The high-flown silence of the military in the face of the terrorist acts perpetrated by coup perpetrators on January 8 should lead us to reflect. Without going back to the colonial period, with more than three centuries of slavery and the massacres of indigenous people and the Paraguayan population in an unjust war, we need only remember the Vargas dictatorship, the New State, Integralism, TFP (Tradition, Family and Property) and the coup of 1964. I do not agree with the opinion that the Brazilian right wing only “came out of the closet” in recent years. The result of that serious omission, which was stamped with the name “reciprocal amnesty” is the impunity and immunity that led to the deleterious Bolsonaro government. Go see the film Argentina, 1985, starring Ricardo Darín and directed by Santiago Mitre. Because in the military ranks the most despotic discipline reigns, the critical sense is not admitted and authority embodies the truth.īrazil made the mistake of not purging the crimes of the military dictatorship and rigorously punishing those guilty of torture, kidnappings, disappearances, assassinations and terrorist attacks, unlike what our neighbors Uruguay, Argentina and Chile did. They are more concerned about “internal enemies”, the communists.Īlthough the Soviet Union disintegrated, the Berlin Wall fell to the ground, China embraced capitalism, but nevertheless everything that sounds like critical thinking is suspected of being communism. That is why they do not respect the limit imposed on them by the Constitution, which assigns them the responsibility of defending the homeland from external enemies. Their paradigm is the armed forces of the United States, and their ideology, a fierce anti-communism. Many consider themselves superior to civilians, although they produce nothing. They frequent the same (military) clubs, the same restaurants, the same churches. They leave their homes, but not the barracks. Great-grandfather admiral, grandfather colonel, two uncles generals and father military court judge (fortunately, he retired after the coup). I come from a military family on my father’s side.

Where were the “masses” committed to the defense of democracy? However, the Brazilian Communist Party reassured those who smelled a whiff of a coup because it was believed that Jango was supported by a nationalist military platform.īut in March 1964 came the military coup and Jango was deposed the Constitution was destroyed democratic institutions were silenced and Castelo Branco assumed power without the coup perpetrators firing a shot. It began to conspire in the Brazilian Institute of Democratic Action, the Institute of Research and Social Studies and other organizations until the Family Marches with God for Freedom. The restlessness of the Brazilian elite was obvious. The National Union of Students was feared for its power to mobilize the youth. The unions were ardently defending the rights acquired during the Vargas presidency. The Ligas Campesinas were lifting up the northeasterners. I remember the government of João (Jango) Goulart in the early 1960s and his declarations that he would carry out grassroots reforms. Let’s not fool ourselves again our fragile democracy is still at risk.

President João Goulart, at the Automóvel Clube, on March 30, 1964, the eve of his overthrow.

Conspire 2015