Brazilian Military Revolution 1964

In the months before March 1964, the staff and student officers of the Army General Staff School (Escola de Comando de Estado-Maior do Exército -- ECEME) played a key role in convincing other military officers that they should support a move against Brazilian president Joao Goulart (1918-76). Even the highly respected chief of staff, Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco, joined the conspiracy. The officers believed that rational economic development, internal security, and institutional well-being would occur only if economic and political structures were altered, and that the civilian leaders were unwilling to make the necessary changes.

Military officers involved in planning a coup against Goulart believed that the left was so well-organized that their conspiracy might fail. The president's brother-in-law, Leonel de Moura Brizola, the fiery governor of Rio Grande do Sul, and the regional army commander bragged foolishly that he had a 200,000-strong peoples militia ready to resist a military coup. The conspirators had plans to flee Brazil in the event that they failed, and American officers had promised that they would receive training and logistical support to return to Brazil to wage a guerrilla war.

In 1964, President Goulart headed a leftist-oriented government that was endorsed by the Sailors and Marines Association and other labor organizations. Struggling to keep the impatient left on his side and to stave off the right, Goulart opted for a series of public rallies to mobilize pressure for basic reforms. In a huge rally in Rio de Janeiro on March 13, 1964, Goulart decreed agrarian reform and rent controls and promised more. A counter rally against the government, held six days later (March 19, 1964) in São Paulo, put 500,000 people marching in the streets. Then, on March 25, 1964, about 1,400 sailors and marines seized a trades union building in Rio de Janeiro to protest the arrest of their association's president. The sailors and marines mutinied in support of Goulart and may have been led by an agent provocateur of the anti-Goulart conspiracy. They refused to surrender to the minister of the navy, but two days later yielded to army troops. However, Goulart mishandled the incident by agreeing that they would not be punished and that the navy minister would be changed. The uproar was immediate.

Top military leaders were shocked and accused Goulart of not supporting them and of undermining discipline. Rio de Janeiro's Correio da Manhã published an unusual Easter Sunday edition with the headline "Enough!" It was followed the next day, March 30, with one saying "Out!" Although Goulart agreed to investigate the amnesty, the Fourth Military Region staged a revolt against him (March 31, 1964) and was soon joined by other military regions. The army garrison at Rio de Janeiro fought against a few troops loyal to Goulart and soon took control of the city. Goulart fled to Uruguay.

A general strike called by the General Confederation of Workers completely disrupted daily life but failed to prevent the military takeover of the government. Brizola's resistance groups proved an illusion, as did the supposed arms caches of the unions and the readiness of favela (shantytown or slum) residents to attack the wealthy. The new government immediately began arresting all leftists and suspected communists and later expanded its purge to members of congress and officials who had been in Goulart's Labor Party.

References

Military History, 1465; Dictionary of Wars, 69; Brazil - A Country Study.

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