60th Anniversary of the Military Coup in Brazil

                   Three weeks ago, precisely on 1st of April, the military coup that happened in Brazil in 1964 completed 60 year-old. So it is very important to remember mainly the dictatorship that followed the coup. Because after of the coup a new election was promised in the next year and this only would happen in 1989. There is no good dictator, if a dictator had great support from voters, he wouldn't fear elections. We all have to fight for more democracy always. This post is a summary of three articles. The first was published at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_Brazilian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat. The second was published at https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2024/04/05/60-years-since-the-coup-journalism-against-historical-erasure. The third was published at https://global.ilmanifesto.it/brazils-military-coup-was-60-years-ago-but-lula-is-moving-on/

                  The 1964 Brazilian Coup d'etat was the overthrow of president João Goulart by a military coup in April 1th, 1964, ending the Fourth Brazilian Republic (1946-1964) and initiating the Brazilian Military Dictatorship (1964-1985). The coup took the form of a military rebellion, the declaration of vacancy in the presidency by the National Congress on April 2nd, the formation of a military junta and exile of the president on April 4th. In his place, Ranieri Mazzilli, the president of the Chamber of Deputies, took over until the election by Congress of general Humberto Castelo Branco, one of the main leaders of the coup. Democratically elected vice president in 1960, Jango, as Goulart was known, assumed power after the resignation of president Jânio Quadros in 1961, and the Legality Campaign, which defeated an attempted military coup to prevent his inauguration. The next presidential election was scheduled for 1965. The strongest pre-candidates were Juscelino Kubitschek from MG and Carlos Lacerda from RJ. But this election didn't never happen.                                                                                                                                                                                                                             If there was no popular resistance against the authoritarian regime, there were no crimes during the dictatorship. This is the logic of erasure, which silenced the constant cries of struggle during 21 years of Brazil's dictatorship. The same government that promoted state terrorism worked systematically to erase their stories. "Invisibility is a historical mark of dominance," summed up José Genoíno, a former political prisoner. They had no documents, history books, opportunity to speak to radio, TV or newspaper. On the 60th anniversary of the coup, we all have to fight historical erasure and silencing, besides shedding light on the struggle for memory and justice. For part of the Public Prosecutor's Office, the policy of "deliberate pardon, secrets and obliteration of history is precisely what encourages the repetition of coup attempts. Professor Paulo Ribeiro da Cunha, who studied the amnesties in Brazil explains that officers who were amnestied for previous coup attempts were the ones who took power in 1964. According to him, historically, the Armed Forces have tended to pardon high-ranking military personnel involved in political movements. The same doesn't happen with lower rank personnel. In recent days, we've seen the struggle for memory, reparation and justice. We won't forget the legacy of the dictatorship when dealing with the present so that it doesn't happen again. Never again.                                                                                                            Even 60 years after the coup, the military is still arounsing fear in Brazil. The deposed president would later die in Argentina in 1976, officially of a heart attack. And 434 opponents of the coup regime were killed or disappeared together with him, according to the report on the crimes of the military, according to the report on the crimes of the military dictatorship presented by the National Truth Commission (CNV) in 2014. Even if that figure might seem modest compared to Argentina's 30,000 disappeared, the atrocities documented in the report are no less shocking. Lula's decision to cancel all official events commemorating the 60th anniversary of the coup has caused disappointment and dismay. In the midst of the investigations into the attempted coup of 2023, Lula had no desire to start a new clash with the military, and thought that the best course was to let everything pass in silence. However, his words certainly didn't satisfy the 150 organizations that make up the Coalização Brasil por Memória, Verdade, Justiça, Reparação (Brazil Coalition for Memory, Truth, Justice, Reparation). The same bewilderment was apparent in the words of Iara Xavier of Family Members of the Killed and Disappeared for political reasons, who called Lula's statement "very offensive". Lula also has not followed through on his promise to reconstitute the Special Commission for the killed and disappeared for political reasons, dissolved by Bolsonaro on the penultimate day of his term, despite the recommendation to do so that came from the Federal Public Ministry.