João Goulart , also known as Jango, was president of Brazil from September 1961 until April 1964, when he was removed by the articulation of the Civil-Military Coup. His government began under a parliamentary regime, but returned to presidentialism in January 1963. He tried to carry out profound reforms in Brazil, but was prevented. The path to the coup was consolidated from the events of September 1963 onwards. See also our text on the first phase of Jango's government.
Background
Jango's inauguration was extremely tumultuous due to the military's intransigence in not allowing João Goulart to take office in the presidency of Brazil. Jango's inauguration took place in September 1961 under a parliamentary regime, that limited his presidential powers. This parliamentary regime was ended when the population determined the return of presidentialism in January 1963.
Jango took over Brazil with a strong economic crisis and social upheaval, which resulted from social inequality and the population's dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs. The president proposed an economic recovery plan with a more pragmatic philosophy. This plan, known as the Triennial Plan , it was a failure.
Another government impact program was the Grassroots Reforms, that established programs to carry out structural reforms in essential areas of the country. This program intended to carry out an educational, urban, tax/fiscal, banking, electoral and agrarian reform. Among these, the one that was widely debated was agrarian reform.
Grassroots Reforms were intense opposition , especially from conservative groups and wings of our society who saw the program as a threat to their long-term interests and privileges. The debate for carrying out the agrarian reform did not advance and wore out the government, which began to lose the support of its PSD base, which, in turn, gradually migrated to the UDN.
Political Radicalization
In September 1963, the government of João Goulart was in a delicate situation. The political crisis had isolated the government, which no longer had the strength to approve the reforms defended by the Basic Reforms, mainly the agrarian reform. This worsened the situation of the countryside, the target of intense radicalization by peasants, who promoted land occupations in different states of Brazil.
In addition, in the cities, the climate of social mobilization was also intense, mainly because of the work of labor unionism. The bad economic indices, especially inflation, weighed directly on the worker's income, which generated dissatisfaction, and the mobilization took place from the realization of strikes. These strikes alarmed conservative groups, who feared that labor movements would guide Brazilian politics.
In the political aspect, radicalization happened from two big names, each one in a spectrum of our politics. On the right, there was the performance of Carlos Lacerda , governor of Guanabara and conservative famous for disrupting politics based on factoids. Carlos Lacerda was also known for encouraging the Armed Forces to seize power in the country to stop the alleged “communist threat ”.
Alongside the conservative radicalism was a considerable part of the Armed Forces, which was developing a project to seize power in the country. These soldiers were part of the Superior School of War (ESG), which sought to build closer relations between the business community and the military to create a project for the economic development of Brazil under the aegis of an authoritarian government.
On the left, the great name that symbolized this radicalization was the governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Leonel Brizola , brother-in-law of Jango. Brizola demanded a more energetic stance from the government in approving the Basic Reforms and openly defended that they should be carried out at all costs. Brizola had gained notoriety during the 1961 Loyalist campaign for Jango's possession.
The Path to the Scam
Weakened by the political wear and tear related to the agrarian reform, Jango's government showed new signs of weakness from September 1863 onwards, opening the door to the coup. First, in September 1963, there was the Sergeants' Rebellion and, in the following month, the government was defeated in an attempt to impose a state of siege in the country. Let's look at these questions:
The Sergeants' Rebellion It happened on September 12, 1963 when around 600 sergeants and soldiers from the Air Force and Navy started an uprising to take over the government. This rebellion by the sergeants was a result of the dissatisfaction that arose among the sergeants after they were banned by the STF from running for electoral office in 1962.
The sergeants took over some government buildings and arrested the minister of the Federal Superior Court, named Victor Nunes Leal, as well as the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Clóvis Mota. The movement was quickly controlled, but left a bad image for the Jango government, first of weakness and then of suspicion when the conservatives began to accuse Jango of intending to carry out a coup.
The state of siege proposal it was the second event that demoralized Jango's government and took place in October 1963. Jango was guided by his military ministers to declare a state of siege to achieve control over the growing violence in the countryside. Furthermore, this measure was intended to give the government prerogatives to act against Carlos Lacerda.
During this period, Carlos Lacerda had conducted an interview in the United States accusing the government of João Goulart and calling on the American Armed Forces to invade Brazil to overthrow the “communists who were in power” . This statement was viewed very negatively by the loyalist military, who began to demand the arrest of Carlos Lacerda.
The proposal to declare a state of siege was taken to Congress by the government on October 4, 1963 and displeased to all. The rightists accused Jango of maneuvering to carry out a coup in Brazil, and the leftists claimed that this measure could quickly turn against the social movements that were in effervescence. So, attacked by both sides, Jango retreated and the proposal was withdrawn on October 7th.
While João Goulart's government was notoriously weakened, the underground articulations by the coup took place. The coup mobilization in Brazil had the open support of the United States, which financed the coup forces through the CIA. There was, in addition, the funding of conservative candidates in the elections held in 1962. This knowledge came from US government documentation that has been released for consultation in recent years.
With American support, two institutions established themselves in Brazil and took the lead in organizing the coup:the Ipes-Ibad complex . The Brazilian Institute for Democratic Action (Ibad) received American funding, mainly in the 1962 elections, to guarantee the election of conservative candidates, who would act with the objective of stopping the actions of the Jango government and allowing the coup to take place. Ibad was closed in 1963 after it proved its role in the irregular financing of electoral campaigns.
The Institute for Research and Social Studies (Ipes) was created in 1961 by businessmen from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in alliance with military personnel from the ESG (Escola Superior de Guerra). Regarding the performance of Ipes, it is worth mentioning the speech of historians Lilia Schwarcz and Heloisa Starling:
Ipes brought together the cream of Brazilian business, in addition to directors of multinational companies operating in the country, leaders of the main business class associations, military, journalists, intellectuals and a group of young technocrats. All were involved in intellectual production that ranged from the editing of books and films to lecture cycles. In the underground, however, the story was different, and Ipes acted against Goulart with a two-pronged policy. The first consisted of preparing and executing a well-orchestrated effort to destabilize the government […]. The second outlined planning strategies to support a new government and development project for the country, open to the flow of international capital and with an authoritarian vocation. […] It was a coup plot with its own agenda […]|1| .
The coup plot gained strength from March 13, 1964, when João Goulart, in a speech given at Central do Brasil in Rio de Janeiro, assumed its commitment to carry out Basic Reforms at all costs. This was seen by historians as a shift of his government to the left and generated an immediate response from the conservative and coupist wings.
On March 19, the Family March with God for Freedom was held in São Paulo which mobilized 500,000 people to protest against Jango's measures. This march called on the military to carry out the seizure of power in Brazil and was a clear demonstration that a portion of society had adhered to the conspirators' agenda.
Jango's government began to crumble when, on March 31, 1964, a revolt began by the military based in a barracks in Juiz de Fora. The revolting soldiers began their march to Rio de Janeiro without any kind of opposition offered by the government. This started the political articulations that made the president of the Senate, Auro de Moura, decree on April 2 the vacancy of the presidency of Brazil. The Military Junta that took over from there imposed authoritarian measures, consolidating the beginning of the Military Dictatorship in Brazil.
|1| SCHWARCZ, Lilia Moritz and STARLING, Heloisa Murgel. Brazil:a biography. São Paulo:Companhia das Letras, 2015, p. 441.
*Image Credits:Andre Luiz Moreira and Shutterstock