vote fell considerably. The prime minister who followed, Martinho Campos, also a liberal, despite declaring himself a "slaveholder to the core", did not seek to advance the liberal agenda, but attempted to revise the electoral regulation in order to expand the electorate, which led to his fall by a motion of no confidence. Dissatisfied with the reduction in the number of voters, Pena later criticized the law, declaring that "an electorate of 142,000 citizens cannot be the electorate of this Empire, which has 12 million inhabitants".

Minister of State (1882–1885)
In 1882, Pena took a leave of absence from his position as general deputy, beginning his experience in executive positions after being appointed Minister of War in the cabinet of prime minister Martinho Campos at the age of 35; Pena was one of only two civilians to hold the office, the other being Pandiá Calógeras. Despite this, he was well received by the military, as he defended their freedom of speech and military reforms, which included the army's professionalization. Pena was successively reelected to the 18th (1881–1883), 19th (1884–1886) and 20th (1887–1889) legislatures in the Chamber of Deputies. During this period, he defended the increase of municipal autonomy, progressively aligning himself with political and economic liberalism, for which he also supported the non intervention of the State in the economy.



In the following years, he was Minister of Agriculture, Commerce and Public Works in the cabinet of Lafayette Rodrigues (1883 to 1884), and Interior and Justice in the cabinet of José Antônio Saraiva (1885). As Minister of Justice, Pena entirely reformed the police and improved the prison system; in this office he was also one of signatories of the Saraiva-Cotegipe Law, which granted freedom to slaves aged 60 and over. However, he reinforced the capture of fugitive slaves and prosecuted the abolitionists who helped them. Saraiva fell on 20 August 1885, being succeeded by the conservative João Maurício Vanderlei, thus ending seven years of liberal rule (the Liberal Septennium) and Pena's stay in the executive.

Pena's stance on slavery became ambiguous. He did not own slaves, although this is not certain. However, his political prominence made him abandon his youth abolitionist ideal, as he became increasingly concerned with the economic impacts of abolition and sought to be loyal to his party. Pena accompanied the party in congressional debates regarding slavery; Minas Gerais' congressmen feared abolition could harm the province's economy, which largely relied on coffee. In any case, he later voted in favor of the Golden Law, which finally abolished slavery in Brazil in 1888, but expressed his concerns regarding the effects the law would have. On 24 October, in a long speech criticizing the João Alfredo cabinet, which had succeeded Vanderlei, Pena examined the consequences of abolition and drew attention to the rise of republicanism among the conservative classes, as "it is certain that many see in the new regime a means of extorting the compensation [for their freed slaves] that they were unable to obtain under this regime".

In 1888, due to his proximity to Afonso Celso, he was appointed a member of the Council of State (Empire of Brazil) by emperor Pedro II. Despite criticizing nominations based on political affinity, even committing himself to fighting them, Pena could not detach himself from it, as not to harm his political career. That same year, as state councilor, Pena became member of the commission tasked with drafting Brazil's first Civil Code, as the country lacked one. Pena wrote the chapter pertaining to inheritance. However, the works were interrupted with the coup d'état that abolished the monarchy and proclaimed the republic in Brazil on 15 November 1889. That same day, Pena sent a telegram to Afonso Celso, who had been arrested, expressing his solidarity.

After the republic was proclaimed, Pena returned to Barbacena and withdrew from public life, saddened by the banishment of emperor Pedro II. He thought about abandoning politics to resume his law career. Like many other monarchist politicians of his time, he ended up adopting a "resigned acceptance" to the new regime, as he feared any reaction could lead the country to a civil war. Pena remained a convinced monarchist and continued to defend the figure of emperor Pedro II, whom he considered to be a man of "great knowledge and deeds". He had become one of the most prestigious politicians at the end of the Empire.

State Senator (1891)
The new republican government, headed by Deodoro da Fonseca, appointed Cesário Alvim as president of Minas Gerais; Alvim did not join the republican movement until late, which caused dissatisfaction on Minas Gerais' so-called "historical republicans", who felt betrayed. Pena's retirement from politics, however, did not last long: as he was famous for being a conciliatory politician, he was invited by the newly founded Republican Party of Minas Gerais to be a candidate for the State Senates (Brazil) and help the Minas Gerais' Constituent Assembly in 1891.

Pena was then elected for the 1st legislature in the state's Senate (1891–1895), helping in Minas Gerais' transition from province to state by pacifying its political conflicts and presiding over the commission that was tasked with drafting the state's constitution. As president of the commission, Pena opposed an initial constitutional draft sent to the assembly by the state government, as he deemed it a centralizing one; he argued that the draft should be rejected as it was "inspired by a unitary political model, like the monarchichal regime that had just failed". The constitutional draft provided for the election of the governor by the state congress and the election to the Senate by a "special electorate", which Pena opposed. The very existence of the Minas Gerais senate, thus forming a bicameral legislature, was disputed, with David Campista being its biggest opponent. Campista accused the senate of "disguising aristocratic tendencies". In response, Afonso Pena argued that the senate was a moderating power and perfected the legislative process, without which the lower house would "reach omnipotence".

The final constitutional draft, promulgated on 15 June 1891 with several amendments proposed by Pena, granted more autonomy for the municipalities, as he had envisioned years before, and established a bicameral system, with the senators being elected by direct vote; it also provided for the creation of a new state capital to replace Ouro Preto and a bicameral legislature. The change of the capital from Ouro Preto was the most controversial point; Pena was in favor of moving the capital and proposed to postpone the decision until a commission of specialists presented the new possible locations, which was agreed. During his speeches at the constituent assembly, Pena had assumed a conciliatory tone between the more radical republican wings and the old monarchists, who fiercely debated the issue.

As state senator Pena also clashed with the Leopoldina Railway Company, which was the largest railway in Minas Gerais, approving a measure that forced the company to abide by its contract duties or else lose its concession to operate. He also proposed that members of the judiciary be appointed through public competition, instead of personalistic criteria, as had been the case until then; this stance was in line with his preference for personal ability instead of political nominations, although it is not possible to say he did not made nominations based on political criteria rather than individual merit during his political career. This preference would be reflected in his cabinet when president years later.

Pena defended the expansion of railways in Minas Gerais and the organization of public education. He was against what he called "empregomania", that is, the students' excessive preference, at the time, for public jobs, which consumed public finances. This was also the opinion of other politicians at the time. For this reason, he defended technical education. In his own words:

"Empregomania is an endemic disease in our country. What orientation do parents give their children? They send them to the faculties of law, engineering and medicine, and many only wait to be placed in jobs in public administration, thus sterilizing many activities. I think that, once technical education is established, parents' attention will be asked to direct their children's career towards attending technical institutes. This would give the following result: after the young men have acquired the knowledge of the subjects taught in these institutes, instead of directing their activities towards public jobs, they will employ them in the most important industries of the State, such as agriculture, extraction and manufacture."

Naval Revolts
The first years of the republic in Brazil were plagued by disputes and political instability. Deodoro da Fonseca closed Congress on 3 November 1891 and Pena resigned his position in the constituent assembly in protest, arguing that "the coexistence of constitutional powers with the state of dictatorship proclaimed by president Deodoro da Fonseca was incompatible". This act distanced him from Alvim and gave him the support of most of Minas Gerais' elite. Tensions were high in the federal government and Deodoro ended up resigning on 23 November 1891, being succeeded by Floriano Peixoto.

Upon assuming government, Peixoto reopened Congress and began a process of deposing the state governors who had supported Deodoro da Fonseca. Such a process could take place through a federal military intervention with the justification of guaranteeing law and order. In Minas Gerais, Alvim's position, who had supported Deodoro, became untenable. In protest, the city of Campanha, in the south of the state, assumed a separatist attitude and proclaimed itself the capital of a new state, Minas do Sul. Knowing that a federal intervention would be inevitable, Alvim stepped forward and resigned in February 1892. Pena then emerged as the only one capable of restoring stability in the state, being chosen by consensus of its different political currents to succeed Alvim, running for president of Minas Gerais, on a single ticket, and becoming the first democratically elected president (governor) of the state by direct vote on 30 June 1892 with a total of 48 thousand votes and taking office on 14 July.



As president of Minas Gerais, Pena opposed the authoritarian government of president Floriano Peixoto and housed his opponents in the state, notably Olavo Bilac and Carlos de Laet. With the outbreak of the Second Naval Revolt in 1893, admiral Saldanha da Gama, the leader of the revolt, consulted the citizens whether they wanted the return of the monarchy or the maintenance of the republic; in response, Afonso Pena published his Manifesto dos Mineiros in the journal O Paiz on 11 December, in which he declared:

"Everyone knows that I did not applaud, and rather regretted, the revolution of 1889, which destroyed the monarchy. I understood, however, from the outset, that the monarchy could no longer be restored in conditions to give us: peace, order and guide the country towards its aggrandizement. Patience is the essential virtue of democracies, and their beauty lies in the fact that nobody can do everything, nor can one always do things. I ask God to enlighten the spirit of those who fight, making them see that the blood of children, women, the elderly, and our brothers does not fertilize – on the contrary, it sterilizes the soil of the homeland."

Thus, despite housing several opponents of the federal government in his state, including monarchists and rebels, who fled persecution by the central government, and disapproving of Floriano Peixoto's actions, Pena urged the people not to join the rebellion, siding with the president against the rebellion, as he deemed it necessary to maintain the country's unity. He went as far as to offer the federal government the help of the Public Force of Minas Gerais, if necessary; this did not mean he supported Floriano Peixoto's stay in power, as he wanted the country's return to civilian rule; in this sense he supported Prudente de Morais' run for the presidency; Morais' became the first civilian president of Brazil. As a reward for his loyalty, Pena was given the rank of brigadier general. His actions also dissipated the threat of a federal intervention in Minas Gerais.

Foundation of the Faculty of Law
During his tenure as state president, Pena strengthened and reformed public education, creating several schools in the state's interior, built railways, modernized the tax system and promoted public debt amortization. He was also the founder of the Free Faculty of Law of Minas Gerais, in Ouro Preto, on 13 November 1892, being elected the Faculty's first director, and was also a teacher at the institution, lecturing Finance Sciences and Public Accounting. The institution formally began to function on 2 January 1893; a federal decree of 21 February 1893 granted it the status of "free faculty", equating it to official federal institutions. Three students completed the course as early as 1893: Antônio Gomes de Lima, Augusto Cesar Pedreira and Rodolfo Jacob.

New state capital


As no consensus was reached regarding where the new capital of Minas Gerais would be, the question was left open in the State Constitution, which only established that the capital of Minas Gerais should be moved to another location, without specifying which location it would be. It was then agreed that the Minas Gerais Congress would decide the issue and, at the end of 1891, it indicated Barbacena, Belo Horizonte, Paraúna, Várzea do Marçal, and Juiz de Fora as possible locations. A law was also approved determining the formation of a Technical Committee tasked with presenting its opinion on the suggested locations. The committee's members were appointed by Afonso Pena in December 1892 and its leadership fell to Aarão Reis.

The technical opinion was delivered in July 1893 and the issue was once again the subject of intense debate in the state Congress. Politicians from different parts of Minas Gerais demanded the move to their respective regions, but in the end the Technical Committee pointed to Belo Horizonte and Várzea do Marçal as the best places. Afonso Pena preferred Belo Horizonte, but the Congressional Committee tasked with analyzing the two options opined in favor of Várzea do Marçal, which was preferred by deputies from the South of the state. Belo Horizonte's detractors claimed the place was unhealthy, with inadequate topography and little water. They also argued that it had poor soil for agriculture and pointed to the need to compensate the local landowners. Finally, the two places were debated in the plenary, with Belo Horizonte winning with a difference of just two votes, 30 against 28. Fourteen congressmen were not present at the voting.

Thus, on 13 December 1893, the state's legislature met in Barbacena and approved the law that provided for the construction of Belo Horizonte within a maximum period of four years in what was then the old colonial village of Curral d'el Rey, replacing Ouro Preto as the state's capital; the law had been proposed by Afonso Pena. Ouro Preto's geographic features were considered an obstacle to the development of Minas Gerais.

Economic policy and immigration


Afonso Pena also sought to improve the state's economy by solving some of its most immediate issues; these included the loss of income in coffee exports due to the fact that, by being a landlocked state, Minas Gerais' production had to be exported by the port of Rio de Janeiro, which kept the tax revenues. To tackle this issue, Pena created a dry port in the municipality of Juiz de Fora, where most of the state's coffee production was located, and made an agreement with president Floriano Peixoto in which each coffee producing state would keep its production's revenue, thus greatly reducing Minas Gerais' dependency on Rio de Janeiro.

At that time, Pena also defended the taxation of imported goods as a way to promote local production. Ever since his tenure at executive positions in the 1880s, he began to deviate towards a more protectionist stance, in contrast to his early liberal and laissez-faire ideas; in his own words, his position became a "moderate protectionism". He also began to envision the state as a modernizing actor, with the role of promoting economic growth. He later declared that:

"In modern times, the issue par excellence that preoccupies the attention of governments, statesmen, assemblies, and the press is economics. The theory of the gendarme State, simple maintainer of order and dispenser of justice, has had its time, today finding few publicists who support it in its purity, and is positively contradicted by the politics of civilized peoples, without exception in England. Another is the dominant concept: the high mission of the State also encompasses caring for the people, exercising its beneficial action in areas of social activity, provided that individual initiative, in its various forms, proves to be impotent or insufficient."Pena also adopted a more proactive state action by promoting immigration to Minas Gerais, in particular German immigration to Minas Gerais, whose immigrants were perceived as skilled labors, necessary for the development of the state; this was in line with the ideas, common at the time, of social darwinisn and racial determinism. The government actions aimed at bringing entire families in order to make their establishment permanent. During the imperial era, Pena had argued against the proposal of bringing Chinese immigrants, then called "coolies", as he deemed it "the introduction of another deleterious element to the many that are in our country" and that it would contribute to the "decay of the race". Despite his efforts, the number of people that immigrated to Minas Gerais was smaller than other Brazilian states, as they offered better payment and working conditions; the system of indentured servitude, the local climate and cholera epidemics made Minas Gerais less attractive for immigrants.

President of the Bank of the Republic (1895–1898)


Pena left the government of Minas Gerais on 7 September 1894, being succeeded by Bias Fortes. Upon leaving office, he was invited by president Prudente de Morais to occupy a position in the Supreme Federal Court and become Brazil's plenipotentiary minister in Uruguay, but refused, arguing that he did not want to leave Minas Gerais. Pena only accepted the position of president of the Bank of the Republic, the current Bank of Brazil, which he held from 1895 to 1898; it was the main Brazilian banking institution at the time.

Pena's appointment was due to the fact that Rodrigues Alves, then Brazil's minister of finance, was his colleague from the Faculty of Law; together they worked to solve the economic crisis caused by the Encilhamento through a set of reforms that sought to contain government spending, restore the country's credit, and value the currency's exchange rate. During that time, Pena adopted an even more protectionist stance, suggesting that imported products that had equivalent ones produced in Brazil be taxed, especially textiles and food, which was approved by Congress in 1896. At the head of the bank, he also accompanied and financially assisted the construction of Belo Hozironte.

Vice presidency (1903–1906)
Pena returned to Minas Gerais in 1899 and reassumed his position as director and teacher at the Faculty of Law. That same year, he was elected the first president of the Deliberative Council of Belo Horizonte (1899–1904). In 1900, he was elected to the State Senate in order to replace Francisco Sales for the remainder of the 3rd legislature (1899–1902) and then reelected for the 4th legislature (1903–1906), but resigned in 1903, when he was elected vice president of Brazil on 18 February, following the death of Silviano Brandão, taking office on 23 June. Brandão, elected vice president on 1 March 1902, died on 20 September of that year, less than two months before taking office. At the time, the vice presidents exercised, cumulatively, the position of president of the Senate.

Presidential election of 1906


The Brazilian presidential election of 1906 was one of the least disputed at the time, but the issue of president Rodrigues Alves' succession had been the subject of intense behind-the-scenes disputes by the states. On one side, São Paulo elites intended to elect a fourth consecutive president from the state, with Rodrigues Alves choosing Bernardino de Campos as his successor, while other states' oligarchies saw this as an obstacle to their own intentions, as it meant that São Paulo would maintain control of the country. During the First Brazilian Republic, it was common for incumbent presidents to choose their successors, given the fact reelection was not allowed, and Alves thought that he could get the oligarchies to accept his choice through mere imposition.

In a letter sent to Afonso Pena, then vice president, in March 1905, Alves asked him to support Bernardino de Campos, as to avoid eventual disputes that could emerge in the upcoming republican convention that would homologate Campos candidacy. Pena responded a few weeks later, making clear his disagreement with the perpetuation of São Paulo politicians in power and with the government's intention to control the succession process. Pena's disagreements were in line with Pinheiro Machado, an influential senator from Rio Grande do Sul who also sought to influence the presidential succession. Machado had launched Campos Sales, from the Republican Party of São Paulo, as a candidate for the upcoming election. Despite being from São Paulo, Sales, who was president of Brazil from 1898 to 1902, was not well received among a large part of the São Paulo elites due to the unpopularity of his government during the presidency.

After the news that Minas Gerais would not support Bernardino de Campos' candidacy, the states of Bahia, Rio Grande do Sul and Rio de Janeiro, already in opposition to Campos, saw the opportunity of an alliance with Minas Gerais, which was able to emerge in the national scenario now that its internal political disputes had been relatively pacified.

Thus, for the first time since the republic was proclaimed in Brazil, some of the large states managed to unite against São Paulo, forming the Bloco (Block) coalition. Led by Pinheiro Machado (Rio Grande do Sul), Nilo Peçanha (Rio de Janeiro), and Ruy Barbosa (Bahia), the coalition backed Afonso Pena and Nilo Peçanha for president and vice president respectively. Ruy Barbosa had withdrawn his candidacy in order to support the alliance, and the newspaper Gazeta de Notícias declared: "It seems that Mr. Senator Pinheiro Machado's sword has cut, for once, the Gordian knot of the presidential election. Mr. Ruy Barbosa's adherence to the opposition coalition, to the official candidacies, puts, at least, an end to the conjectures that the evolution of political maneuvers creates". Several pre-candidates were considered, but Pena seemed the strongest one.

Pena ran as a single candidate, but electors were allowed to cast votes for anyone, even non-candidates. Pena presented his government program on 12 October 1905 in the Cassino Fluminense. The election was held on 1 March 1906 and Pena was elected with 97.9% of the votes. Before taking office, he went on a three month tour around the country, traveling over 21,000 kilometers and visiting eighteen state capitals, an unprecedented feat at the time. He became the sixth president of Brazil after being inaugurated on 15 November 1906. According to Cláudia Viscardi, once defeated, São Paulo candidates "withdrew and remained in prolonged political ostracism, only interrupted after the succession of Venceslau Brás.

Domestic policy
Despite being elected on the basis of the so-called "coffee with milk politics", Pena carried out an administration that was not entirely tied to regional interests. He greatly encouraged the construction of railroads, especially the construction of the and the connection between the São Paulo and Paraná railroads, allowing, for the first time, the connection of Southeastern Brazil with the South by train. Pena also modernized Brazilian capitals and ports. Pena's government encouraged immigration. His motto was "to govern is to populate".

The "kindergarten"


The ministries during Pena's government were held by young and still unknown politicians, as the president wanted to diminish Congress influence in his government and stabilize the country's currency, one of his main goals. These nominations displeased state leaderships, some of whom had backed Pena's candidacy, such as Pinheiro Machado and Ruy Barbosa, as they expected them to based on hierarchy and prestige. Pena's intention of diminishing Congress influence led to an initial troubled period between the government and the legislature. The president supported Carlos Peixoto Filho, who was then less than 40 years old, as the government's leader in the Chamber of Deputies. The government's leadership in Congress also included other young politicians such as João Luís Alves and James Darci. Together they were pejoratively nicknamed "the kindergarten".

In this way, the government was supported by two opposing groups: on one side the "kindergarten" politicians, supported by a large part of the press, and on the other the traditional politicians of the Bloco, led by Pinheiro Machado. The latter group, which was behind Pena's election, felt excluded from the ministerial nominations. Despite this, Pena sought to appear independent in relation to both. The newspapers of the time attributed a phrase to him: "I'm the one who makes the policy". According to Cláudia Viscardi, the president "would try hard to keep the two political groups under his control, in a conciliatory effort that had already become the hallmark of his personality".

Rondon's expedition


In 1906, wanting to secure the occupation of Acre, which had been incorporated into Brazil following the Acre War, Afonso Pena ordered the expansion of telegraph lines from Mato Grosso to the Madeira River valley, and then to Acre, the Purus and Juruá rivers, and finally Manaus. Believing the solution to other economic, political and social issues depended on the completion of the work, Pena appointed colonel Cândido Rondon as chief engineer of the Commission for the Construction of Telegraph Lines from Mato Grosso to Amazonas. Rondon, who was already famous for having extended telegraph lines to Brazil's border with Paraguay and Bolivia, personally selected the members of the expedition, choosing from civilians, army officers and soldiers. The expedition, known as the Rondon Commission, also had the additional goals of carrying out scientific exploration and delimiting the lands of the Casalvasco farm, which extended from the Aguapeí mountain range in Mato Grosso to Brazil's border with Bolivia. The government also created, through Decree No. 6,406 of 8 March 1907, the Works Commission in the Territory of Acre, whose objective was to build roads and public buildings, unblock rivers and populate the region with the creation of agricultural and professional centers.

The commission started its works in May 1907, later discovering the Juruena River, located in northern Mato Grosso, opening its way through the northeast of the state and crossing the Amazon jungle until it reached Manaus in 1910. During the journey, Rondon established friendly relations with the indigenous tribes, some of whom acted as guides for the expedition, and became close to the Nambikwara, who were known for cannibalism and resistance to contact with non-indigenous people. From Manaus, Rondon headed to Rio de Janeiro, where he arrived in February 1910 after four years in the jungle, during which time he was even reported missing, being acclaimed by the population.

The Taubaté Agrement


In the second half of 1905, during the government of president Rodrigues Alves, Brazilian coffee producers, a product whose importance in Brazil's economy had grown considerably since the mid-19th century, expected a record harvest of 16 million bags. Coupled with the global stock of coffee, which numbered about 10 million bags, and production from other countries, the total supply of the product for the period was expected to reach 30 million bags, while global demand did not exceed 16 million. The estimate proved to be much lower than the actual harvest, which totaled 20 million bags in the period of 1906–1907, the largest crop ever harvested in the country at the time. As a result, international coffee prices were expected to fall considerably. The situation was made worse by the fact that the exchange rate of the Brazilian currency was valued.

In this context, producers began to call for urgent government intervention: led by São Paulo, the largest coffee producing state in the country and also the most dependent on coffee revenues, the other coffee producing states, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, were called upon to discuss and sign an agreement in order to protect coffee prices. A coffee valorization proposal had already been made by Alessandro Siciliano, an industrialist and importer from São Paulo, in 1903, but it was refused by president Rodrigues Alves, who remained faithful to his policy of containing public spending, which had begun in 1898 during Joaquim Murtinho's tenure in the Ministry of Finance. On 26 February 1906, the governors of the three coffee producing states met in the city of Taubaté and signed the homonymous agreement, inspired on Siciliano's earlier proposal.

The agreement provided for a series of measures to increase the price of coffee, including the purchase of surplus production by the federal government, which would be done through the taking of a foreign loan of 15 million pounds. This large inflow of capital threatened to increase Brazil's exchange rate and, as a result, diminish profits from the sale of coffee; for this reason, the agreement also provided for the creation of the (Conversion Bank) in order to keep the exchange rate stable. Furthermore, for the loan to be viable, the federal government would need to act as a guarantor, as the guarantees required by international lenders went beyond the states' budgetary conditions.

The agreement was met with opposition from several sectors, including president Rodrigues Alves, who was against state intervention in the exchange rate with the creation of the Caixa de Conversão. In order to be put into practice, it had to be voted and approved in Congress. Fearing that the president would veto the agreement, the signatory states made changes to the text and sent the proposal to create the Caixa de Conversão to be voted on separately.



Discussions in Congress began on 19 July 1906 and the agreement was approved with a large majority on 6 August 1906, becoming Decree No. 1,489. Contrary to his predecessor, Afonso Pena – then president-elect – was in favor of the Caixa de Conversão, as he deemed it "essential to the balance of public finances". The bill for its creation was then approved in Congress on 6 December 1906 and signed by Pena, already sworn in office. The Caixa de Conversão would receive deposits of legal tender gold coins and in return issue bills of equal value to the depositors; the exchange rate would also be fixed at 15 pence to 1 thousand réis. Thus, Brazil effectively adopted the gold standard.

Afonso Pena conditioned the federal guarantee for the loan on meeting the demands of coffee growers from Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, who produced inferior quality coffee, and also on São Paulo's support for David Campista as his successor for the 1910 elections. The federal guarantee would only come into effect in November 1908, after all conditions had been met, despite continuous pressure from São Paulo since 1906.

Pena made the first state purchase of coffee stocks in the Old Republic, thus transferring the burden of coffee value appreciation to the federal government, which was previously only practiced regionally by São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, which had signed the Taubaté Agreement. These measures would later result in a period of great prosperity and inflationary control, interrupted with the advent of the First World War. The great influx of foreign capital to Brazil, obtained with the exportation of coffee, and the measures aimed at restricting the expansion of coffee crops adopted in the Taubaté Agreement made it possible to expand the industrial sector during the period. In an industrial census held in 1907, 3,258 companies were counted, which together employed 150,841 factory workers. This census included manufacturing and large industries. However, out of the large factories, 85% were concentrated in São Paulo.

Brazilian National Exposition of 1908


The idea of holding a National Exposition in Rio de Janeiro arose in 1905, being accepted by the Brazilian Congress, which approved the budget for its holding in July 1907. The centennial of the opening of Brazilian ports to foreign trade, which took place on 28 January 1808, offered the pretext for its realization. The idea was to celebrate the country's own trade and development and "show Brazil for Brazilians themselves", through the exhibition of its agricultural, industrial, and artistic products. Promoted by the federal government, the exhibition also represented the final event in the series of urban and sanitary reforms undertaken in the city of Rio de Janeiro during the administration of mayor Pereira Passos and physician Oswaldo Cruz since 1903.

Preparations for the exposition began under the Pena administration, when Miguel Calmon, then minister of industry, transport and public works, formed a 41-member commission headed by engineer Antônio Olinto in October 1907. Together with mayor Marcelino de Souza Aguiar, appointed by Pena, they chose Urca to host the event. Construction work lasted from January to June 1908, with the exhibition opening to the public on 11 August 1908, and remaining open until 15 November of the same year. The exposition featured pavilions and stands from Brazilian states and Portugal, the only invited country, in addition to other individual buildings, such as the Industries Palace. The Liberal Arts Palace featured the work of several Brazilian artists such as Eliseu Visconti, João Batista da Costa, Rodolfo Amoedo, Belmiro de Almeida, Nicolina Vaz de Assis, and Ernesto Giradet. It received more than a million visitors over its three-month duration, who came from all over the country.

Army and navy reforms


In line with his concerns about industrialization and military strengthening, Afonso Pena appointed Hermes da Fonseca as minister of war; upon taking office, Fonseca warned the president that conditions in the Brazilian Army were "woeful". A congressman stated that the country's Armed Forces were "sadly unequipped to defend the nation against any enemy, even a 3rd or 4th class power". Brazil's minister of foreign affairs stated that conditions in the Armed Forces were "the most regrettable possible". Fonseca had conducted major military maneuvers in 1905 as commander of the 4th Military District, which exposed the precarious state of the troops, as they lacked basic equipment and discipline.

In order to tackle this issue, the government reorganized the army and the National Guard, and instituted compulsory military service through draft lottery with the introduction of the Sortition Law (Law No. 1,860 of 4 November 1908). The previous law on the matter had kept forced recruitment, and proved to be insufficient. The new one, inspired on what was already practiced in the "most civilized countries", created a military reserve in order to comply with the Brazilian Constitution of 1891, which stated that all men were obliged to military service. Other countries in South America had already adopted the lottery. Some sectors in society worried that the country would be militarizad and there would be a lack of manpower to work in agriculture and industry. Commenting on the matter, Pena declared:



"The small number [of soldiers] established in the law of forces, the same for many years, clearly shows that we do not have the desire to constitute ourselves into a military power, and that we are only fulfilling the elementary duty of prudence, providing the security and defense of the nation against possible threats."

As minister of war, Hermes da Fonseca sought to strengthen relations with Germany, whose army was considered exemplary, with the aim of implementing the German training model in Brazil. Groups of Brazilian officers were sent to internships in Germany in 1908. Fonseca himself went to Germany that same year, at the invitation of emperor Wilhelm II, to watch military maneuvers. There he hired a German Military Mission to supervise the reorganization of the Brazilian Army, though it ended up not materializing. However, Fonseca's visit to Germany did bear fruit in the arms sector, with the Krupp company becoming the main provider of artillery to Brazil.

Despite the government's modernizing efforts, the reforms produced limited immediate results: the creation of large permanent units (the strategic brigades) and the acquisition of new equipment. Resistance within the army itself prevented the adoption of some measures, and the reforms' high costs were met with resistance from the political class. The reform of the army's General Staff took ten years to complete. Likewise, despite being adopted in 1908, the Sortition Law's conscription measures only came into effect in 1916.

Immigration and the Adolfo Gordo Law


As one of his concerns since he was president of Minas Gerais, Afonso Pena instituted a more effective immigration policy. The president opted for the creation of colonial centers for the production of wine and wheat in southern Brazil. The General Directorate of the Settlement Service and the Directorate of the Propaganda and Economic Expansion Service of Brazil Abroad were created, tasked with promoting immigration, monitoring colonization, and carrying out the country's propaganda in Europe, thus transferring the matter of immigration back to the federal government, which had been delegated to the states since 1892. The federal government also started to subsidize the travels.

During Pena's government, the first wave of Japanese immigrants arrived in the country in the ship Kasato Maru, with 781 immigrants disembarking in the Port of Santos in June 1908. The entry of non-European immigrants into the country was limited. However, in the case of immigrants from China and Japan, the restrictions had been reversed in 1892. All of these federal government measures contributed to the increase in the arrival of immigrants when compared to the period in which they were the responsibility of the states. In total, Brazil received around 100,000 immigrants during Pena's term.

The arrival of immigrants generated concern among the authorities, who saw in them the "peril of being spoiled by all vices" or contrary to the "conservative elements of society". Migration control was the responsibility of the police, who could block the entry of criminals and beggars. Soon the police authorities began to demand measures to expel immigrants who were considered "undesirable". Among them were petty criminals and propagators of anarchist ideals among urban workers. Atrition between immigrant workers and employers began to happen, which led to the issue of the expulsion of foreigners being discussed in Congress in 1906, after the outbreak of strikes and the holding of the First Brazilian Workers' Congress, which proposed direct action. Thus, Decree No. 1,641 of 7 January 1907 was approved, signed by the president. It became known by the name of its proponent, the São Paulo deputy Adolfo Gordo, allowing for the "cleansing" of undesirable immigrants from the country. Despite the law, the labor moverment continued to promote strikes and workers' newspapers denounced intimidation by the police.

Border issues
Pena nominated the Baron of Rio Branco, Brazil's "Bismarckian" minister, to the ministry of foreign affairs, an office Paranhos had occupied since 1902. One of Brazil's main concerns during the First Republic was to solve its border issues with the neighboring countries. During Pena's government, Brazil solved border issues with Colombia and Peru; with the former, the Vásquez Cobo–Martins treaty was signed on 24 April 1907 by which Brazil ceded navigation rights in the Amazon basin in exchange for recognition of its territorial claims in the region. As for Peru, Brazil signed a treaty on Tratado Velarde-Río Branco by which the borders between both countries were settled and general principles regarding commerce and navigation were defined. Border issues with Venezuela and British Guyana were also solved.

The Hague Convention
In 1907 the Second Peace Convention was held in Hague; its goals were to stop the arms race taking place at the time and establish peaceful ways to solve international disputes. Brazil had been invited to take part in the First Convention of 1899, but refused. In 1907 it sent a delegation led by Ruy Barbosa.

Possible war with Argentina


War fears between Brazil and Argentina increased during the period, encouraging militarization in both countries and reaching a peak in 1908, when the two nations hovered on the brink of war. At the time, the "armed peace" doctrine was common on the international scene and was also applied in Argentine–Brazilian relations. In 1902, when Rio Branco assumed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Brazil's external policy shifted to a hegemony goal in the Southern Cone. Tensions between both countries began in 1904, when the Brazilian Congress approved a naval rearmament program, which threatened Argentine naval dominance in the South Atlantic Ocean and caused distrust regarding Brazil's perceived imperialist intentions. The situation worsened when Figueroa Alcorta became president of Argentina in 1906. Alcorta appointed Estanislao Zeballos, a long time rival of Rio Branco, as minister of foreign affairs. Convinced of Brazil's "political and military resurgence", Zeballos sought to diplomatically isolate it, prevent its naval build up and improve relations with Uruguay and Paraguay.

Argentine newspapers such as La Prensa attacked Brazil and defended arms acquisitions for Argentina, whose navy, once the strongest in South America, had fallen behind the Brazilian one. Zeballos accused Brazil of breaking the naval balance of forces between both countries and considered Brazil was "excessively arming its navy". The Argentine minister led an extensive anti-Brazilian and arms campaign in the press, which prompted some sectors in Argentina to plan his removal from office. In 1908 Ruy Barbosa warned president Afonso Pena that the Argentines could attack by surprise and, in Stanley E. Hilton words, "Brazilian strategists became convinced that the country could suddenly find itself at war".



That year, Zeballos sent a secret letter to Roque Sáenz Peña, the Argentine plenipotentiary minister in Spain, in which he stated that he had written evidence signed by Rio Branco that Brazil was preparing to attack Argentina. Zeballos then detailed his plan: Argentina would demand that Brazil give it one of its dreadnoughts that were under construction. If Brazil refused, an ultimatum would be sent, giving the country eight days to settle the issue, after which the Argentine Navy would attack Rio de Janeiro, which the Argentine ministers claimed was a "well studied and easy point, due to Brazil's defenseless situation". The secret plan was discussed with president Alcorta and his cabinet on 10 June and two days later Zeballos would present it to Congress with the "secret documents" signed by Rio Branco in order to request funds to mobilize the military. However, the plan was leaked in the Argentine press on 11 June, which alarmed public opinion and harmed Zeballos' image, being aborted. Under pressure, Alcorta then asked Zeballos to resign his position as foreign minister and assume the Ministry of Justice and Public Instruction. Zeballos refused the proposal and presented his resignation on 16 June 1908.

Despite resigning, Zeballos continued to claim he had documents signed by Rio Branco in which Brazil's aggressive intentions were evident. One of these documents was an encrypted telegram, known as Telegram No. 9, sent by Rio Branco to Domício da Gama, the Brazilian minister in Santiago, Chile. The telegram, dated 17 June 1908, was intercepted, decrypted, and its contents were distorted and published in the press by Zeballos. In the falsified version, Rio Branco instructed Domício da Gama to spread "the 'imperialist' pretensions of the Argentine Republic, letting it be known in the high political circles that in its vanity it dreams of the domination of Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay and also our Rio Grande". The false document was read by the new Argentine foreign minister, Victorino de la Plaza, in the Senate, which pushed Congress to approve the arms build up and shifted public opinion against Brazil. Rio Branco promptly denied the allegations, stating that the document was "absolutely false" and the accusations could only be the product of "some man of the most exquisite bad faith".

Zeballos then claimed, through La Prensa, that he had photographs of the documents and challenged Rio Branco "to review his secret Pacific archive and read the original document that exists in it, with the following addresses: 17 June 1908, at 06:57, number 9". La Prensa wrote that Rio Branco would need "to prove that he had not promoted anything hostile to the Argentine Republic, in the spirit of any American chancellery". In an unexpected move, Rio Branco then published the Brazilian cipher and the original text in order to prove that the Argentine version was false and that there were no aggressive Brazilian plans against Argentina. The situation caused enormous embarrassment in Argentine political circles. Demoralized, Zeballos was removed from the chancellery.

With Zeballos' fall, relations between Argentina and Brazil gradually improved and the ABC Pact, based on Rio Branco's "cordial political intelligence", was negotiated. Rio Branco later stated: "[m]ore than ever, we need to put ourselves in a state of defense against this neighbor, since crazy people like Zeballos can stir up opinion there".

Succession crisis
Due to his departure from the traditional interests of the oligarchies, in the so-called oligarchic Old Republic, Pena faced a crisis at the time of his succession. David Morethson Campista, nominated by Pena to succeed him in the presidency, was rejected by groups supporting Hermes da Fonseca (mainly by Pinheiro Machado, the most influential congressman at the time). Pena tried to nominate Campos Sales and Rodrigues Alves, without success. In the midst of all this, the also began, launched by Ruy Barbosa.

Cabinet
The composition of Afonso Pena's government was:

Death


Afonso Pena died on the afternoon of 14 June 1909 at the Catete Palace due to a severe pneumonia, the symptoms of which had worsened the night before. A medical commission consisting of doctors A.A. Azeredo Sodré, Benjamin A. da Rocha and Miguel Couto was formed in the morning. At 09:30 the commission issued its first report on the president's health, stating that he was in serious condition. A few hours later it issued another report stating that his condition had not worsened. At 14:15, being surrounded by his family and ministers, the president collapsed; after regaining consciousness, he passed out for the last time and died. According to doctor Miguel Couto, Afonso Pena's last words were "God, fatherland, liberty and family".

Minister Augusto Tavares de Lira then sent telegrams to vice president Nilo Peçanha, calling him to assume office, and to the states' presidents, giving them the news of the president's death, which caused commotion in Brazil and abroad. Several countries expressed their grief, including Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Chile, France, Portugal, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

According to Cláudia Viscardi, Pena's illness was worsened by the deaths of his son Álvaro and one of his brothers, and the succession crisis. His wake was held at the government palace and, on 16 June, his body was buried in the São João Batista Cemetery.

Historical reputation
According to historian José Murilo de Carvalho, Afonso Pena was seen as one of the most prominent political figures of his time. José Anchieta da Silva summed him up: "a monarchist, he was an exponent of the Republic, becoming an uncompromising defender of order and legality, guaranteeing the consolidation of the nascent Republic". Bárbara Lima remarked that Pena was the only member of emperor Pedro II's cabinet to become president of Brazil. In Steven Topik's evaluation, his government "represented a fusion of the interventionist tendencies of the [Brazilian] Empire with the new realities of the Republic", also pointing that Pena had a developmentalist thought. Likewise, for Cláudia Viscardi, out of all the presidents of the First Brazilian Republic, Afonso Pena was the most committed to the country's industrial development, while also not ignoring the predominant agricultural interests.

Homages


Days after Afonso Pena's death, Ruy Barbosa stated in a speech in the Senate that "[i]f public service has its martyrs, we have never witnessed the most singular example of this experience". In a session of the Brazilian Historic and Geographic Institute held on 30 June 1909, the Baron of Rio Branco stated that "[a]ll of Brazil, which also accompanied him in this undertaking, does him the justice of believing in the purity of his intentions, seeing in him a true statesman eager to assure us the peace that we so desperately need and that all people need". The following year, Francisco Campos, a student of the Faculty of Law founded by Pena, gave a lecture next to Pena's herm, in which he stated "every institution is the elongated shadow of a man".

Pena was honored by giving his name to the city of Penápolis, the city of Conselheiro Pena and the Academic Center of the Faculty of Law of the Federal University of Minas Gerais, CAAP (Afonso Pena Academic Center). As its founder and first director, the faculty itself is affectionately called Vetusta Casa de Afonso Pena, that is, the Old House of Afonso Pena, by its students, professors and staff, as well as the entire academic and legal community that interacts with it.

In Belo Horizonte, Pena lends his name to the most important avenue in the city. Likewise, in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, his name appears on the main avenue. He also lends his name to an important avenue in Porto Velho, Rondônia. He is also honored in São José dos Pinhais, Paraná, naming the city's main airport, Afonso Pena International Airport.

Resting place
On 13 February 2009, the mausoleum and remains of Afonso Pena, his wife, and three of their children were transferred from the São João Batista Cemetery, in Rio de Janeiro, to the old colonial house where he was born, in the historic center of Santa Bárbara. Inaugurated in 1912, Pena's mausoleum was carved in Carrara marble by Rodolfo Bernardelli, a Mexican-born Brazilian artist who established himself in the country at the end of the 19th century. Surrounded by four columns, the mausoleum depicts a woman crying over a three-ton headstone, representing the Brazilian Republic. In its dome there is a stained glass window with the Brazilian flag. The mausoleum's style is eclectic, mixing the neoclassical and art-nouveau styles. The house also hosts the Affonso Penna Memorial, open for visits. There, visitors can see the president's personal objects, as well as newspapers and family portraits.