the calls Military Governments, or Governments of the Brazilian Military Regime, who were in power from 1964 to 1985, established themselves in Brazilian politics at a time when the country was immersed in one of its worst crises, in the first months of 1964. O 1964 coup, understood by the military themselves as “1964 Revolution”, was an insurrection by sectors of the Brazilian armed forces against the government ofJoão Goulartand his proposals. These proposals, by the way, were also supported by other sectors of the same Armed Forces. The coup took place on March 31 and was completed on April 1, 1964.
President João Goulart, who had already had difficulties in assuming the position of president after the resignation of Janio Quadros, had been proposing structural changes in the political and social sphere of Brazil, which his team called “Basic Reforms”. These reforms, in the eyes of government critics, offered loopholes for a radical communist shift. The president himself had already paid attention to communist countries at the time, such as China, and this contributed even more to the criticisms leveled at him. Furthermore, since the beginning of the 1960s, there have been outbreaks of rural guerrillas in Brazil, such as Francisco Julião's League of Poor Peasants (which had connections with Cuba).
Mind Map: Military Dictatorship
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Tempers rose in March 1964, and some generals gave the president the ultimatum. The then governor of Rio Grande do Sul and also Goulart's brother-in-law, Leonel Brizola, had with him a part of the army to defend the president's ideals. Brizola proposed resistance to the coup, but this proposal was defeated by Goulart, who wanted to avoid a civil war.
Since then, the military approved the text of theAI-1, institutional act n. 1, which established preliminary actions for Goulart's term to be completed by a military president, among other resolutions. In 1965, the AI-2, which tightened the guidelines of the new government regime installed, establishing indirect elections for the president and artificializing the actions of the National Congress. The political actions triggered by AI-2 and the other two institutional actssubsequent occurred in the government of the general White Castle, considered moderate by many historians.
It was also during the Castelo Branco government that there were many campaigns by political leaders civilians against the regime (mainly due to the delay in making a new democratic electoral election), as the of Carloslacerda, who supported the coup at its inception. The actions carried out by Carlos Lacerda and other leaders became known as Wide Frontand had great repercussions in the years 1966 and 1967.
Despite these attempts to re-establish the democratic order, the regime has not lost strength. On the contrary, there was what specialists on the subject call “Coup within Coup”, that is, an even greater hardening of the military regime, with the decree of AI-5, on December 13, 1968, during the government of Costa e Silva. AI-5 stripped individual liberties and gave way to openly dictatorial attitudes. Brazil, from the year of 1968, lived very troubled years. Some historians believe that the “open dictatorship” that came with the AI-5 was largely due to the pressures of revolutionary armed actions that were already underway in the country – such as those of the AP (Popular Action, accused of the bombing at Guararapes Airport in 1966).
Costa e Silva's government was followed by those ofmedical andgeisel, which gave rise to national developmentalism, but with differences in political conduct. Medici continued the “hard-line” stance begun in 1968. In his government, the actions of arrest, torture and combat against guerrillas became intensive. Geisel, who took office in 1974 and ruled until 1979, began a slow process of democratic opening that culminated in Amnesty Law, 1979. This process was completed by the last general president that Brazil had, the general Figueiredo. The political transition began indirectly, when Congress was rehabilitated and political parties were able to reorganize. The first civilian president after the government of the military was Tancredo Neves, indirectly elected in 1985. However, he died before taking office. the deputy, José Sarney, took over the post. Direct elections took place in 1989 and culminated in the victory of Fernando Collor de Mello.
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*Image credits: Shutterstock/rook76
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes
*Mental Map by Daniel Neves Silva
Graduated in History
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiab/governos-militares.htm