The South Is My Country

The South Is My Country is a separatist movement that seeks the independence of Brazil's South Region, formed by the states of Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, and Santa Catarina. The group claims the region is under-represented by Brasília.

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Context

During the Empire of Brazil, several separatist movements existed in the region. Among the main reasons for secession, the groups complained about high taxation of dry meat, the main export product of the region during the time. Armed conflict broke out in the Ragamuffin War, when Rio Grande do Sul unsuccessfully tried to gain independence. During the transition to the republic, federalist groups formed in the region, culminating in the Federalist Revolution.
In the context of the Brazilian República Velha, the so-called coffee with milk politics were in practice, favoring the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, the largest in terms of population and wealth - producers of coffee and dairy products, respectively. Rio Grande do Sul, among other states, joined the political opposition, forming the Liberal Alliance and launched Getúlio Vargas as candidate for president, who lost to Júlio Prestes. Vargas had almost 100% of the votes in Rio Grande do Sul. The Liberal Alliance refused to accept the results of the election, claiming that Prestes' victory was fraudulent. This led to a coup d'état known as Revolution of 1930, which made Getulio Vargas the new president, ending the Old Republic. After this, only two presidents linked to the states Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, and Santa Catarina came to power democratically: Getúlio Vargas and João Goulart. Both presidents lost their mandates.

Movement

The movement arose during the Second Separatist Congress celebrated in 1992 at Laguna, founded by, freemason and former mayor of the city. It upholds the concept of self-determination of the peoples and does not constitute a political party, despite its founders being directly involved with politics. The movement is headquartered in Curitiba and the President is Celso Deucher.
Its defenders allege that the states of Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, and Santa Catarina have particular and distinct characteristics from the rest of Brazil, and thus they claim the right to political, economic, social and cultural self-determination, based on the expectation of self-sufficiency to direct better the resources of the state to attend to its regional peculiarities.
The official symbols of the movement includes three stars which represent Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, and Santa Catarina.

Unofficial independence referendums

First edition

On 1 October 2016, Plebisul - an unofficial referendum - was held. Voters were asked if they wanted to secede from Brazil, forming a new country with the three states. A total of 616,917 votes were counted according to the organizers of the ballot, 95% voting yes. They were hoping to reach up to a million votes throughout the three Brazilian states.

State	YES votes	%	NO votes	%	Participation		Participation
Paraná	21,361	88.82	2,690	11.18	24,051	7,869,450	0.31
Rio Grande do Sul	311,356	97.21	8,924	2.79	320,280	8,362,830	3.83
Santa Catarina	257,947	94.63	14,639	5.37	272,586	4,985,048	5.47
Total	590,664	95.74	26,253	4.26	616,917	21,217,328	2.91

City	YES votes	%	NO votes	%	Participation		Participation
Curitiba	4,702	89.84	532	10.16	5,234	1,289,215	0.41
Porto Alegre	5,859	92.30	489	7.70	6,348	1,098,515	0.58
Joinville	12,398	92.94	942	7.06	13,340	372,551	3.58
Londrina	1,087	75.07	361	24.93	1,448	353,314	0.41
Caxias do Sul	8,654	96.05	356	3.95	9,010	293,417	3.07
Florianópolis	2,381	85.93	390	14.07	2,771	316,261	0.88
Maringá	374	84.81	67	15.19	441	261,717	0.17
Pelotas	3,113	93.60	213	6.40	3,326	228,634	1.45
Canoas	1,350	96.98	42	3.02	1,392	247,770	0.56
Ponta Grossa	1,163	83.07	237	16.93	1,400	222,716	0.63
Blumenau	16,800	94.06	1,061	5.94	17,861	230,167	7.76
Cascavel	357	77.11	106	22.89	463	206,714	0.22
São José dos Pinhais	1,264	85.93	207	14.07	1,471	170,706	0.86
[Santa Maria, Rio Grande (Rio Grande do Sul)\|Rio Grande do Sul\|Santa Maria]	798	88.57	103	11.43	901	203,043	0.44
Gravataí	1,063	99.25	8	0.75	1,071	186,699	0.57
Foz do Iguaçu	-	-	-	-	0	165,730	0.00
Viamão	1,075	99.44	6	0.56	1,081	134,827	0.80
Novo Hamburgo	4,692	95.97	197	4.03	4,889	178,138	2.74
Colombo	-	-	-	-	0	128,602	0.00
São José	1,462	92.12	125	7.88	1,587	156,617	1.01
São Leopoldo	4,429	89.03	546	10.97	4,975	164,141	3.03
Chapecó	7,193	92.32	598	7.68	7,791	140,526	5.54
Criciúma	1,442	96.13	58	3.87	1,500	141,667	1.06
Itajaí	3,993	93.69	269	6.31	4,262	143,131	2.98
Rio Grande	519	94.71	29	5.29	548	154,595	0.35
Alvorada	1,429	93.22	104	6.78	1,533	119,228	1.29
Passo Fundo	5,143	95.22	258	4.78	5,401	142,329	3.79

Second edition

In 2017, a second edition of the referendum was announced, to be held on 7 October of the same year. The edition had an estimated cost of R$ 25,000. The participation target was set to the same as the previous referendum - 1 million voters.
In its second edition, the organizers also collected signatures for a popular initiative bill to hold an official referendum in 2018, with the same question and answer options as the informal popular referendum held so far.

State	YES votes	%	NO votes	%	Participation		Participation	Variation
Paraná	73,332	94.08	4,615	5.92	77,947	7,869,450	0.99	+ 224.09
Rio Grande do Sul	180,329	97.16	5,263	2.84	185,592	8,362,830	2.22	- 42.05
Santa Catarina	96,972	96.28	3,745	3.72	100,717	4,985,048	2.02	- 63.05
Total	350,633	96.26	13,623	3.74	364,256	21,217,328	1.72	- 40.96

Demographics of South Region

White Brazilians are the majority of South Region with 72% as of 2022. The Brazilian states with the highest percentages of whites are the three located in the South of the country: Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and Paraná. These states, along with São Paulo, received an important influx of European immigrants in the period of the Great Immigration.

Rio Grande do Sul: 78.4% white
Santa Catarina: 76.3%
Paraná: 64.6%

Criticism

Some academics claim that the movement bases its separatist claims in "natural differences", such as the region's climate, and that although these might create an "identity" for the region, the people and their culture are not much different from the rest of the country. Others claim there are cultural differences, such as in religion, literature, food, clothing, dances, music, etc. Some go as far as to say that Brazilians identify first with their home state, and only then as Brazilians.