Analysis. For him, the coup of 60 years ago ‘is now part of history.’ He’s more concerned about the attempted coup of 2023 and restoring the military’s loyalty.

written by Claudia Fanti

Topic Latin America

April 3, 2024

Even 60 years after the coup, the military is still arousing fear in Brazil. On March 31, 1964, the coup led by General Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco ended the democratic government of President João Goulart, accused of being “in the service of international communism.” His guilt lay in intending to pass the so-called Reformas de base: first of all, agrarian reform, to achieve the democratization of land ownership that the country is still waiting for after 60 years, and then educational reform (based on Paulo Freire’s approach to pedagogy), fiscal reform and urban reform. The coup was actively supported by the United States, as was shown in 2004 by declassified documents published online from the National Security Archive, which point to the involvement of, among others, Lyndon Johnson (while John F. Kennedy was already planning military action against Goulart), Robert McNamara and Lincoln Gordon (the U.S. ambassador to Brazil).

The deposed president would later die in Argentina on December 6, 1976, a few months after General........

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