Brazil´s Dictatorship and Military Regimes

In our class we learned a lot about the various military regimes that occurred throughout Latin America. However out of all the ones we discussed, Brazil’s dictatorship was never mentioned. I decided to write about it, but at the same time also compare it to the other military regimes in Latin America. Unlike most of the other governments, Brazil’s military one was not as brutal. It in no way measured up to the brutality of the Argentinian dictatorship or the ruthlessness of the dictatorship in Bolivia. However it was not an easy time either. Many Brazilians were exiled and many lost their lives because of this oppressive government.

To start it all off, the regime did not just occur from one day to the next. There were years of build up to the eventual bust up. Janio Quadros was elected as president in 1960 after Juscelino Kubitschek was in charge; he based his entire campaign on criticizing Juscelino and to outright corruption in his government. Taking his idea to a new level, Janio made his symbol a broom because he intended to clean the government up. Janio was only president for two years but during his tenure he increased Brazil’s relations with communist countries which did not make his opposition comfortable (Evanson). In 1961 he resigned as president and his vice president, Joao Goulart, was to be made into president. However when this happened Joao was in China and some of the heads of the military tried to prevent him from becoming president because they thought he was a communist and they did not want a communist head of state (Breneman).

On August 29, Congress voted against a motion to stop Joao Goulart from becoming president. This motion was brought to Congress by the heads of the three branches of the milit...

... middle of paper ...

...w.fgv.br/CPDOC/BUSCA/Busca/BuscaConsultar.aspx>.

"JOAO BELCHIOR MARQUES GOULART." Centro De Pesquisa E Documentação De História Contemporânea Do Brasil. Web. 24 Apr. 2011. .

Rosenberg, Tina. Children of Cain: Violence and the Violent in Latin America. New York: Penguin, 1992. Print.

"Superior Electoral Court - Brazil." Tribunal Superior Eleitoral. 3 Feb. 2011. Web. 28 Apr. 2011. .

"TANCREDO DE ALMEIDA NEVES." Centro De Pesquisa E Documentação De História Contemporânea Do Brasil. Web. 20 Apr. 2011. .

"A TORTURA NO REGIME MILITAR « MANIFESTO JEOCAZ LEE-MEDDI." MANIFESTO JEOCAZ LEE-MEDDI. 13 Feb. 2010. Web. 23 Apr. 2011. .