| João Belchior Marques Goulart | |
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27th President of Brazil
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| In office September 7, 1961 – April 1, 1964 |
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| Preceded by | Pascoal Ranieri Mazzilli |
| Succeeded by | Pascoal Ranieri Mazzilli |
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| Born | March 1 1918 São Borja, Rio Grande do Sul |
| Died | December 6 1976 (aged 58) Mercedes, Argentina |
| Nationality | Brazilian |
| Political party | Brazilian Labour Party - PTB |
João Belchior Marques Goulart (March 1, 1918 — December 6, 1976) was a Brazilian politician and the 27th president of Brazil until a military coup d'etat deposed him on March 31, 1964. A former estancieiro (farmer with huge properties of land), Goulart (nicknamed "Jango") studied law in Porto Alegre. He was elected to the Rio Grande do Sul state legislature in 1946 with the Brazilian Labor Party (Partido Trabalhista Brasileiro, PTB). He later served as minister of justice and the interior. In 1953 he was appointed by President Getúlio Vargas as minister of labour, industry, and commerce. Despite being rich, Goulart was very popular among lower classes and made connections with labour unions. Vargas took advantage of that just when the left wing sectors were deviating from his government. As minister of labour, Goulart proposed an increase of 100% in minimum wages. In 1956, Jango was elected Vice President, as the running mate of President Juscelino Kubitschek. Goulart was again elected Vice President in 1960. This time, however, the president was Jânio Quadros, a member of a different party. (At the time, Brazilians could vote for a ticket that had candidates for president and vice president from different parties.) Quadros resigned in 1961. According to some chroniclers, this was an attempt to promote a self-coup. After this alleged coup failed, Goulart assumed the presidency after a ten-day-long crisis. The surname Goulart is of Azorean-Flemish origin.
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The Goulart administration
Congress was reluctant to give Goulart the mandate because of military opposition to his apparent left-wing tendencies, though he was the political heir of Getúlio Vargas (a right-wing president). As a compromise solution, Brazil adopted a parliamentary system of government. After two years of unstable governments, parliamentarism was overwhelmingly rejected in a plebiscite in 1963 and Goulart regained his lost authority. The Goulart years were marked by national reforms, closer ties to left-of-center political groups, and conflict with more conservative sectors of society. He signed decrees expropriating oil refineries and uncultivated land owned by foreign companies. State-run workers programs, in an attempt to work this unused land, were considered too radical.
The military overthrow of Goulart
In 1964, a military-led coup overthrew Goulart. The coup installed successive right-wing hardliners as heads of state who suspended civil rights and liberties of the Brazilian people [1]. They abolished all political parties and replaced them with only two, the military government's party called the "National Renewal Alliance Party" (ARENA) and the opposition's "Brazilian Democratic Movement" (MDB). However, the MDB had no real power, and that the military rule was marked by the widespread disappearance, torture, and exile of many politicians, university students, writers, singers, painters, filmmakers and other artists. In the first of hours of March 31, 1964, General Olímpio Mourão Filho, in charge of the 4th Military Region, headquartered in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, ordered his troops to start moving towards Rio de Janeiro, to depose Goulart.[2] On April 1, at 12:45PM, João Goulart left Rio for the capital, Brasília, in an attempt to stop the coup politically.[3] When he reached Brasília, Goulart realized he lacked any political support. The Senate president, Auro Moura Andrade, was already articulating for congressional support of the coup. Goulart stayed for a short time in Brasília, gathering his wife and two children, and flying to Porto Alegre in an Air Force Avro 748 aircraft. Soon after Goulart's plane took off, Auro Moura Andrade declared the position of President of Brazil "vacant".[4] In the first hours of April 2, Auro Moura de Andrade, along with the president of the Supreme Federal Tribunal swore in Pascoal Ranieri Mazzilli, the speaker of the house, as president. This move was arguably unconstitutional at the time, as João Goulart was still in the country.[5] At the same time, Goulart, now in the headquarters of the 3rd Army in Porto Alegre, (still loyal to him at the time) contemplated resistance and counter-moves with Leonel Brizola, who argued for armed resistance. In the morning, General Floriano Machado informed the president that troops loyal to the coup were moving from Curitiba to Porto Alegre, and that he had to leave the country, risking arrest otherwise. At 11:45AM, Jango boarded a Douglas C-47 transport for his farm bordering Uruguay. Goulart would stay in his farms lands, until April 4, when he finally boarded the plane for the last time, heading for Montevideo.[6]
Death
João Goulart died in Mercedes, Argentina, 1976 of a heart attack. On April 26, 2000, former governor of Rio de Janeiro, Leonel Brizola, alleged that the ex-presidents of Brazil, João Goulart and Juscelino Kubitschek, were assassinated in the frame of Operation Condor and requested the opening of investigations on their death. They died respectively of a heart attack and a car accident.[7][8]
| Preceded by João Café Filho |
Vice-president of Brazil 1955–1961 |
Succeeded by José Maria Alkmim |
| Preceded by Jânio Quadros |
President of Brazil 1961–1964 |
Succeeded by Pascoal Ranieri Mazzilli |
References
- ^ Gaspari, Elio (2002). A Ditadura Envergonhada. São Paulo: Cia. das Letras. ISBN 8535902775.
- ^ Olímpio Mourão Filho Fundação Getúlio Vargas: Centro de Pesquisa e Documentação de História Contemporânea do Brasil. Retrieved on August 20, 2007.
- ^ Gaspari, Elio (2002). A Ditadura Envergonhada. São Paulo: Cia. das Letras, pp. 103. ISBN 8535902775.
- ^ Gaspari, Elio (2002). A Ditadura Envergonhada. São Paulo: Cia. das Letras, pp. 111. ISBN 8535902775.
- ^ Gaspari, Elio (2002). A Ditadura Envergonhada. São Paulo: Cia. das Letras, pp. 112. ISBN 8535902775.
- ^ Gaspari, Elio (2002). A Ditadura Envergonhada. São Paulo: Cia. das Letras, pp. 113. ISBN 8535902775.
- ^ Brasil examina su pasado represivo en la Operación Cóndor, El Mostrador, 11 May 2000
- ^ Operación Cóndor: presión de Brizola sobre la Argentina, El Clarín, 6 May 2000
See also
External links
- Archontology: João Belchior Marques Goulart
- Jango: Um perfil (1945-1964) English review of his biography in Portuguese by Marco Antonio Villa.
- National Security Archive Article about the declassification of secret documents.
- Cooperative research
- Third world traveler
