Itamar Franco

Franco became Brazil's president when Fernando Collor resigned in December 1992 as the Senate tried him for corruption, the first time Brazil had removed a president through constitutional impeachment. Franco's reputation for personal honesty steadied the government, he formed a broad cabinet and he appointed Fernando Henrique Cardoso as finance minister, who launched the Real Plan that ended hyperinflation. The institutional point was that the 1988 constitution had removed a president without the army stepping in.