THE DictatorshipMilitary it was an authoritarian regime that lasted 21 years in Brazil. Had beginning in 1964, through a civil-military coup, and ended in 1985, with the victory of Tancredo Neves for the presidency. During this period, Brazil had a total of five different military “presidents”.
The Military Dictatorship was marked in Brazilian history as a period of strong authoritarianism, since there was censorship of arts and culture in the country; citizens had their rights and freedoms curtailed by the military. There was also human rights violation, with kidnappings, torture and execution of Brazilian citizens.
Accessalso: Estado Novo - the authoritarian period of Getúlio Vargas
1964 coup
The starting point for the dictatorship in Brazil was the 1964 coup. This coup is called by historians civil-military coup, as it had the participation of civilian groups - businessmen and the media - and military groups, who articulated the overthrow of the president, João Goulart, and Brazilian democracy.
The 1964 coup ended a period of Brazilian history known as Fourth Republic (1946-1964), considered the first democratic experience in our country (although democracy in that period had several limitations).
O scam, that is, the attempt to seize power at all costs and illegally was a practice that permeated the actions of conservatives in Brazil during that period. The great exponent of conservatism in Brazil was the National Democratic Union (UDN). Coup attempts have previously taken place against Getulio Vargas it's against Juscelino Kubitschek.
the scam gained strength in Brazil when João Goulart assumed the presidency, in 1961, after Janio Quadros resigned from the post. João Goulart was one of the great names of the Brazilian Labor Party, the PTB, and had a strong connection with unionism and a center-left agenda known as labor.
Labor was a political project that emerged in the 1940s through Getúlio Vargas and established a social welfare agenda in a democratic regime that has a strong appeal with the working classes. The 1964 coup was built to destroy this agenda and implement a regime of modernization in Brazil marked by austerity under the tutelage of military authoritarianism.
The inauguration of João Goulart was already a great challenge, since there were members of the UDN and the military who refused to allow this to happen. Only after much political negotiation and a threat of civil war did the Gaucho politician take office. However, he took over a parliamentary regime, which reduced his political powers.
After the return of presidentialism, João Goulart put into practice a program known as Basic Reforms, who intended to carry out structural reforms in the country. The program was naturally not supported by conservative groups, who feared some projects, such as the land reform.
So, the big business, the press and the military started a coup joint to remove João Goulart from the presidency. These groups also had the support of the US government, interested in overthrowing the left and center-left projects that were developing in Latin America.
The Americans illegally financed the candidacy of conservative candidates and provided military support for the 1964 coup (support that was not needed because Jango did not resist the blow). The big business, the press and the military sought to erode the government's image, and the Institute for Research and Social Studies (Ipes) was very important for this to happen.
After much negotiation and little progress in the Basic Reforms agenda, Jango decided to reaffirm publicly his commitment to the project in a speech given at Central do Brasil, in March 1964. The move was perceived as a move to the left by the president, and conservative reactions surfaced.
Days after the president's speech, conservative groups held the Family March with God for Freedom, in Sao Paulo. Military unrest grew and, on March 31, a rebellion began by a military group located in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais. There was no reaction from the government, and the rebellion was joined by other military groups.
On April 2, 1964, parliamentarians decided to overthrow João Goulart, with an announcement made by senator Auro de Moura. On April 9th, the Institutional Act No. 1, the act that took the first authoritarian actions and, on April 15, the marshal Humberto Castello Branco assumed the presidency after an indirect election.
military governments
![From right to left we have two ?presidents? military: Ernesto Geisel and Humberto Castello Branco.[1]](/f/eddb424f3abc16c609f8d4531f0ef603.jpg)
Over 21 years of Military Dictatorship, Brazil has gone through five different governments, each governed by different “presidents”. The five governments of that period were as follows:
Humberto Castello Branco (1964-67)
Artur da Costa e Silva (1967-69)
Emilio Médici (1969-74)
Ernesto Geisel (1974-79)
João Figueiredo (1979-85)
None of them were chosen by the Brazilian people, because the military had taken that right away from the citizens. So these "presidents" were elected by the military command and the Electoral College. The end of the dictatorship is considered precisely when the military candidate was defeated in 1985 by the opposition candidate.
Accessalso: Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca - the first president of Brazil
Authoritarianism in the Military Dictatorship
The 21 years of the Military Dictatorship were marked as one of the most authoritarian periods of the republic in Brazil. During this period, the military carried out the systematic persecution of Brazilian citizens using practices such as:
arbitrary arrests,
kidnappings,
torture,
executions,
disappearance of bodies,
cancellations of rights.
Until bombings were carried out by the military in the period.
From a legal point of view, the military found the justification for the coup and the abuses committed against Brazilian citizens in the institutional acts. These acts served as legal support giving the permissions the military needed for their authoritarian project.
Among examples of measures decreed by these acts, we can mention the AI-2, which decreed the performance of electionsindirect for president and implemented bipartisanship in Brazil, allowing the following parties to exist:
National Renewal Alliance (Arena): party of the military;
Brazil Democratic Movement (MDB): consented opposition.
The main institutional act was the AI-5, announced in December 1968, which decreed measures such as the closing of Congress and granted rights to the president to intervene in states and municipalities, revoke citizens' rights and dismiss employees public. Torture practiced in barracks and police facilities received an incentive with the suspension of the habeascorpus.
THE torture it was a common practice of the military and was practiced indiscriminately against Brazilian citizens. Not even children were spared by the military, and numerous cases and reports were recorded in later investigations, such as the National Truth Commission. The arts also suffered from the dictatorship with artists of all kinds being censored by the military.
Economy in the Military Dictatorship
In the field of economy, the dictatorship began cutting wages fromyou workworshipers through small readjustments and imposing a policy of containment of the State's expenses. Afterwards, a developmentalism policy was implemented, which resulted in the mmiracleandthrifty, a great economic growth that took place between 1969 and 1973.
Economic growth did not rely on income distribution measures, and the Military Dictatorship was marked as a period that sharpened social inequalities that existed in Brazil. There was indebtedness of the state, and the military were responsible for the problem of hyperinflation that affected the country in the 1980s.
Accessalso: How was the Constitution of Brazil drawn up after the end of the dictatorship?
democratic opening
In the late 1970s, the military developed actions to promote a openingcontrolled in Brazil. However, the military's objective was not a full return to democracy. What they planned was to make a controlled opening in which power could return to civilian hands as long as the interests of the military were served.
However, the military lost control of this process. since there was a very great erosion of them in power, and the demands of the population for greater political participation and for the return of democracy were very great. Troubles in the economy were one of the big factors that contributed to the wear and tear of the military.
The 1980s was the moment when the military made a exitnegotiated. They turned the country over to civilians again, but guaranteed a series of career and salary benefits. and took steps to ensure that military personnel who committed crimes during the dictatorship were not investigated and punished. The decree of amnesty, in 1979, is the great example of this.
There was also the return to multipartyism and the repeal of AI-5. Brazilian society demanded the return of the right to direct election for president through Diretas Já, but the amendment was defeated. In 1985, the opposition candidate, Tancredo Neves, defeated the candidate of the military, Paulo Maluf, and the dictatorship came to an end when João Figueiredo's government ended.
Image credits:
[1] FGV/CPDOC
