T exto adapted from the book “History:
from caves to the Third Millennium (Vol. 3)”,
by Myriam Becho Mota and Patrícia Ramos Braick
The statement above is by Pedro Rabelo, son of journalist José Maria Rabelo, who at the age of 17 was detained and tortured in Chile. The Rabelo family, like hundreds of other people, was forced to leave Brazil after the 1964 military coup.
Politically persecuted, the couple and their seven children remained in exile for 16 years. First they went to Bolivia, a country they had to leave months later, due to the military coup that overthrew President Victor Paz Estensoro, in 1965. The next stop was Chile, which had a Christian Democrat government and, five years later, would elect the socialist Salvador Allende.
But in 1973, the military dictatorship would also be implemented in Chile, with the rise of General Augusto Pinochet. The family was forced to flee again—this time without even time to pack. The last stage of the journey was lived in France, until 1979, when the amnesty was approved in Brazil and the Rabelos were finally able to return.
The need for the constant flight of the politically persecuted is justified by the policy of “solidarity” that existed among the Latin American military governments. The so-called “Operation Condor”, which lasted approximately ten years, consisted of an agreement between the dictatorships of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile, in order to create mechanisms that led to arrest, repression, torture and, often, death. of political activists in these countries, regardless of where they were. The existence of the operation was confirmed in late 1992, thanks to the discovery of Paraguay's secret police archives. The members of Operation Condor, instituted by General Pinochet, exchanged documents and prisoners and acted freely, including to assassinate militants from left-wing parties and social movements. According to data from the countries linked by the “Mercosur of Terror”, Operation Condor killed or made disappear 12,868 people, in addition to leaving an incalculable number of tortured.
This dark history begins long before the Chilean military coup. It begins in the 1960s, when Brazilian military and businessmen won the support of a large part of the middle sectors for the overthrow of the constitutional president. And it lasted until the 1980s, in Brazil and in other countries.
Contestation, rebellion and repression
The Brazilian political crisis worsened in 1961, when João Goulart assumed the presidency of Brazil shortly after the resignation of then-President Jânio Quadros, who ruled the country for seven months. The conservative sectors, allied with the military, began a campaign to destabilize the government, as they did not agree with the measures proposed by the new president. The package of measures known as Basic Reforms, which included agrarian reform, cuts in subsidies given to imports of certain products, urban reform, banking reform, electoral reform and educational reform, was harshly opposed by the elite.
On March 31, 1964, a military coup overthrew João Goulart. From then on, the military began to act to demobilize any and all opposition to the regime. Labor organizations such as the General Workers Command (CGT), opposition politicians and journalists and students were among the targets of the repression. The violence especially affected organizations linked to the Peasant Leagues, especially in the Northeast. The National Student Union was closed and its building burned down.
The military called the movement that overthrew President Goulart the “Revolution” of 1964. However, it cannot be said that a revolution took place. This word has often been misused. In essence, however, there is little confusion as to its central meaning:it designates drastic and violent changes in the socioeconomic structure and also in the laws, removing those who controlled it from power. Revolution is the unleashing of violent actions carried out by sectors of society that do not belong to the ruling elites or the ruling classes.
The analysis of the meaning of the military period divided opinions in Brazil and in the world. Teachers, politicians, military, the national and foreign press presented different opinions about the period.
Soon after the 1964 coup, it became clear that Brazil would enter a military dictatorship. Although the movement had the support of civilians, notably UDN politicians, the military did not intend to hand over power to them, as had happened in 1930 and 1945. This time, representatives of the Armed Forces would be in direct control of the State apparatus.
In April 1964, Institutional Act nº 2 was edited by the commanders of the Army, Navy and Air Force. Among several provisions, the following stand out:
- Nomination of General Humberto de Alencar Castello Branco as President of the Republic.
- The current federal and state constitutions would be maintained.
- The election of the President and Vice President of the Republic would be carried out by the National Congress.
- The President of the Republic could submit to Congress suggestions for reforming the 1946 Constitution, laws on any subject, to create or increase public expenditure.
- Investigations and legal proceedings in relation to crimes against the State or its property, as well as against the political and social order, could be instituted against individuals or collectively.
- Commanders-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, who signed the Institutional Act, could suspend political rights for a period of 10 years and annul legislative mandates (federal, state and municipal) without judicial review.
Regarding foreign policy, the military opted for alignment with the Western bloc, mainly with the United States. This country recognized the legitimacy of the provisional government shortly after the military coup, which indicates Washington's interest in the overthrow of João Goulart.
The United States had good reason to want an end to the Jango government. By approving the Profit Remittance Law and encouraging an independent policy for the country, the president was harming the interests of American companies installed in Brazil. It would be an exaggeration to say that the United States financed the military coup, but there is no doubt that it financed the conspirators. Since 1963, American President John Kennedy had suspended the granting of loans to the Brazilian federal government, although he continued to release capital to opposition governors, such as Magalhães Pinto, from Minas Gerais, Carlos Lacerda, from the State of Guanabara, and Ademar de Barros, from Sao Paulo.
The Castello Branco government (1964-1967)
General Humberto de Alencar Castello Branco was the leader of the Sorbonne Group, linked to the Escola Superior de Guerra (ESG).
Upon assuming the presidency, Castello Branco stated that his objective was to implement a “restricted democracy” – for him, this meant acting in the reformulation of the economy and the politics of the State, with the purpose of “fighting communism and promoting the consolidation of democracy”. . He was the creator of important control and repression bodies, such as the National Intelligence Service (SNI), in charge of supervising and coordinating information and counter-intelligence activities, with special attention to national security issues.
Imbued with exceptional powers, the Castello Branco government was able to promote arbitrary arrests and torture opponents, despite the fact that habeas corpus was still in force, which would be abolished in 1968. Union and peasant leaders were killed or disappeared; elected governors lost their terms. Among the first to be removed by the government were:João Goulart, Jânio Quadros, Miguel Arraes, Leonel Brizola, Luís Carlos Prestes, Celso Furtado, Darcy Ribeiro and other important public figures in the country.
In 1966, the opposition was victorious in the elections for governor in the states of Minas Gerais and Guanabara. The military government reacted by issuing Institutional Act nº 2. The decree put an end to all existing parties and authorized the formation of only two parties:the ARENA (National Renovation Alliance), which supported the regime, and the MDB (Brazilian Democratic Movement). ), which summarized the forces of the opposition, weakened by the impeachment of the most combative parliamentarians.
The popular reaction against the government's arbitrariness was immediate. In the streets, the student movement was reborn. Marches and demonstrations took over urban centers. The government responded with violence, harshly repressing the rebel movements.
Meanwhile, the government undertook to fight inflation, which approached 100% a year, and encouraged foreign investment. The opening to the outside contributed to the consolidation of a typically export model, generating highs in the trade balance. The control of credit lines for the private sector, the reduction of public spending and the containment of wages also received priority. This plan became known as the Government's Economic Action Program (Paeg).
The alliance with foreign capital, notably North American, was clearly demonstrated with the repeal of the Profit Remittance Law, approved by Congress in 1962, during the João Goulart administration. The law, which controlled the release of entry, movement and exit of foreign capital from the country, was annulled in order to encourage the flow of foreign capital to the country.
Economic policy included strong repression of workers. To this end, the Fundo de Garantia do Tempo de Serviço (FGTS) was created in January 1967, which extinguished job stability, allowing for a greater turnover of workers, with low costs for the entrepreneur.
The 1946 Constitution underwent reforms through Institutional Act nº 3, which established indirect elections for governors and mayors of capitals and cities considered to be of national security. Then, to approve a new constitutional text, Congress was convened for an extraordinary session through Institutional Act nº 4.
The 1967 Constitution further increased the power of the Executive and limited the autonomy of States, weakening the federalist principle. In addition, new laws were enacted and executive decrees were signed, including one that subjected the Executive to military-style planning. Finally, a severe Press Law and the National Security Law were published, designed to facilitate the performance of State security bodies against the so-called internal enemies.
Although the new Constitution determined that the choice of the President of the Republic would be in charge of the National Congress, in practice things happened very differently. In fact, the president's name was defined within the military corporation — parliamentarians only enshrined the order from above.
Costa e Silva Government (1967-1969)
General Arthur da Costa e Silva had as vice president the ex-udenista Pedro Aleixo, one of those responsible for the Manifesto dos Mineiros of 1943, against the Vargas dictatorship. The new president, in turn, was part of the so-called “hard line” of the Army and was a defender of nationalism. At first, he disagreed with the economic policy implemented in the previous government, which excelled in rapprochement with the United States and foreign capital.
Costa e Silva fired all civil servants who held important public positions, appointing military personnel to replace them. The exceptions were restricted to the Ministry of Finance and Planning, attributed respectively to António Delfim Netto and Hélio Beltrão. The two ministers started an economic project that aimed to resume growth without increasing inflation. Workers' dissatisfaction was one of the difficult points faced in Costa e Silva's administration, as the deflationary policy implemented in the previous government had caused a decrease in wages and reduced the purchasing power of Brazilian capital companies.
Thus, the new measures included an increase in the bank credit line for the private sector and also price control, through the creation of the Interministerial Price Council (CIP), which provided for punishments for entrepreneurs who disregarded the institution's instructions. And, in order to guarantee its policy to fight inflation, the government officially set public and private sector wages.
Initially, the new economic policy brought positive results, since the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) reached a growth rate between 10 and 1.2%. The period known as the “Brazilian economic miracle” began.
The early days of the Costa e Silva government were marked by a strong reaction from civil society. During this period, the workers' strikes in Contagem (MG) and Osasco (SP) in 1968 stand out. Students protested in the streets, demanding the return of full democracy, the creation of more vacancies in public universities and the improvement of quality of teaching. They also expressed their repudiation of the MEC-Usaid agreement, which was an attempt to introduce tuition fees in public universities.
The tactics of lightning rallies and marches excited the students. On March 28, 1968, one of these demonstrations took place in Rio de Janeiro. The protest was against the poor quality and high price of the meals served in the “Calabouço restaurant”, intended to feed students without resources. The Military Police arrived shooting and killed Edson Luís, a 16-year-old. The mouse shook public opinion. Edson's body was veiled in the Legislative Assembly, and around 50,000 people attended the funeral. At the cemetery, students took an oath:“In this mourning, the fight has begun.”
After the death of Edson Luís, the marches multiplied in all capitals. The sequence of violently repressed demonstrations throughout the country would end up arousing the indignation of the middle classes of Rio de Janeiro, who organized a gigantic demonstration of repudiation of the regime:the Walk of the Hundred Thousand, on June 21, 1968. participation of artists, intellectuals, groups of workers, parliamentarians, journalists, teachers and religious. Examples such as that of the Parisian students in May showed that it was possible to put a conservative regime on the defensive.
The government then decided to expand the mechanisms of repression, in order to “end with the subversives”.
On the 2nd and 3rd of September 1968, the young deputy Márcio Moreira Alves, from the MDB of Rio de Janeiro, used the tribune of the National Congress to deliver his conventional parliamentary speeches.
However, the Attorney General of the Republic clipped excerpts from the deputy's speeches and forwarded the texts to the barracks. The indignant officials alleged that the deputy had abused individual and political rights, practicing an “attack on the democratic order”.
The government sent to the National Congress a request for authorization to prosecute Márcio Moreira Alves, suspending his parliamentary immunity. Before that, it changed the composition of the Justice Commission, guaranteeing the majority of ARENA. The strategy paid off:the Commission gave permission to punish the parliamentarian. However, in the plenary, the deputies rejected the sentence by 216 votes against 141! Fearing the government's reaction, Márcio Moreira Alves decided to go into exile.
The government's response came on a Friday, December 13, 1968. On that day, one of the greatest arbitrary acts of the dictatorial period was published:Institutional Act nº 5.
The new act gave the president powers to close the National Congress and state and municipal assemblies, revoke mandates, suspend political rights for 10 years, dismiss, remove, retire or make available public officials and judges, decree a state of siege and confiscate property. as punishment for corruption. The government also gained the power to suspend the right to habeas corpus in case of crimes against State Security and to carry out the trial of political crimes by military courts, without recourse to the defendants.
But the president didn't have enough time to assess the effects of AI-5. In August 1969, Costa e Silva was removed from office for health reasons, and he died in December. A Junta Militar who took over the government during the president's illness remained in office until new elections were held. The vice president, civilian Pedro Aleixo, was also removed, among other reasons, for being the only member of Costa e Silva's team who refused to sign the AI-5.
The lack of credibility in the parliamentary action, which proved incapable of stopping the advance of the dictatorship, led sectors of the Brazilian left to launch themselves into guerrilla actions aimed at the overthrow of the regime.
In this process, the left ended up splitting:the pro-Soviet Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) developed resistance within the MDB and the unions; the Communist Party of Brazil (PC do B), in line with the thinking of Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung, started a campaign of rural guerrillas, with little peasant support; other groups, such as the National Liberation Alliance (ALN), the Revolutionary Armed Vanguard (VAR-Palmares), the October 8 Revolutionary Movement (MR-8) and the Catholic-oriented Popular Action, developed urban guerrilla warfare. These organizations operated between 1968 and 1974.
Ajunta Militar responded to the kidnapping with two more institutional acts:one gave the government the right to expel anyone considered subversive from the country, and another introduced the death penalty.
During the Costa e Silva period, organizations such as Operação Bandeirante (Oban) were created to improve the efficiency of mechanisms of repression and control of “order”, composed of effective members of the Armed Forces, the State Political Police (Dops) and, more afternoon, Deops – Department of Public and Social Order, Federal Police, Civil Police, Public Force and Civil Force. Oban also served as inspiration for the implementation, on a national scale, of official organizations that received the acronym DOI-Codi (Detachment of Information Operations — Center for Internal Defense Operations). Some of these bodies were financed by businessmen.
This intricate repressive apparatus was responsible for the disappearance, death and torture of hundreds of Brazilian citizens.
By mid-October 1969, President Costa e Silva's state of health had reached a level of practically irreversible gravity. In view of this, the Military Junta declared the positions of president and vice-president vacant. New elections were held on October 25, by the National Congress.
To assume the presidency of the Republic, the name of General Albuquerque Lima was the most quoted among the young army officers. However, the candidate's proximity to MDB politicians and civil businessmen motivated his removal by the military leadership, on the grounds that the president should be a senior officer with four stars — he only had three. The Army high command preferred General Emílio Garrastazu Médici.
The Medici Government (1969 -1974)
At the beginning of the 1970s, Brazil was experiencing the hardest and most violent period of the military dictatorship. Censorship was institutionalized and torture and murder became common practices within prisons. Violence was practiced on all sides. The guerrillas, mostly young, were demobilized after the murder of two of their most important leaders, Carlos Marighella and Carlos Lamarca. The only guerrilla movement that survived was that of Araguaia, a region located between the states of Goiás, Maranhão and Pará. In this place, a group of the PC do B, with a Maoist ideological orientation, managed to resist the attacks of the Armed Forces for more than three years. The Guerrilha do Araguaia was finally defeated in 1975. One of the survivors is José Genoino, one of the most important exponents of the Workers' Party (PT).
With the mainstream press silenced, news about what was happening in the basements of the dictatorship was broadcast exclusively by the clandestine press. Many documents on torture practices and other horrors of the time only exist thanks to the action of the Catholic Church, which participated in movements opposing the dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s and organized a dossier containing records from that period.
The Medici government stood out for being the most repressive. Aiming to strengthen the regime and cover up the climate of terror established in the country, a propaganda apparatus was set up based on the idea of Brazilian cooperation for the aggrandizement of the nation.
Boasting slogans were forged, such as “You build Brazil”, “Nobody can hold this country”, “Brazil, count on me” and “Brazil, love it or leave it”, which aroused euphoria in those who believed in Brazilian progress.
The height of the official advertising campaign was reached when the Brazilian soccer team won the third championship in the 1970 World Cup, held in Mexico. The general-president and all those who supported him in power transformed the event into a “conquest of the Brazilian State”, and were strengthened by this event. The song Pra Frente Brasil, which became a kind of anthem for the 1970 World Cup, was repeated everywhere:
In this way, the most violent president of the military period also became the most popular. His image was polished by an efficient advertising campaign, which explored, among other characteristics, his passion for football. Medici frequented stadiums and acted as an enthusiastic supporter, with the battery-operated radio stuck to his ear.
Torture and repression remained hidden in the midst of collective euphoria. Few Brazilians realized what was happening in the basements of the dictatorship. The vast majority of the population was “bewitched” by the performance of the soccer team.
In an attempt to heat up the market without increasing inflation, Delfim Netto resorted to expanding the bank credit line to the private sector. He also created an inter-ministerial council to control prices and set salaries for public and private sector employees. This policy had rapid effects:the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) showed growth rates between 10.0 and 11.2%. This is how the “economic miracle” began.
Brazil became known for major public works, such as the Rio-Niterói bridge, the Itaipu hydroelectric plant and the Transamazon Highway. The federal government and state governors spared no effort to make the pharaonic projects viable, responsible for the image of an emerging and glorious nation, which was rapidly moving towards industrial greatness. The international economy favored the “economic miracle” policy. Part of the surplus world capital was channeled to Brazil, through loans that made the Brazilian foreign debt hit around US$ 10 billion between 1967 and 1972. One of the economic pillars of the government was the strengthening of the state sector:between 1968 and 1972, the state's share of the national economy rose from a quarter to a third. During the Medici government and later that of General Ernesto Geisel (from 1974 to 1979), nearly three hundred state-owned companies were created in Brazil.
The Medici government also created the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra), the Social Integration Plan (PIS) and the Brazilian Literacy Movement (Mobral). The opposition has questioned the effectiveness of these projects, which have consumed thousands of dollars, taken mainly by foreign investment.
When General Médici assumed the presidency, the country was in full economic growth, especially in the sectors of the automobile industry, civil construction and agricultural production. Thus, the growth of the Brazilian economy during his government was not miraculous. The “economic miracle” was based on three basic pillars:the wage squeeze, foreign loans and political repression. Low wages and foreign resources ensured industrial expansion. Such growth began to take shape in 1968, when the growth rate of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reached the mark of 11.2%. From then on, the numbers were as follows:1969, 10.0%; 1970 8.8%; 1971, 13.3%; 1972, 11.7%; and 1973, 14.0%. The automobile industry was at the forefront of the industrial growth process, being closely followed by civil construction.
In the countryside, the financing system proposed by the government made it possible to purchase equipment and agricultural implements at low interest rates. The real estate market also expanded, providing facilities for the middle class to purchase their own home; shopping centers grew, with an abundant supply of novelties in home appliances. The creation of a modern consumer credit system and the intense advertising of products and services on television contributed to the growth of the domestic market. This mainly benefited the middle class, which, well paid and eager to consume, did not pay attention to the repressive excesses of the regime.
The Ernesto Geisel government (1974-1979)
Head of the Military Cabinet in the Castello Branco government, president of Petrobrás in the Costa e Silva government and minister of the Superior Military Court in the Medici government, Ernesto Geisel was elected President of the Republic by the Electoral College (an institution composed of members of Congress and delegates from the state Legislative Assemblies ). Geisel's victory did not please the “hard line” — but that does not mean that the new president was in favor of full liberalization of the regime.
To symbolically contest the “election” with Ernesto Geisel, the MDB launched its “candidates”:Ulysses Guimarães for president and Barbosa Lima Sobrinho for vice. Although they knew they would not be able to win the election, both toured the country in a “campaign”, and took the opportunity to denounce the indirect elections, the state of repression, the lack of freedom and the excluding economic model.
The election result came as no surprise. Geisel took power in a country dissatisfied with the political regime, beset by economic difficulties and on the verge of a social crisis. The international economic situation was also difficult at that time, as a result of the 1973 oil crisis. In this context, the continuity of the dictatorship also required some political initiatives on the part of the officials and businessmen who supported the regime.
It was during Ernesto Geisel's administration that the process of political opening began, in a style that the general defined as “slow, gradual and sure”. In practice, the liberalization of the regime, called distension, followed a tortuous path, marked by advances and setbacks.
The desire of Brazilian society for reforms and changes was evident in the parliamentary elections of 1974, which gave a broad victory to the opposition forces. Victorious in the main urban centers, the MDB almost doubled its representation:from 87 federal deputies, it jumped to 165, while ARENA's forces were reduced from 223 to 199 deputies. In the Federal Senate, the MDB went from 7 to 20 senators, while the ARENA bench was reduced from 59 to 46 senators. Remnants of the “hard line” pressured the government to curb political opening. But popular pressure, pro-openness, was also quite strong.
After the initial hesitation, President Geisel, assisted by his Chief of Staff, Golbery do Couto e Silva, took an important step in the process of political opening, by removing the military identified with torture and corruption.
The fear of seeing a new MDB triumph in the 1978 elections led Geisel to launch the April package in 1977. Thus, using Al-5, the president closed Congress and began to govern by decree. Among the new presidential measures, the reform of the judiciary system (Constitutional Amendment number 7) and the alteration of the electoral legislation (Constitutional Amendment number 8) stood out, which, among other measures, confirmed the indirect election of state governors. In addition, the Falcão Law, enacted in 1976 and restricted to municipal elections, was extended to other elections. Under this law, candidates were prohibited from appearing live on radio and television during the election campaign. The placement of applications would be made only by the presentation of the curriculum and photograph. The presidential term increased from 5 to 6 years, and congressional decisions now depend only on a simple majority — half the votes plus one — to pass. Ultimately, one-third of the Senate seats were awarded to “bionic senators,” elected by indirect vote in state assemblies.
Diversas entidades, como a Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil (OAB), a Associação Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência, o Comitê Brasileiro pela Anistia, a Associação Brasileira de Imprensa, as Comunidades Eclesiais de Base e a UNE promoveram debates com participação expressiva da sociedade. No meio operário, a insatisfação acabou dando origem a diversas organizações, que brotaram dentro das fábricas, sob a liderança de trabalhadores como Luiz Inácio da Silva, o Lula.
A crise internacional obrigou o governo a criar o II PND (Plano Nacional de Desenvolvimento), tendo em vista a retomada do crescimento econômico por meio da expansão da indústria de base. Também se pretendia diminuir a dependência brasileira em relação aos países fornecedores de petróleo. Nesse momento, o Estado converteu-se no principal investidor econômico.
O plano deu bons resultados:os índices de crescimento econômico de fato assinalaram uma alta expressiva. Só que a dívida externa aumentou, em virtude dos empréstimos contraídos pelo governo.
O governo João Baptista Figueiredo (1979-1985)
O último general-presidente, João Baptista Figueiredo, tinha por tarefa dar continuidade ao lento processo de abertura política. O presidente encaminhou para o Congresso um projeto de anistia restrita e parcial, que foi repudiado por todas as correntes políticas que lutavam pela anistia ampla, geral e irrestrita. O projeto que foi aprovado em junho de 1979 beneficiava os acusados de crimes políticos mas não se estendia aos condenados por atentados e seqüestros políticos; atingia os cassados, mas estes continuavam inelegíveis; referia-se aos servidores públicos e militares punidos pelos Atos Institucionais e Lei de Segurança Nacional, mas subordinava sua reintegração à decisão das autoridades de cada setor; para os militares, a lei anistiava automaticamente os torturadores. Aos poucos, porém, o alcance da lei de anistia foi ampliado. Assim, muitos cassados puderam concorrer às eleições de 1982.
E os desaparecidos? Campanhas foram organizadas para descobrir o paradeiro de centenas de pessoas seqüestradas durante o regime militar. Ainda hoje existem dezenas de famílias sem notícias concretas de parentes que foram vítimas da repressão dos governos militares.
A reforma política implementada pelo Estado permitiu a volta do pluripartidarismo. Arena se transformou no Partido Democrático Social (PDS) e o MDB passou a se denominar Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro (PMDB). Surgiram:PTB (Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro), PDT (Partido Democrático Trabalhista), PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores) e o PP (Partido Popular), que se fundiu com o PMDB. Nas eleições de 1982, o PMDB e o PDT conseguiram eleger governadores em estados como São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro e Minas Gerais.
O processo de abertura política não era aplaudido por toda a sociedade. A direita, ligada ao aparelho da repressão, inconformada com os últimos acontecimentos, decidiu partir para o terrorismo. Bombas foram colocadas em locais públicos como bancas de revistas, sedes de jornais da oposição, igrejas e até na sede da OAB, no Rio de Janeiro. O atentado mais sério foi o do Riocentro, no dia 30 de abril de 1981. Durante um evento que comemorava o dia do trabalhador, cerca de 20 mil pessoas assistiam a um show musical, quando uma bomba explodiu dentro de um carro no estacionamento. A explosão causou a morte de um sargento e feriu gravemente um capitão.
Abriu-se um inquérito para apurar a autoria do atentado no Riocentro, mas, após quase três meses de investigação, foi declarado que os dois militares haviam sido vítimas de uma armação perpetrada pelos grupos de esquerda. O resultado do inquérito não convenceu ninguém:no fundo, todos sabiam muito bem que o grupo da “linha dura” do Exército estava em guerra contra a redemocratização do país.
Logo que assumiu o governo, João Figueiredo enfrentou uma crise ministerial que foi solucionada com a volta de Delfim Netto ao Ministério da Fazenda, em substituição a Mário Henrique Simonsen. Como um “superministro”, Delfim estabeleceu o III Plano Nacional de Desenvolvimento. Entretanto, a permanência da crise econômica mundial trouxe dificuldades para a economia brasileira, como a resistência dos bancos internacionais em conceder novos empréstimos, o aumento da dívida externa, a diminuição dos investimentos públicos em obras de infra-estrutura e a redução de créditos para o setor privado. O fantasma da recessão rondava o país.
A partir de 1983, as oposições lançaram a campanha pelas Diretas Já. O movimento consistia em reivindicar a aprovação de um projeto de lei de autoria do deputado federal Dante de Oliveira, que preconizava a realização de eleições diretas e livres para a Presidência da República em 1985. Comícios foram realizados em todo o país, as ruas tingiram-se de amarelo — a cor escolhida como símbolo da campanha — e personalidades importantes, como artistas, jornalistas, intelectuais e políticos de todas as facções de centro e de esquerda transformaram as Diretas Já num grito em uníssono pela liberdade e pela democracia. Apesar da forte mobilização, a emenda não foi aprovada pela Câmara dos Deputados.
A derrota da Emenda Dante de Oliveira, em abril de 1984, frustrou a população num dia de black out nas principais cidades do país. Extrema coincidência ou não, as luzes se apagaram no Rio, em São Paulo, em Brasília… No dia seguinte, as pessoas saíram as ruas portando tarjas amarelas e pretas, num sinal de luto pela morte de mais um sonho de liberdade.
Restava a opção de eleger um presidente civil depois de tantos anos de arbítrio. A saída encontrada pela oposição foi a chamada “transição democrática”, ou seja:o lançamento de um candidato de consenso, que se opusesse ao candidato da situação. Assim, pela primeira vez desde o Golpe de 1964, a disputa se deu entre dois civis:de um lado, apoiado pelo PDS e pelo regime militar, estava o empresário e deputado federal Paulo Maluf, ex-prefeito e ex-governador biônico do Estado de São Paulo; do outro lado, estava o mineiro Tancredo Neves, candidato da Aliança Democrática, bloco que reunia os partidos da oposição (exceto o PDT, que no entanto votou em Tancredo, e o PT, que se negou a ser conivente com um pleito realizado em Colégio Eleitoral) e também a Frente Liberal, que congregava os dissidentes do PDS. Em 15 de janeiro de 1985, o peemedebista Tancredo Neves e o ex-pedessista José Sarney foram eleitos, respectivamente, presidente e vice-presidente da República.
O presidente eleito não chegou a ser empossado em razão de um câncer no intestino agravado por infecção hospitalar que o levou à morte em 21 de abril daquele mesmo ano. O fato gerou comoção nacional:a coincidência de datas — 21 de abril é também a data de morte de Tiradentes — reforçava a aura de mártir emprestada a Tancredo. Na data marcada para a posse, 15 de março de 1985, a faixa presidencial foi entregue ao ex-líder da Arena e ex-presidente do PDS, José Sarney. Nasceu assim um novo (e conturbado) período para o povo brasileiro:a Nova República.