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THE LESSONS OF THE COUP D´ETAT OF 1964 IN BRAZIL
Fernando Alcoforado *
Several factors explain the outbreak of the coup d´etat that deposed in 1964 President
João Goulart. The first is related to the decline in the economic growth process
inaugurated in Brazil during Juscelino Kubitschek (1955-1960) government which
exacerbated social tensions in the Country. The second concerns the increase of existing
internal contradictions in Brazil between, on one hand, capital and labor and on the
other, between landowners and peasants. The third concerns the conflict between
political forces interested in national economic emancipation and forces defending
maintaining the subordination of Brazil to international capital. The fourth factor
concerns the conflict between the capitalist world system, led by the United States, and
the socialist system led by the Soviet Union. Finally, the fifth factor concerns the crisis
between the presidency and the Armed Forces not addressed by President Goulart. All
these factors contributed to the coup d´etat of 1964 and the deployment of military
dictatorship that lasted 21 years in Brazil .
It should be noted that in 1961, Brazil had entered a period of recession and stagnation
with hyperinflation greatly contributing to rising unemployment and social tensions
after Juscelino Kubitschek government (1955-1960) when Brazil achieved high rates of
growth of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) that on average was 7.9 % per year in the
period, generating at the same time, hyperinflation and bottlenecks in the Brazilian
economy. In the brief period in which João Goulart ruled Brazil (1961-1964), political
conflicts and social tensions became serious. This is due to the fact that they were
already exhausted the possibilities of growth of the Brazilian economy based on the
expansion of the consumer durables industry, especially the automotive industry, which
a decade earlier had been the main driver of economic growth. During the government
of João Goulart, the contradiction between capital and labor greatly increased due to the
fall in economic growth, the loss of purchasing power of workers resulting from rising
unemployment and hyperinflation and the existence of a working class and labor
movement gestated by a process of industrialization increasingly claimant in defending
the interests of workers. In turn, in the field, increased tensions between landowners
and peasants organized through the peasant leagues claimed the land reform with land
expropriation of large estates.
Since the beginning of his term, João Goulart lacked legislative support to pass easily
their political, economic and social projects that therefore the government stability was
compromised. As a solution to resolve the frequent impasses encountered by the lack of
political support in Congress, João Goulart adopted the strategy of permanent
mobilization of popular sectors in order to get social support for his government.
The government of João Goulart allied to current national and reformist who sought
national liberation from the yoke of imperialism, especially the United States which
have had to cope with political forces interested in maintaining the "status quo" ruling
ideas. It is noteworthy that besides the contradiction between the Brazilian nation and
imperialism, especially the U.S., the global conflict between the capitalist system led by
the United States and the socialist system led by the Soviet Union also contributed to
the occurrence of coup d´etat in 1964 because, from the geopolitical point of view, the
world was divided between two areas of influence (capitalist and socialist). Brazil in
1964 was considered capitalist influence area under the leadership of the United States.
It would be unacceptable to the United States and its local allies admit that Brazil

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became an independent country and able to be allied with the Soviet Union as happened
with Cuba.
Given the major structural problems experienced by Brazil and to cope with the
economic, political and social crisis existing in the first years of the 1960s, the
government sought to implement Goulart denominated Basic Reform based on the
Three-Year Plan which was a restructuring proposal a series of economic and social
sectors in Brazil that began to be discussed during the Kubitschek government in 1958.
Basic reform became the flag of the Goulart government. Under the name of "basic
reforms" were gathered initiatives aimed at the banking, tax, urban, administrative,
agrarian reform and university. Also included to provide the right to vote for the
illiterates and subordinate patents of Armed Forces. The measures also sought greater
involvement of the state in economic affairs, regulating foreign investment in Brazil.
Among the changes required by the basic reform was, first, the agrarian reform. The
objective was to enable thousands of rural workers had access to land in the hands of
the estate. The laws of remittance of profits that sought to reduce the high rate of profits
that large foreign companies in Brazil and conquered the freezing of rents had already
been approved by Congress. The onslaught of the government for the implementation of
basic reforms began on March 13, 1964 through a major rally in Central Brazil Station
in Rio de Janeiro in which João Goulart and Brizola announced major changes in Brazil.
About 200 thousand people attended that day, which upset more conservative sectors. In
this rally, President João Goulart announced the signing of the decree that nationalized
private oil refineries and decree that expropriated uncultivated land located on the edge
of roads and railways. As the proposals were influenced by leftist thinking, proponents
of capitalism, landlordism and members of the feared Brazilian right about the growth
of a possible Communist government in the Country.
The rally in Central Brazil Staion was the decisive moment to determine the
organization of the military to initiate the coup d´etat that was triggered in March 31 /
April 1 of 1964 establishing a military dictatorship in Brazil. The Armed Forces were
also influenced by ideological bias experienced by the Brazilian company that political
situation, causing the breakdown of hierarchy and discipline due to the uprising of
subaltern sectors. The students of the subject claim that the breakdown of hierarchy and
discipline in the Armed Forces was the main factor that caused the removal of loyalist
soldiers who stopped supporting the government of João Goulart, facilitating the coup
d´etat movement.
One indisputable fact is that the dictatorship implanted in 1964 has no parallel in the
history of Brazil. Despite being called a military dictatorship, many civilians cooperated
and participated since the outbreak of the coup d´etat until the end of the dictatorship in
1985. Also foreign aid from the government were the soldiers who gave the blow, they
chose the presidents, who commanded the repressive apparatus and gave orders to hunt
and exterminate leftist groups, but the dictatorship would not be installed if there
weren´t civil support and United States under the presidencies of Kennedy and Johnson.
The coup d´etat did not tell only supported by tanks and rifles. Had the right political
parties, aggressive media, entrepreneurs enemies of workers and trade unions, farmers
armed against the Peasant Leagues, anti-religious, among others. They were all adept of
the coup d´etat so much military. The dictatorship was therefore as civilian and military.
*
Alcoforado, Fernando, engineer and doctor of Territorial Planning and Regional Development from the
University of Barcelona, a university professor and consultant in strategic planning, business planning,

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regional planning and planning of energy systems, is the author of Globalização (Editora Nobel, São
Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo,
1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do
desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,
http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel,
São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era
Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social
Development-The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Muller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG,
Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (P&A Gráfica e Editora,
Salvador, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global
(Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011) and Os Fatores Condicionantes do
Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), among others.