THE Military Dictatorship of Brazil it refers to the regime introduced on April 1, 1964 and which lasted until March 15, 1985.
Quadros' election was hailed as a revolution by vote, as anti-Vargas political groups controlled the presidency for the first time in three decades. Quadros took office in an atmosphere of popular expectation, but was soon attacked by Congress, where parties loyal to the Vargas tradition still commanded a large majority. Quadros responded by trying to drastically expand their executive powers, but in their arbitrary and autocratic way alienated many of his former followers, and he failed to enact political reforms or measures to combat the inflation. In international affairs Quadros was more successful. His foreign policy, applauded by ultranationalists and deplored by moderates, seemed destined to take Brazil to neutral and communist nations and away from its traditional ties with states United.
Brazil was on the verge of civil war. Many military and conservative commanders considered Goulart too radical to be entrusted with the most top of the nation, although the vast majority of civilian political leaders supported their constitutional right to presidency. War Minister Odílio Denys emerged as the main spokesman for the anti-Goulart forces and demanded that Congress declare the vice president's office vacant and hold new elections. Congress refused.
In southern Brazil, commanders of powerful armies and air force units defied orders from the capital and sided with Goulart, who arrived in Porto Alegre (RS) insisting that he was already president. Faced with the prospect of armed conflict, Congress and the anti-Goulart group in the armed forces were committed: they agreed that Goulart could assume the position, but only as a figure of bow. On September 2, 1961, Brazil adopted a parliamentary system of government and transferred most of the presidential powers to the newly created prime minister post.
Goulart, however, was later unable to muster enough legislative votes to pass his proposals, and the new government plans for economic and social development did nothing to curb inflation, which reached proportions. alarming. The currency dropped to one-tenth of its original value, the cost of living tripled, and the growth of the gross national product, which was rising from 6% to 7% a year, came to a complete halt.
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As the situation grew more desperate, the administration and its critics repudiated each other. Goulart increasingly identified himself with the ultra-nationalist left and surrounded himself with left-wing advisers, while military officers began to sympathize more openly with moderate and conservative. Governor José de Magalhães Pinto, of Minas Gerais, and Marshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco, Chief of Staff of the Army, emerged as the main coordinators of the conspiracy.
With the fall of Goulart, power effectively passed to the rebel leaders, who instituted sweeping political changes. The commanders set out to restore economic and financial order, eliminate what they considered communist infiltration, and purge corrupt and subversive elements; however, they also wanted to maintain a modified form of representative government. On April 9, 1964, they combined these goals into the First Institutional Act, which greatly amended the 1946 constitution. The executive was granted temporary authority to remove elected officials from office, dismiss public officials and revoke for 10 years the political rights of those found guilty of subversion or misuse of funds public. Congress then followed the lead of senior military commanders in handing over the presidency to Castelo Branco on 11 April.
Over the next six months, the regime arrested thousands of people and nullified the political rights of hundreds of others, including union and government officials and former presidents Goulart, Quadros and Kubitschek. Congress retained the power to debate and amend – but not reject – the proposals submitted by the executive.
The military considered the mandate of Castelo Branco as a transition period during which the administration almost military would enact sweeping political and economic reforms before once again entrusting the nation to a government elected by the people. Castelo Branco and its allies agreed on economic and social goals, but they disagreed on the means to achieve their goals. The president wanted to carry out reforms through legislation, while allowing various political activities; however, civil and military extremists wanted to dissolve Congress and suspend all political parties until the military regime could consolidate its power.
The dispute produced a crisis in October 1965, when opposition candidates in the main states of Minas Gerais and Guanabara won government elections by a substantial majority. The extremists interpreted the results as a major setback for the government, and demanded that Castelo Branco annul the two elections. When he refused, they planned a coup, but Marshal Artur da Costa e Silva, the minister of war, intervened and persuaded the dissident leaders to keep the peace in exchange for Castelo Branco's promise to adopt the extremist reforms of the military.
On October 27, Castelo Branco signed the Second Institutional Act, which suspended all existing political parties, restored the emergency powers of the president for the remainder of his term and set October 3, 1966 as the date for new elections presidential elections. The regime then created an artificial, bipartisan system composed of the National Renewal Alliance (ARENA), sponsored by the government, and an opposition party, the Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB). However, the MDB refused to nominate a candidate for the presidential election, which was led by Congress dominated by ARENA, and Costa e Silva, the government's candidate, won the uncontested race.
A government-appointed commission subsequently drafted a new constitution, and Castelo Branco in December convened an extraordinary session of Congress to approve the document, promulgated in January 1967. It incorporated much of the military program and confirmed the expanded powers of the executive and government. the central government, but also allowed the president and vice president to be elected in a single pass, reduced the presidential term of five to four years, allowed military courts to try civilians accused of violating national security laws, granted the president authority to issue emergency decrees without consulting Congress, and denied Congress the right to postpone any legislation requested by the executive.
Costa e Silva promised to humanize the military government, but he did not deviate markedly from the course set by his predecessor. His government rejected general amnesty petitions, resisted proposals to amend the new Constitution to restore direct elections, crack down on attempts to form a second opposition party, and quell disturbances students. However, the government faced little serious political opposition, in part because its economic achievements appeased the population.
The political situation quickly deteriorated towards the end of 1968. Costa e Silva, facing a resurgence of public and congressional criticism, seized emergency powers. The Fifth Institutional Act, issued on December 13, indefinitely suspended all legislative bodies, authorized the executive to govern by decree and provided the legal basis for a new purge of critics politicians.
In August 1969, Costa e Silva suffered a stroke and the government was administered by army ministers, Navy and Air Force until October, when General Emílio Garrastazú Médici was chosen as the new president. The government again held federal, state, and municipal elections in November 1970; Médici's ARENA party was the clear winner in most competitions. Still, anti-government demonstrations continued, and some insurgent groups gained attention by kidnapping foreign diplomats in Brazil.
The tenth anniversary of the military coup was celebrated with the lifting of the ban on the political activities of 106 leaders of the former regime, including Kubitschek, Quadros and Goulart. The Fifth Institutional Act, however, remained in force. The MDB showed unexpected strength in the November 1974 congressional elections, winning several Senate seats, and in the 1976 municipal elections the party nearly tied with ARENA.
In October 1978, Geisel promoted a constitutional amendment that repealed the Fifth Institutional Act. The following month, his chosen successor, General João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo, won the indirect election for president. Before leaving office, Geisel repealed all remaining emergency legislation, including the presidential decree (from 1969) banning people accused of political crimes. In 1979, Congress passed an amnesty program that restored political rights to everyone who had lost them since 1961. In addition, reinvigorated freedom of expression sparked intense political debate. In 1982, direct elections for state governors were held for the first time since 1965, and opposition parties won a majority of the larger states.
Brazilians have also witnessed changes due to a slow and deep economic transformation that has made Brazil a of the world's leading industrial nations in the early 1980s, boasting the 10th largest gross national product in the world. At the same time, totally seven tenths of the population was urban. Transport infrastructure had expanded immensely, and road networks, in particular, reached previously isolated corners of the vast nation. New pressure groups, such as organized labor, played increasingly influential roles, and the social structure was more diverse and complex.
In another indirect election in January 1985, the expanded electoral college repudiated the military by selecting candidates for the coalition of the Democratic Alliance – Tancredo de Almeida Neves for President and José Sarney for Vice President – on the candidates of the ARENA. Neves died before taking office in mid-March and Sarney was inaugurated as Brazil's first civilian president since 1964.
After Sarney took office, rapid economic expansion occurred as agricultural production increased and new economic and political policies were unveiled. The government's progressive steps included legalizing all political parties, planning elections direct presidential elections and promise to distribute land to millions of workers and landless peasants by the year 2000. Sarney's approval rating was high, as his government imposed the Cruzado Plan, an anti-inflationary plan. program that included wage and price freezes and further fueled the economy. In late 1986, however, the government allowed price increases to curb the overheated economy. The inflation rate immediately began to rise, precipitating mass protests against the government. The crisis came shortly after the election of a new pro-government congress (November 1986) and the task of producing a new constitution.
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